We don't buy products. We buy the resolution of tension.
I discovered a simple truth watching two identical film pitches play out with drastically different results. The successful one raised millions; the other remains unfunded.
The difference wasn't in the quality of the idea but in how tension was created and resolved.
Think of a bow and arrow. When you pull back the string, you create potential energy that desperately wants to release. The further back you pull, the more powerful the eventual forward snap.
Great marketing works the same way. It creates tension between:
- Where someone is now (their current reality)
- Where they want to be (their desired future)
- The consequences of the gap remaining unresolved.
This is why most business pitches fail. They describe features rather than framing the gap between what is and what could be.
When the makers of 'The Blair Witch Project' marketed their film, they transformed a $60,000 indie horror movie into a $250 million phenomenon. Nothing about their product changed—they simply amplified existing tension by presenting the footage as real, creating websites about the 'missing filmmakers,' and distributing missing-person flyers at film festivals. By framing the gap between reality (are these students actually missing?) and the audience's need to know the truth, they created tension that could only be resolved by buying a ticket. The film wasn't selling fear—it was selling the resolution to the mystery that millions of people felt compelled to solve.
The ethical boundary is clear: you can only amplify existing tension, not manufacture it. Creating false tension is manipulation that eventually backfires.
Successful films don't just tell great stories—they create tension that can only be resolved by staying in your seat until the credits roll. Successful businesses don't just sell products—they offer resolution to tensions already present in their customers' lives.
Because tension doesn't just seek resolution—it demands it.