How to Create Category Defining Brand Narratives with Tommy Walker

When storytelling becomes a scaffold: rethinking brand narratives

Story has been the shorthand of marketers for decades: the origin myth, the customer who found salvation, the villain the brand defeats. Those episodic tales—memorable, shareable, self-contained—are useful. But they are not the architecture that sustains a modern commercial brand through the rhythms of product launches, quarterly goals, and the everyday friction of customer relationships. What Tommy Walker calls narrative design reframes the work: it treats a brand’s communications as a long-form, serialized arc where every blog post, webinar, and ad is a scene that must advance a larger character and plot.

From episodes to ongoing arcs: the practical anatomy of narrative

Thinking like a screenwriter means asking different questions. Who is the protagonist in the buying journey, and what is their super-objective? What is the central conflict that keeps them from achieving it? When those elements are mapped across months and quarters—where each quarter acts as an act in a four-act structure—content stops being a scatterplot of one-off pieces and becomes a sequence of meaningful, escalating moments. A landing page that once served as a how-to primer can now be positioned as a pivotal episode in a professional’s career arc.

Wants versus needs: the emotional scaffolding beneath topics

There is a crucial distinction to be drawn between what an audience wants and what they need. Wants are explicit: pragmatic search queries, practical how-tos, the checklist that moves a project forward. Needs are deeper and often unarticulated: validation, fear of failure, job security, reputation. Translating a user’s want into an offering that addresses their need is what converts indifferent readers into repeat visitors and skeptical buyers into advocates.

Layered conflict: making the customer’s world feel lived-in

Borrowing a principle from Robert McKee, narrative design recognizes three levels of conflict that shape decisions: the extra-personal (economic, institutional, time pressure), the interpersonal (colleagues, managers, mentors), and the internal (self-doubt, identity, fear). When content acknowledges these simultaneous pressures, it resonates. A piece that only addresses technical steps for building a landing page misses the manager who will veto the launch, or the marketer whose credibility depends on a quick win. Layered conflict creates realism, urgency, and empathy.

Cast design: the people who reveal a protagonist

Television writers populate a world with specific functional roles—antagonists, gatekeepers, mentors, allies, skeptics—to highlight facets of the lead. Brands can do the same. Instead of addressing a one-dimensional buyer persona, content can speak to the gatekeeper (the legal team), the skeptic (the CFO), the mentor (a director of marketing who will champion the idea), and the ally (an agency partner). This cast-aware approach transforms single-target messaging into a conversation that mirrors real decision processes.

How narrative design repairs fractured marketing ecosystems

Where teams fail is not usually in creativity but in cohesion. Creative briefs peppered with vague directives—"make it pop"—produce noise rather than narrative momentum. Narrative design provides a working language: quarterly acts, micro-arcs, character roles. That shared vocabulary allows disparate teams—product, content, performance marketing—to collaborate around a common plot and to craft touchpoints that invite repeat engagement rather than one-time visits.

Practical moves for transitioning from storytelling to narratives

• Map an annual arc: treat the year like a four-act film; each quarter introduces stakes and escalates consequences.
• Audit who your content talks to: list the cast of real people who influence purchase decisions and tailor messages accordingly.
• Distinguish wants and needs: turn surface questions into pathways that reveal deeper emotional drivers.
• Foreshadow and reference: design episodes so they reward return visits and guide audiences toward next acts.

Why this matters for B2B and high-stakes buying

In environments where purchases are slow and consideration sets are crowded, repeat exposure matters more than flashy launches. Narrative design creates a reason for audiences to return by offering incremental, trust-building episodes. That accrual of credibility is the currency that turns awareness into consideration and consideration into commitment. It’s not an instant hack; it’s a discipline that compounds.

A final thought on craft and culture

Brand storytelling is not an art reserved for a charismatic founder or a lone writer. Just like stagecraft or musical technique, narrative design can be taught, practiced, and institutionalized across teams. The result is not only better advertising or more interesting blog posts; it is a brand that moves through time with coherence, depth, and the kind of human truth that lingers. The most durable brands are less like isolated fables and more like ongoing novels—stories that keep asking, and answering, what their people truly need.