Today, when we hear Donald, we inevitably think of a behaviourally-original guy with the most inferior manners, the longest tie and the stupidest hairstyle in the entire Western Hemisphere.
This also shows: Duckburg is the only place where all is still right with the world, because there the bizarre madness blossoms in a refreshingly cheerful way. There, ducks run around all day without pants, but put them on for swimming. Goofy the dog keeps Pluto the dog as a pet. And above all, unlike the White House in Duckburg, Donald is like us.
Excuse me?
The eternal loser Donald Duck is us?
Who wants that?
Would you rather be a loser or a superstar?
It's true: Mickey is Disney's official superstar, after all, a world empire was built on the slender shoulders of the clever mouse. But what does Mickey have in common with us?
Yes, in the end he wins, the good guy, and that is naturally what we want for ourselves.
Yes, Micky is smart, funny, friendly.
But hand on heart: he's a nerd, an over-achiever and he has a policeman as his best buddy....
And who wants that?
Donald Duck is much closer to us, because the basic tone of his life melody sounds like injustice. And isn't injustice something we know all too well?
On a large scale as well as on a small scale.
Someone gets the job we would like to have, even though we are smarter.
The visibility deteriorates exactly when we hurl ourselves out of the starting box and that's why we don't win the gold medal.
At the supermarket checkout, the idiot who wants to pay for his Red Bull in a complicated way with food vouchers is always in front of us, because he also steals our last nerve at the security check at the airport with his four bags full of liquid containers (Red Bull?).
Why always me?!?
Isn't that a blatant injustice!!!?
Please unfair, but right.
Just like us, Donald can sing a song about injustice. It all starts with his wise-cracking nephews, those three insufferable know-it-alls who even Maria Montessori would probably like to kick in the a**. Then there's Uncle Scrooge, Gustav Gans and Daisy ...
Why always me?!?
In our emotions for Donald Duck, we experience the difference between sympathy and empathy first-hand. Sympathy can never hurt - but empathy is vital, especially when it comes to story. Your brand story doesn't have to be likeable, but it has to be empathetic.
Empathy is the foundation of the common longing of the storyteller and the listener. Empathy is the basis for the shared values of a brand and its audience.
Empathy is truth.
Like me - I am like you.
Through empathy we can identify with Rocky even though none of us is an outsider in Philadelphia who trains boxing by punching frozen pig halves in the slaughterhouse.
But in the idea that even the biggest loser can become a champion if only given the chance, in this idea we find ourselves and our secret hopes.
Even if we don't find Rocky likeable, with his search for love, recognition and the desire to belong somewhere, he has quickly won our empathy.
Rocky is like Donald, Donald is like me: like me.
Empathy transforms an interchangeable Me too product into a magnetic Like me brand. Empathy means made for me.
We are on the same side.
We have the same picture of the world that we draw for ourselves with our values.
Just a story.
You can observe this relationship model very strikingly in life coaching, personal development and business coaching. Whether in books, blogs or seminars: Most of them talk about their own failures and how they managed to get out of them.
They say: I was like you - what I am today, you can be too. Provided you book my programme.
Truth emerges where life happens.
From one perspective or another, most of us are familiar with the lives of children of divorce and the emotions involved.
The flat opposite of sympathy - the deeply relevant platform for empathy and truth.
Just a story.
Go back to the source of empathy for yourself, your products, your service, your brand - regardless of whether you are a solopreneur or work for a global corporation, a mega-brand, in an SME or a start-up. Brand story is not a question of company size, but a question of attitude.
So if you don't want to have a me-too product that is ultimately defined only by its smaller price tag, but want to have an empathetic conversation with your audience, then remember the sentence that my grandmother, the old storydudette, wrote on the first page of Daisy Duck's poetry album: No Story. No Glory.