What Part Do You Play?

Have you ever seen an improv comedy show? If so, you know that every sketch starts with two things: a setting and roles.

If you don’t know the roles, you can’t do the sketch. You might know the setting is a car, but the role might be a salesperson and buyer, or mechanic and owner, or driver and passenger. Even if you know it’s a driver and passenger, is it a friend driving a friend to the airport? A parent teaching their teenager to drive? Or an Uber driver picking up a customer?

Most companies have narratives that operate inside only a few role relationships. The most common are Seller / Buyer, Employer / Employee, and Distributor / Reseller. They all have one thing in common: they are all commercial relationships based on a transaction.

The Narrative needs to explain why someone should have a relationship with you beyond the benefits of buying your product. This means that you need to define a Brand Role that is something other than being a seller.

For more about Brand Roles, see the Narrative Guidebook.