Branding Lessons from 'Hamilton': 10 Duel Commandments

I finally got to see the musical Hamilton last weekend, culminating a year long obsession (my friends know it's all I talk about, I reference the play on nearly every podcast episode I record, and this is the 4th or 5th blog post I've written which references it). As you can imagine, I pretty much now feel like I can die happy.

After letting it sink in for 72 hours, I've pulled some incredible branding lessons from the play. This is Part 1 in a multi-part series.

Introduce Them To Your World

There are 3 key duels (like, 10 paces with a pistol type of duel) in the play. As you may know from how history played out, Hamilton died in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. At the time, it was a societal norm, but by today's standards, that's insane. Can you imagine Joe Biden casually murdering someone over a disagreement, and the public saying, "Yeah well maybe you shouldn't have accepted his challenge,"?

By the time that final scene happens where Burr and Hamilton duel, the audience has already become part of that world, and forgets about the rules of today. How does this happen? When the show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote Hamilton, he knew he had to get people to understand that duels were how disputes were resolved back in the day. By the time Hamilton and Burr square off, there have already been two duels in the show, with accompanying songs reciting "The 10 Duel Commandments" that explain dueling etiquette.

Here's the first duel of the play, in Act 1, between Hamilton's friend John Laurens, and a General they disputed with, Charles Lee.

The audience needs to understand what dueling was like back then. This was not drive-bys. This was not heated people taking their guns out outside of bars. This is not what happens today with our fakakta gun-control issues. This wasn’t beef in the same way beef is today. It was super codified; there was a ritual about it. It was like legal arbitration . . . with guns.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Even the title of the song is key. We are already familiar with "The 10 Commandments", so providing dueling rules within a framework we already know makes it even easier to comprehend--this is known in psychology as Heuristics. Heuristics are frameworks our brain develops for comprehension. Our brains prefer to process information using heuristics we've already developed as opposed to creating new heuristics. These elements come together and Hamilton getting shot by the Vice President seems natural.

Anytime you pitch your business to a potential customer, or investor, you bring them into your world. And keep in mind, they don't know how your world operates. They only know how their world operates. So what's commonplace for you is out of place for them. Which means you need to warm them up, and get them used to your world before laying on the big sales message.

So many businesses start their presentations with something like this:

Slide 1--Our Credentials

Slide 2--Our Top Clients

Slide 3--Our Capabilities/Technology/What We Do

And the pitch falls flat. Why? Because there's no context! There's no entry into your world. There's nothing that says, 'I know what you're used to, so let me warm you up to what goes on in in my world, and show you that we're not so different.'

Create your version of the 10 Duel Commandments and have audience's swooning over you.

Stay tuned for more in this series.

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Hi, I’m Rajiv ‘RajNATION’ Nathan, I’m the founder of RajNATION Innovation. Feel like your story sucks? I work with growth-focused startups like Muses, FanFood, and more, on pitch and story to help them raise Seed and Series A rounds and acquire customers. Connect with me on Linkedin, or Visit www.rajnationinnovation.com. I also host the popular Discover Your Inner Awesome Podcast — real convos with founders, artists and musicians to bring you the real side of success.