Brand Narrative · The story · Component
The retelling test
What actually survives when someone repeats it a week later — the only measure of a narrative that matters.
The deliverable
What it is
Whatever is published, what circulates is the version people reproduce from memory. Testing that version directly removes all the guesswork about whether a narrative works.
The test takes a week and an afternoon, and almost nobody runs it.
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 survivals
What appeared in most of the retellings.
3 attributes: Element · Survival rate · Intended as central
LearnThe losses
What disappeared, and what was distorted.
3 attributes: Lost or distorted · Type · What it became
Learn
What consistently disappears in retelling should be cut. It is being cut anyway, and it crowds out what survives.
The other components in the story
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.
LearnThe 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.
Learn