Customer First, Customer Hard: Lessons for Brand Storytelling from Cobra Kai

A good brand is like a good sensei. Brands that achieve true customer-centricity align every decision with the core storytelling truth that the customer—not the brand—is the hero. The brand is the mentor figure; not fighting in the karate tournament but offering support from the sideline in a montage set to “You’re the Best Around” by Joe “Bean” Esposito.

In the Season 1 finale of Netflix’s Cobra Kai (the thirty-years-later follow-up to The Karate Kid), Johnny Lawrence fails as a sensei for the same reason most brands fail as mentors: by putting himself and his way of doing things above the needs of the people he’s supposed to be helping. For brands, that means “if you start with a business goal but don't transform it into a customer goal, you've largely missed the point,” says Jennifer Severns, Chief Experience Officer at ThomasARTS marketing agency and an expert in human-centered design. 

Realizing he’s missed the point is what inspires Johnny’s deepest transformation, according to series co-creator Jon Hurwitz. “Johnny may not initially have the purest intentions in becoming a mentor, but the experience of encountering someone with a need for the help he has to offer changes him in a profound way,” Hurwitz says. That’s why, despite getting “everything he thought he wanted” (his dojo reborn, revenge on Daniel LaRusso, the championship trophy), Johnny is “miserable. Because even though he trained this kid to victory, he taught the kid lessons that made him a worse person.” Johnny realizes that his pursuit of his business goal must always be subordinate to his role as a mentor figure, an epiphany that gives him greater clarity on the mistakes he’s made and the urgent changes he needs to make.

In honour of the Season 5 premiere of Cobra Kai on September 9, let’s enter the dojo of Sensei Lawrence for three tips to help your brand shift into the mentor perspective and achieve true customer-centricity.

Tip #1: Don’t just gather data; unlock it

“I’m not just gonna teach you how to conquer your fears. I’m going to teach you how to awaken the snake within you. And once you do that, you’ll be the one who’s feared. You’ll build strength. You’ll learn discipline. And when the time is right, you’ll strike back.” - Johnny Lawrence

The power of a mentor is to see in the hero what they would not otherwise be able to see in themselves; the hero had the ability all along but needed the guidance of the mentor to access it. Similarly, some brands are swimming in data but don’t have the means or resources to identify how to apply that data to solutions. Brands seeking customer-centricity must invest in internal teams or external partners with the data skill sets needed to extract truthful insights and avoid “marketing theater,” where employees cherry-pick data to support a success story, regardless of the result from a customer perspective. 

Tip #2: It will require courage and total commitment

“Never? Can’t? Those are just words. They’re meaningless. It’s time to get out of bed and do something. You’re not a kid anymore. The world isn’t just gonna hand it to you. You want something, you’re going to have to crawl across the floor, use your damn teeth if you have to. You’ll have to do whatever it takes.” - Johnny Lawrence

Customer-centricity is really, really hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. Success requires collaboration across teams within an organization, which can be very difficult to do among well-established and large teams that require division of duties just to keep things moving. For any real progress to be made, the effort must have support from the top of the C-Suite, and the buy-in has to be there from rank-and-file with genuine enthusiasm and determination. Everybody’s gotta be ready to use their teeth to crawl across the floor, metaphorically speaking.

Tip #3: Test and learn

“In the real world, you can’t expect people to do what they’re supposed to do.” - Johnny Lawrence

Setting up truly data-driven decision-making is the backbone of customer-centricity. It’s the only way to communicate that the customer’s concerns are the brand’s concerns, that the customer’s transformation is the ultimate victory for the brand. And it’s vital in a world where customers can often surprise you with how they react, even when what they’re reacting to is exactly what they said they wanted. If there’s no opportunity to capture customer feedback and incorporate it into the iterative process, the story being told is one where you don’t seem fully invested in the concerns and transformation of the people you’re supposed to be helping. 

Final thought

“You can stop your training right now, and you can walk outside and let the whole world know you’re a loser. Or you can plant your feet, look your enemy in the eyes, and PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE!” - Johnny Lawrence

The importance of customer experience has never been higher. Brands that are serious about customer-centricity must shift perspective from hero to guide, connecting every decision to the customer experience and relentlessly gathering data and implementing its insights. It can be hard to move on from legacy systems that serve the product goals more than the customer’s, especially if “No mercy” is painted onto the wall. But failing to make the shift will relegate the brand to a reactive and defensive position when, in Johnny’s words, “The best defense is more offense.”