Are You Luke or Obi-Wan?

Are you the hero or the mentor? Luke Skywalker follows a hero’s journey that has been refined over thousands of years of epic stories. He starts with a challenge he can’t overcome, meets a mentor who teaches him and offers him a special gift, so he becomes a hero and triumphs over his challenge.

Brands tell stories. When marketers tell the brand story, should the brand be the hero or the mentor? We need to outsell our competitors, so the obvious answer is to be the hero. Buy our product because it’s incredible and the best you can get! Look at its features and appreciate its unique benefits.

Brands could tell consumers what to think and do in the “golden age” of advertising, decades ago, but now they have many choices of products and are overwhelmed with a glut of branded messages.  Consumers’ attention has become a scarce commodity. Consumers make their own meanings of brands, disseminated over their own media, and we have limited control over them. Instead of controlling consumer media, we should empower each consumer to individually create her own meaning for our brand.

Who is the hero? It’s not about our product; it’s about enabling consumers to see a better version of themselves with it. It’s not telling them what to think; it’s about giving them opportunities to individually create positive meanings. They are the heroes and we must be the mentors, presenting them with a special gift that will transform them.

There are many good restaurants in town and the popular ones don’t necessarily serve the best food. The food is good enough, but the dining experience creates great ambiance. The value is in how people enjoy their social experience. The restaurant staff don’t create this experience, but they support and enhance it. Diners will come back with their friends because they succeeded in having a good time.

That’s what great brands and products do too. A woman puts on lipstick, imagining a more attractive version of herself. A man takes a sip of cola, unconsciously expecting a little surge of energy and joy to emotionally sustain him. They’ll buy again and tell their friends it’s a great product because they feel a little more confident when they use our product. Moreover, their words to describe the experience are more important than our words.

They’re the heroes. Perhaps we should say less about the product and more about the aspirational transformation. Subtly allude to the transformation, letting the consumer define their personal meaning. Quality matters and we need to provide reasons to believe in our product’s superiority, but that’s not the main point. Red Bull is an acquired taste, but it gives you wings.

How can you rewrite your brand story to tap into consumers’ aspirations and make them the heroes?

Thanks to authors like Joseph Campbell and Jonah Sachs for illuminating the hero’s journey, as well as George Lucas and Disney for creating fabulous examples of the hero’s journey in film.