War v. Story

As we all know, the war metaphor dominates the way people talk about and approach marketing:

Officers lead us. We have briefings. We explore territories seeking our best positioning. We bunker in war rooms to develop objective-satisfying strategies. We kill ideas that don’t work. Eventually, we launch campaigns filled with disruptive tactics targeting an identified group of people we’ve been tracking. We put insertions and guerilla tactics “into the field.” We battle it out with our rivals, and, if all goes according to plan, we capture the public’s attention and seize market leadership.

But some may not realize this metaphor represents the biggest challenge transformation design faces in becoming an accepted and widely practiced discipline in marketing.

On one hand, the metaphor marginalizes transformation design. While the emerging discipline is committed to the heroic activity of creating positive changes in people, it can, when placed in this dialogue of war, seem frivolous and Pollyanna. Some people may, and do, quickly dismiss it as a distraction from marketing rather than a way to conduct it.

However, the biggest challenge is this:

If transformation design is to flourish, marketers must drop the war metaphor in
favor of the metaphor offered by transformation design: storytelling*.

This is a tough sell. Old habits die hard. But discussion must be made around the fundamental difference between these metaphors and the ripple effect each has on their approach to marketing. IMHO, these are the differences:

(*I am not the first to promote storytelling as a new metaphor for marketing activity. Nevertheless, it always bears repeating.)

Let’s explore each a bit more (and pardon my rambling):

1. Competition-Driven v. Value-Driven
“Waging War” is competition-driven. You need to beat the enemy to succeed. In marketing, you seek to capture more of the available resources (customers, attention, shelf space, share of voice, share of wallet, etc.) than your competitors do. Decisions are made to the question, “Does this give us an advantage?”

“Storytelling” is value-driven. Stories are tools for living: they orient us, teach us and expand our minds, our understanding and our sympathies. Likewise, transformation design creates tools and activities that positively change people. Decisions are made to the question, “Does this benefit the person?”

2. Control v. Variability
“Waging War” embraces control. Much like generals run war games before real-life attacks to reduce variables, risk and the unknown, marketers test the ever-living shit out of concepts, messages and positionings for the same reason. By tightly controlling public presentation and a person’s experience with the executions, it is thought, a company can control public perception.

“Storytelling” embraces variability. Every story is comprised of core characters following a core trajectory to arrive at a core lesson. Storytellers often adjust the details of each to ensure the story resonates with the audience and affects them. Likewise, transformation design recognizes variability is key to ensuring change is created in people. Different people attain change in different ways. Therefore, the secondary purpose (primary being to elicit change) of transformation design programs is to offer a core trajectory towards an end change while accommodating desired variations to that path.

3. Command v. Guide
To “Wage War” is to command. Just as generals command their troops, marketers command people – or at least try. There is an unspoken belief among them that “if you advertise it, they will come.” Hence the use of the “call to action” copy line which is written, in grammatical terms, as a command: “Go…,” “Try..,” “Visit…,”

To “Tell a Story” is to guide. Guiding is a cooperative action: I suggest, you choose. From that POV, storytellers present their audience with an opportunity to learn and evolve, but it’s up to the audience to choose to do so or not. Likewise, transformation design presents people with an opportunity to create positive change, but it’s up to them to choose to do so or not.

4. Destruction v. Transportation
“Waging War” is concerned with destruction. Destroy fortifications, decimate an army and deplete it’s moral. Marketing destroys a person’s sense of comfort, satisfaction, confidence, beauty, happiness, etc. To sell a product, it is thought, a need state must be created.

“Storytelling” is concerned with transportation. It moves you to places beyond your daily rut to teach you new things. Likewise, transformation design moves you beyond your typical behaviors so that you may experience/learn new things.

5. Conquering v. Teaching
“Waging War” is the act of conquering. In marketing, you capture attention, captivate people, conquer new categories, own colors/words/ideas/markets…and so on.

“Storytelling” is the act of teaching. In transformation design, help people learn new behaviors.

6. Expand v. Transform
The goal of “Waging War” is to expand. To take as many resources from competitors as you can. Just as the goal of war is to expand one’s power, influence, riches, territory, the goal of marketing is to expand the exact same things.

The goal of “Storytelling” is to transform people. Just as the goal of storytelling is to offer people something of such psychological value that it transforms the way they see the world, the goal of transformation design is to offer people something of such emotional and functional value that it transforms the way they behave in the world.

7. Disrupt v. Align
“Waging war” encourages disruption. Disruption is to disorient opponents so that they more vulnerable to attack. Marketing makes fine use of this as a popular how-to book was written on the subject and a huge agency network was built around it.

“Storytelling” encourages alignment. Since the goal of story is to transform a person, storytellers work to ensure the audience sees themselves in the story – through identification with a character, situation or theme. Likewise, transformation design seeks to better align companies’ marketing activities the hopes and desires people have.

8. Force v. Curiosity
“Waging War” uses force to achieve its goals. To delivery such a punishing blow that one’s defenses cannot resist. In marketing terms, this “push” technique is popular among media people who create marketing plans to deliver a punishing blow of high frequency, repetitive messaging that surrounds a target in a 360* fashion. Escape is futile.

“Storytelling” uses curiosity to achieve its goals. Great storytellers make people curious. “What’s this character going to do?” “How will she respond? “Who was the shadowy figure?” The audience invests more emotion, energy and thought into the story because they want to learn. A “pull” technique if you will. Similarly, transformation design creates experiences so beneficial people seek them out and invest time with them.

9. Delivery v. Discovery
“Waging War” is about delivery. In war, think missile delivery. In marketing, think, message delivery. Both are actions whereby an object/idea is given to people.

“Storytelling” is about discovery. Lessons are rarely explicit and more often implicit in stories. The audience has to discover the idea. Likewise, in transformation design, a new behavior cannot be given. It must be worked for.

***

Now I don’t know if all these are right or if I described them properly. But they are interesting to think about.

I do know, however, the war metaphor, which admittedly did serve the industry well for a long time, has got to go. Not only is it a hinderance to transformation design's acceptance, “War” is not indicative of the relationship people want to have with companies.