Customer-as-Hero Product Story
Show customers achieving meaningful goals with the product in a supporting role.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 99%
Choose a customer with a meaningful objective and place that person, rather than the product, at the center of the narrative. Show the customer encountering a recognizable obstacle and using a specific feature as part of the effort to overcome it. Demonstrate the benefit through what becomes possible in the person's life instead of declaring that the product is impressive. For broad campaigns, use several characters to show that the same enabling relationship works across different circumstances. Music, pacing, and performance should elevate the emotional significance of these everyday gains. The product remains visible and necessary, but its role is to equip the hero rather than claim the achievement.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against the Grain through Kit Bodner's analysis of Apple's The Greatest advertisement.
Core principles
- 01The customer pursues the goal; the product enables progress.
- 02Benefits become credible when shown in recognizable situations.
- 03Emotion makes familiar features feel meaningful again.
- 04The product should support the hero without replacing them.
How to run it
- 1
Choose the Human Quest
Identify something meaningful the customer is trying to accomplish. Frame the objective in human terms rather than as feature adoption.
Pro tip Prefer goals customers already pursue without thinking about the product.
Watch out Do not invent an implausibly heroic outcome solely to flatter the brand.
- 2
Show the Real Obstacle
Place the customer in a recognizable moment where friction appears. Make the situation specific enough for the relevant feature to matter.
Pro tip Use ordinary settings to make mature technology feel personally relevant.
Watch out Avoid generic lifestyle footage disconnected from product use.
- 3
Demonstrate the Feature in Action
Let the customer use the feature while pursuing the goal. Show its effect immediately instead of explaining it with abstract claims.
Pro tip Keep the demonstration integrated into natural behavior.
Watch out Do not turn the scene into a detached feature tutorial.
- 4
Reveal the Better Outcome
Show how the feature makes the customer's action easier, safer, or more achievable. Give the customer ownership of the accomplishment.
Pro tip Use music and performance to heighten the benefit without overstating it.
Watch out Never imply that the product alone created the customer's courage or skill.
- 5
Scale Across Customer Types
Repeat the structure with additional customers when the product serves varied needs. Connect the stories through a consistent emotional idea.
Pro tip Use an ensemble to demonstrate breadth without adding explanatory narration.
Watch out Too many characters can fragment the campaign if their outcomes lack a common theme.
In the wild
Apple's The Greatest follows several people using detailed software and accessibility features in their everyday lives. Siri, Focus, and other capabilities appear as practical support while the users pursue meaningful activities. The advertisement makes the users the stars and lets their outcomes demonstrate why familiar technology matters.
→ A mature product and its granular software features felt emotionally significant without relying on a conventional hardware reveal.
Common mistakes
Making the Product the Hero
When the product receives all the glory, customers struggle to imagine themselves achieving the depicted outcome.
Listing Features Without Consequences
A feature demonstration remains forgettable unless viewers see how it improves a person's real situation.
Using Empty Aspiration
Grand imagery without recognizable product use may create emotion but fails to establish the mechanism behind the benefit.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for mature products whose incremental features are difficult to make exciting through specifications alone.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the customer outcome cannot be demonstrated honestly or depends on unsupported product claims.
From the transcript
“they made their customers the hero of the story they were telling”
“they showed how their product made the hero their customers made their lives better”
From the episode
5 Marketing Lessons You Need To Learn From 2023’s Best Ads (#165)