After taking tens of thousands of businesses through the StoryBrand framework, though, I realised there was one element missing from the old BrandScript. I’ve added this element into the new BrandScript because I think it’s that important. In fact, this specific sound bite is so important that if you create only this one bit of copy I believe it will grow your business significantly. What is it? I call it the controlling idea. A good campaign begins and ends with a controlling idea.
I first heard the term controlling idea when I was researching how to write a screenplay and found the idea helpful, not just in writing stories but in writing books and, well, wireframing websites. A controlling idea answers the question: What is this story about? The controlling idea for Disney’s The Lion King, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in many ways, might be: a young lion must gain the confidence necessary to confront his evil uncle, who murdered his father, so that he can take his rightful place as king of the jungle and return order and life to his homeland.
After a storyteller determines their controlling idea, they must submit all copy to that idea if the story is going to make their point and resonate with an audience. If our controlling idea involves a lost dog returning home to his family, who realize how much they loved the previously neglected dog, we should not include too many scenes about a food critic attempting to start their own restaurant. Both, to be sure, may be entertaining stories, but when we combine plots the audience has to burn too many mental calories trying to figure out what the story is about. In short, subplots aside, a good story will support only one major plot.
Certainly, a story can present multiple ideas, and those ideas are sometimes subjective, but very few stories are commercially successful if the plot is up for interpretation. Stories that have a singular focus, such as “an underdog having their day” or “good triumphing over evil”, gain much more popular appeal, if for no other reason than they require less mental effort to consume and enjoy.
How the clarity of a controlling idea in a narrative relates to your brand message is simple. If I spend two minutes looking at your marketing collateral, I need to understand the main idea you are trying to communicate, and I need to be able to state it back to you clearly. For instance, one of the clients in my mastermind, Jeff Tomaszewski, owns a franchise of gyms called MaxStrength Fitness. As I reviewed Jeff’s website and marketing collateral, I struggled to understand what differentiated his gym from the thousands of others in North America.
“What makes your gym different?” I asked Jeff.
“Well,” he said, “What makes us different, I believe, is that our trainers work with our clients for only twenty minutes, twice each week. They focus on resistance training rather than cardio. The workouts are challenging but short. And the results are incredible.”
“So this is a program for busy people who don’t have the time to live at the gym?” I asked.
“Exactly,” he replied.
After asking if he had a franchise in Nashville yet (because I wanted to sign up immediately), I asked why that controlling idea wasn’t all over his website. In fact, the idea that a customer could get results while working out for only twenty minutes twice each week was buried well below the fold on his website, deep into the text toward the bottom of the page.
Reviewing Jeff’s website reminded me how important a controlling idea is in any marketing or messaging campaign. In a messaging context, it is the one idea you want your audience to remember most, and as such your messaging collateral should be delivered like a memorization exercise. In other words, once you come up with your controlling idea, you want to repeat it so many times your audience practically memorizes it. For Jeff, the controlling idea was “You work out for twenty minutes, twice each week.” This needed to be stated clearly in the header and repeated over each section of his website, in the title or subtitle of the lead generator, in every subsequent email that went out after the lead generator was downloaded, on the “about us” page, in the “a word from our CEO” video, in customer testimonials, and on and on. As far as I’m concerned, the message, shortened to “twenty minutes, twice,” could be printed on hats and coffee mugs and T-shirts and banners being dragged by airplanes in the sky.
A controlling idea needs to be a complete idea, but I will let “twenty minutes, twice” slide if the thought has been explained in length enough times that people understand what the abbreviated version of it means.
Most small businesses have not defined their controlling idea and therefore distribute a muddled message into the marketplace. When I look at your messaging collateral, would I be able to tell what your controlling idea is or, more importantly, whether you even have one? If not, you’ve got an amazing opportunity to grow your business through clear messaging, marketing material, and, most importantly, word of mouth.
How do you come up with your controlling idea? You already have. If you’ve created a StoryBrand BrandScript, your controlling idea is staring right back at you. As you read your BrandScript, ask yourself, “What is this story really about?” or, better, “What is the moral of the story I am inviting customers into?” Is the moral “You shouldn’t have to pay more for car insurance” or “Natural peanut butter shouldn’t taste like cardboard”?
Whatever it is, your controlling idea is “the point” you’re trying to make in all your messaging collateral.
You should have one controlling idea, and it should be stated simply. It should be easy to understand. Your BrandScript forces your story to be simple and clear. Your controlling idea should get a positive reaction from your customers (without you having to explain it at all) and should be repeated several times as a customer scrolls down the page. Remember, good messaging is an exercise in memorization, meaning you are trying to get your customer to memorize your controlling idea so they can repeat it to their friends and your business will grow. Short, simple statements repeated word for word, over and over, is an effective messaging strategy.
Your controlling idea is so important that I’ve added it to your StoryBrand BrandScript tool. You will see a space for it at the bottom of the BrandScript at StoryBrand.AI. Feel free to edit and refine your controlling idea as the story of your brand develops in your own mind.
If it will help, use the StoryBrand Brain at StoryBrand.AI to define and refine your controlling idea. If you take only one thing from this book, please leave with a controlling idea and use it often. If you do, you will get the money back that you paid for this book a thousand times over.
Excerpted with permission from Building a Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, Donald Miller, Harper Collins.
