What do all these movies have in common? (Hint: The answer can help you improve your brand storytelling).
- Star Wars
- The Dark Knight
- The Silence of the Lambs
- The Wizard of Oz
- Die Hard
- The Terminator
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- The Shining
- Alien
If you guessed a formidable and fearsome villain, you’re 100% right!
Using Villains to Strengthen Your Brand Story
Poor sales and marketing communications can often feel like heavy-handed, obvious ploys to persuade. And that can quickly raise resistance. After all, who really likes getting pitched? But when you position your brand as a helpful guide and ally in defeating your customer’s villain, you put yourself squarely on their side. They’re the hero. You’re there as a guide and powerful ally to help them win.
Who’s Your Customer’s Villain?
A villain can be almost anything blocking your customer from what they want. Sometimes it’s an internal struggle. Sometimes it’s a practical problem like a clogged gutter.
If you’re not sure who your customer’s villain is, here are eight types of to explore:
- Internal villains: Fear, self-doubt or lack of information.
- Practical villains: Lack of time, limited resources or inconvenient locations or processes.
- Complexity villains: Confusing choices, jargon, complicated methods or information overload.
- Financial villains: Hidden fees, high costs or long-term financial commitments.
- Systemic villains: Red tape, outdated technology or rigid policies.
- Human villains: Unresponsive providers, unreliable contractors or gatekeepers.
- Physical villains: Clogged gutters, back pain or a cracked phone screen.
- Cultural villains: Unrealistic standards, hustle culture or social stigma.
How do you pick the right one? Do some social listening — scan reviews (both yours and competitors), read online forums like Reddit or join relevant Facebook groups and analyze the comments. Look for common questions, complaints or themes and explore what keeps coming up. Talk to your team about the pain points prospects bring up over and over again on sales calls.
Make it Fun and Memorable
Just like you may already name your avatars or ICPs, it can be fun to give your villain a name, like the Time Sucker, to keep it top of mind for your internal marketing team. Just be careful about using that name in customer-facing messaging, unless your brand has a campy or playful personality to support it. Customers don’t need a monster with a name anyway. All they really need is to feel like your brand understands what they’re up against — and how you can help.
From Persuader to Partner
Once you make this simple messaging pivot, conversation shifts from “here are all the reasons you should buy from us” to “here’s how we can tackle this together.” Fighting a common foe helps build trust by turning your brand from a persuader into a partner. Think about the villains haunting your customers. It might just end up being the plot point your brand story needs.
Happy Halloween!