The Psychology of Storytelling: Why StoryBrand Works

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Struggling to make your brand's message heard in an overly saturated market? Feeling like despite your best efforts, your marketing isn't resonating with your target audience as deeply as you'd hoped?

You're not alone. Many business owners and marketers face these challenges daily, navigating a world where consumers are bombarded with information from every angle. The stakes couldn't be higher; fail to engage your audience, and your business could become just another forgotten name in the vast digital landscape.

This is where the power of effective storytelling comes into play, offering a beacon of hope for businesses seeking to break through the noise and connect with their customers on a profound level.

At Media Junction, we champion Donald Miller’s StoryBrand framework, a seven-element structure designed to make branding not only relatable but truly engaging for customers across any platform or medium.

In this article, we’ll uncover the rich history that paved the way for StoryBrand and dissect the psychology behind story and myth-making that renders it so impactful.

By understanding and leveraging these timeless principles, your business can craft a message that not only reaches but resonates with your audience, driving engagement and fostering loyalty in ways you never thought possible.

The Monomyth (or The Hero’s Thousand Faces)

One of the most influential thinkers in the history of narratology and mythology is Joseph Campbell. His 1949 text The Hero with a Thousand Faces set out to templatize a “monomyth,” or a uniform structure shared by mythological traditions across the world.

Campbell came up with a complex, 17-part story divided into three acts that can be observed in many of the world’s myths—including across peoples that never would have come into contact with one another.

What this points to is a structure that human beings relate to at a basic, psychological level; understanding how it works unlocks insights into how all human beings interact with stories.

Understanding the Structure of the Hero’s Journey

But what does the monomyth look like?

To determine that, Campbell exhaustively studied stories and myths across countless cultures, distilling their plots into the following structure:

Act I: Departure – The hero leaves their world:

The hero is called on an adventure
The hero initially refuses the call
A supernatural guide appears
The hero begins the journey proper
The hero encounters an initial setback

Act II: Initiation – The hero enters a new world:

The hero faces a series of trials
The hero gains items or powers
The hero faces temptations
The hero faces atonement
The hero achieves apotheosis
The ultimate goal is accomplished

Act III: Return – The hero returns, transformed:

The hero initially refuses to return
The hero encounters an obstacle
An outside force helps or saves the hero
The hero returns home triumphantly
The hero is the master of both worlds
The hero exercises ultimate freedom

Whether zooming in on specific sections or zooming out to look at the three-act superstructure, this overall format is what makes storytelling work on a psychological level. Readers want a hero they can identify with who faces challenges and needs help. But they also want to see that hero ultimately succeed—and, to drive home relatability, they want to see the journey home.

But this isn’t just about mythmaking; a similar strategy works in business communications.

StoryBrand: The Thousand Faces of Branding

In 2017, Donald Miller published Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen. It’s a revolutionary work on marketing and branding that draws on many of the same themes as Campbell while updating and re-contextualizing the insights for businesses to use.

Put simply, Miller has created a monomyth that businesses of all sizes and across all industries can use to optimize the story they tell their readers—their current and potential customers. It uses a much simpler structure (see below) that operates on the same principles, engaging readers to help them understand your brand more clearly and become loyal devotees.

On the flip side, ignoring these tried and true realities of effective storytelling can lead to mixed messaging that fails to engage customers. If you’re having trouble reaching and retaining the readers you want, there’s a good chance your story isn’t following this psychological blueprint.

Understanding the StoryBrand Hero’s Journey

Like with the hero’s journey template above, it’s helpful to understand the actual structure of Miller’s framework to understand how and why it works psychologically.

To that effect, it goes:

Element 1: A character – This is the hero of the story (your customer), whose desire drives the plot.

Element 2: With a problem – This is the central issue facing the hero, their desire.

Element 3: Meets a guide – This is the figure who helps the hero achieve their goal (your business).

Element 4: Who gives them a plan – This is the way the guide empowers the hero with a clear actionable course.

Element 5: And calls them to action – This is the guide setting the hero on their path.

Element 6: That results in success – This is the happy ending, where the hero wins.

Element 7: Or failure – These are the consequences that establish the stakes.

What should be immediately obvious is that this is a further distillation of the structure above, boiling the story down to the only factors that really matter in a business context.

In business, readers want a more condensed story with a straightforward plot. There’s still tension present, as the hero can’t do it on their own—and the possibility of failure emphasizes this point.

storybrand-framework

StoryBrand Considerations and Best Practices for Businesses

Using StoryBrand is the first step companies should take to engage their customers. But there are certain tactics and approaches they can use to make the most of this framework.

The first is potentially counter-intuitive, but it involves rethinking who the hero actually is in a brand’s story.

Namely: according to Miller himself, a company is not the hero in its story.

Instead, your company is the guide that helps the hero achieve their goals. The hero is the reader, and their problems are the things that your goods and services help them overcome.

In turn, you as the guide call the hero to action with direct or indirect encouragement to buy your goods and services, book appointments, and learn more—or other traditional marketing CTAs.

Another major consideration is what to do with Elements 6 and 7, success and failure. You do need to establish what the stakes are, but you should also be careful to avoid pressuring your reader. Emphasizing negativity too much can scare an otherwise willing customer away.

Optimize Your Marketing with StoryBrand

The absolute best way to get the most out of StoryBrand is to work with a Certified StoryBrand Agency—like Media Junction—when building out your communications.

Partnering with a certified agency ensures that you benefit from a deep, nuanced understanding of the StoryBrand framework. Our experts are specifically trained to implement this storytelling formula effectively, enhancing your brand’s clarity and impact.

By working with Media Junction, you gain access to proven strategies that align with your marketing objectives, ensuring your message is not only heard but resonates deeply with your target audience.

Additionally, our strategic insight helps streamline your communication efforts, optimizing your marketing investments and boosting overall engagement and conversions.

We’ve helped clients in fields as diverse as logistics, physical therapy, and data security build websites that engaged their customers and sparked growth. And we did it by leveraging the psychology of storytelling.

To learn more about how StoryBrand improves business comms, check out these articles:

Or, for personalized guidance on what StoryBrand can do for you, contact Media Junction today!