What The Wizard of Oz Can Teach You About Your Marketing

Most marketing fails not because the channel was wrong or the budget was too small.

It fails because the business made itself the hero of the story.

That sounds abstract, so let me make it concrete with a story almost everyone has already absorbed. The Wizard of Oz isn’t just a children’s movie. It’s one of the cleanest examples of how a customer’s journey actually works — and it’s the framework Chapter 4 of Marketing That Works is built around.

If Posts 1–3 in this series got you thinking about who you’re talking to and what problem you actually solve, this one is about how to tell that story in a way that lands. Stay with me.

Dorothy doesn’t announce her problem

Dorothy gets dropped into a strange land. She didn’t ask for this. She’s accidentally caused a problem — a witch is dead under her house — and she’s overwhelmed. She wants to go home.

Notice that the story never makes Dorothy stand on stage and announce her problem. The audience feels it before anyone names it. The tornado, the strange land, the look on her face — we recognize the situation before a single line of dialogue tells us what it is.

That’s exactly how good marketing works.

Your customer recognizes their own situation in your story before you ever say “here’s what we do.” The “putting this off because the last contractor was a disaster” feeling doesn’t need to be spelled out. The customer who feels it knows immediately. The business that names that feeling — even in a five-second radio opening — earns attention that no service description ever will.

Glinda is the guide. You are Glinda.

Then someone credible arrives. Glinda doesn’t fix anything for Dorothy. She acknowledges what just happened, names it, and points the way. She gives Dorothy something concrete — the slippers and a direction — and sends her off down the road.

This is your role as the business.

You are not the hero of your customer’s story. You are the guide. You have done this before. You can be trusted. And you hand the customer a plan.

This is where most business owners get the most uncomfortable. The instinct, especially when you’ve built a business from nothing, is to talk about yourself — your founding story, your team, your values, your awards. All of that may be true and even admirable. But the customer who doesn’t yet know you is not looking for a brand to admire. They are living inside a problem they want resolved.

Good marketing enters the customer’s story at the right moment. It names what they are experiencing. It shows you understand. It positions your business as the thing that helps them move forward. You are no longer asking the customer to be interested in you. You are showing the customer that you are already interested in them.

The road is not just a road

Now the part most marketing misses entirely.

Walking the yellow brick road, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. These are not strangers. They are not separate people whose problems she has to solve along the way.

They are versions of Dorothy herself.

The Scarecrow thinks he isn’t smart enough. That’s the part of Dorothy that wonders if she’s smart enough to find her way home.

The Tin Man feels nothing — rusted in place, avoiding the work in front of him. That’s the part of Dorothy that has gone quiet, not because she doesn’t feel the problem, but because feeling it for too long has made her look the other way.

The Cowardly Lion is afraid to commit, afraid to be seen trying, afraid to fail in public. That’s the part of Dorothy that wants to turn back.

Every customer brings these same three parts to a decision. The doubt. The avoidance. The fear. They show up at different points on the road, and you, as the guide, will recognize different ones in different moments.

Which version is in front of you right now?

A customer who has been calling around to four contractors before they reached you?

You are talking to the Scarecrow. They are second-guessing whether they are even capable of choosing the right one. Your job is not to oversell. Your job is to make the next step feel obvious and survivable.

A customer who has lived with the same broken thing for three years?

You are talking to the Tin Man. They have lived with the problem so long they have chosen to avoid it. The work is not to scare them. The work is to make addressing the problem feel manageable again.

A customer who has said yes but keeps delaying the start date?

You are talking to the Lion. They are afraid of being seen trying and failing. Predictable communication, simple steps, and steady follow-through are how courage gets easier.

Same customer. Different moments. Different responses required from you. If you’re using one tone of voice for every prospect at every stage, you’re losing the ones who needed something different.

The reveal

When Dorothy finally reaches the Wizard, she discovers there’s no magic. The Wizard cannot do what she came for. What she needed was already with her — the slippers were on her feet the whole time, and the courage, heart, and clarity she went looking for were already inside her too. The journey, with the help of the guide, is what revealed them.

Honest marketing works the same way.

It does not promise transformation. It tells the customer the truth: working with you will not save them, but it will give them what they need to do the thing themselves. The outcome is not “they were rescued.” The outcome is “they finally got it done — and they trust you for being the steady presence along the way.”

That is the kind of story that sells. Not because it is dramatic. Because it is true.

Where to start

Chapter 4 of Marketing That Works — “Why Story Still Sells” — ends with a Story Inventory activity. Ten questions that help you find the raw material for the story your business tells. It’s the foundation for everything in Part Two of the workbook.

Haven’t got the book yet? The launch post has all three formats — paperback, PDF, or the interactive ChatGPT companion that walks you through every chapter as a conversation.

And if you do the activity and find yourself stuck on the “who is your Glinda” question — or if you suddenly recognize which version of Dorothy keeps showing up in your inbox — write me at jodi.morel@shinefm.com. I love hearing where this framework lands.