The Power of Conflict in Brand Storytelling

Have you ever wondered how you can communicate your brand's story in a unique, compelling and engaging way? What if we told you using conflict could help?

As more brands make the move towards content marketing, cutting through the noise is more vital than ever before. Our brains are built to connect with compelling stories. We are all emotional beings and we can use this emotion in how we tell stories to connect to our audience and leave them with a lasting imprint of our brand and its values.

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Below we explain just what we mean by conflict and three questions you can ask yourself to help find conflict for your brand story.

What is Conflict?

When we mention conflict it doesn’t have to be an argument or something physical. It could simply be a challenging situation or change in the economy that has an impact on your business. When you tell someone a story that has conflict in it, their body releases stress hormones, their palms might get sweaty, their heart might beat a bit faster, maybe their pupils dilate a bit, this is because they're basically trying to put themselves in your position to see what they would do, how they would feel. If they're trying to do that, they're trying to understand you and connect with you, they sympathise with you.


When you tell someone a story with conflict, they get emotional. They can't help it. Then, at the end, when you resolve that story, they release serotonin (the happy hormones). They feel good or relief at least and at THAT moment, they're 70 to 80 percent more likely to agree with your point of view, which is really powerful. Conflict is the fuel that propels your story and without it, it’s not going anywhere.

THREE QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK YOURSELF TO HELP FIND CONFLICT

  1. What’s been the hardest decision you’ve had to make?

  2. Was there a time when you thought it was all over?

  3. What was a major success you had? How did you get here?

Once you’ve got your conflict piece you can move forward and start crafting your brand story around it. And remember, sometimes the conflict piece isn’t always the most obvious thing that has happened in your business so be sure to do some in depth research at this point.

If you think you’ve got your conflict piece sorted and need some help in the next stages of crafting your brand story get in touch here to see how Flashworks Media can help you.