Create ideas using: Search Conflicts
How do I find conflicts that actually matter to my audience?
Look for the tensions people already feel but don't talk about--the gap between what they want and what they do, what they believe and what's easy, who they are and who they're supposed to be. These conflicts are already there. Your job isn't to create them, it's to name them clearly and show your brand understands.
What if surfacing conflicts just makes people uncomfortable?
That's the point. Comfortable marketing gets ignored. Discomfort means you've touched something real. But--and this is critical--you have to offer resolution, not just agitate. Surface the conflict, validate the tension, then show how your brand helps navigate it. Conflict without solution is just cruelty disguised as insight.
Example: How it could look
Dove surfaces the conflict between how women see themselves versus how others see them with 'Real Beauty Sketches.' The internal conflict: self-criticism versus external reality. They don't lecture about self-esteem--they visualize the gap between internal and external perception. The conflict is the message, and the resolution is Dove's mission of real beauty.
Or like this:
Why is Search Conflicts a great technique?
Surfacing conflicts creates immediate relevance by naming tensions your audience already feels but hasn't articulated clearly.
Creates instant recognition and emotional resonance
Positions brand as understanding deep truths
Generates discussion by naming unspoken tensions
Opens door for brand as solution provider
Conflicts are where decisions get made. When you name the tensions people face, you become part of their internal dialogue about how to resolve them. That's not just marketing--that's becoming psychologically essential to your audience.
! When not to use the Search Conflicts Technique
When you're inventing fake conflicts people don't actually feel. Manufactured tension is transparent and makes you look manipulative.