Brand Narrative · The story · Component
The narrative
The story in its told form, short enough to be repeated — because what reaches the market is the version someone reproduces from memory.
The deliverable
What it is
There is a written version and a told version, and only the second matters. The told version is shorter, rougher and is the one that actually circulates.
What the story is about is a separate question from what happens in it. A narrative with events and no subject is a company history.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The told version
The story as someone would actually say it out loud.
3 attributes: Narrative · Length · Word count
LearnThe subject
What the story is actually about.
3 attributes: Subject · Connects to · About the company
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Write the spoken version, not the published one. Anything longer than thirty seconds is edited by the teller.
The other components in the story
The tension
The difficulty that makes it a story rather than a description — the first thing a review process removes and the reason the story works.
LearnThe retelling test
What actually survives when someone repeats it a week later — the only measure of a narrative that matters.
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