Everybody Writes, 2nd Edition



53Product Story: Make Your Customer the Hero

To understand how to structure our own product stories, let's look at a beloved American children's classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

You might know Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as a stop-motion animated special that streams on various networks around the holidays. Or maybe you know the words to the song that plays on loop in elevators and in retailers from Thanksgiving to New Year's.

But before Rudolph became famous through television and his theme song and a verified Instagram account (just kidding about that last one) …

Before all that: Rudolph was a content marketing program for a major U.S. retailer.

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Here's a quick recap of the Rudolph story:

Rudolph is a young reindeer buck born in the North Pole with an unusual superpower: a red nose that glows as bright as a headlamp.

No one celebrates Rudolph or his headlamp of a nose, however. He is mocked by his peers. His flight coach casts him out of the squad. His parents are embarrassed by him.

Only a hot young doe named Clarice shows him any kindness.

Then one Christmas Eve, heavy fog threatens to ground Santa and his sleigh full of toys. A skinny, cranky Santa gathers together the community of North Pole elves and reindeer, intending to deliver the bad news: The reindeer can't fly through the fog! Christmas will be canceled!

Yet as he starts to address the group, Santa is annoyed by a glow … Of what? What is that? ...