At a meeting last week, the CEO of a professional services firm asked me about some advice they had received from marketing consultants.
The consultant urged the company to overhaul its messaging to focus on its team’s passion for the work they do. Even pitches to major clients should begin with this message, according to the recommendations.
“Aha,” I said. “They want you to start your message with ‘your why.'”
“Yes.” The CEO nodded. “That’s it. So, what do you think?
I smiled and replied, “Well, if we start with ‘why’,’ My answer is why you should no Take this advice.
Whose reason is more important?
This consultant isn’t the only one talking about using “your why” as the anchor of your brand story. So many articles promote the advice “know your why” that it has now become a marketing cliché.
Yes, this guy talked about that too.
But I think advice that starts with “know your why” is misleading for marketers.
Nearly a decade ago, Simon Sinek’s books Start With Why and Accompany TED Talks.
From a marketing and branding perspective, Snake’s idea is simple: He claims, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy what you do.” They buy why you do it. Therefore, he suggested that brands should start positioning from the why.
Snake then stepped away from brand positioning, why in his follow-up work, Find your why: A practical guide to discovering purpose for you and your team. The book focuses on how people (not brands) can find their unique purpose to motivate their actions. I believe this is the purpose for which his “why” framework is more useful.
Still, the advice to find your brand’s why before creating content has become a rallying cry for many agencies and consultants when it comes to telling your brand’s story.
Here’s the thing: most people outside of your brand don’t care about your why.
Even if they do, that’s not why they’re buying from you. This is not an effective way to differentiate your organization from your competitors.
Challenges of cause-based brand storytelling
to be honest. Most businesses don’t start with (or stick to) some fantastic, world-changing cause.
Even some of Snake’s original examples never really took this approach. Brands can conveniently reverse-engineer their why to fit the brand narrative.
For example, the famous Ted Talk opens with the success story of Apple: “In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently”.
As Sinek points out, this quote inspired Apple’s successful Think Different campaign from 1997 to 2002.
But by 2010, when Snake published his book and gave his Ted Talk, Apple had already moved from “Think Different” to “Think Different” Buy a Mac.
At the event, John Hodgman (PC) and Justin Long (Mac) talked about how the Mac platform makes things like creating photo albums and listening to music easier.
It certainly doesn’t support the idea of ”challenging the status quo” and “thinking differently”. Instead of focusing on why Apple does it, the ad explains how What This product does connect to Why Potential customers will want it.
Now, consider Marketing activities Apple’s new artificial intelligence smart writing feature.
The ad does what Sinek says every company’s content does—it focuses on features and benefits (while showing how it can help potential customers).
In fact, one might say this is just one of Google’s more interesting copycats “Dear Sydney” Advertisement fail.
Has Apple forgotten how to market? Has the company forgotten why?
No.
Apple didn’t discover the cause and then changed its business to match. it begins to understand its customer’ Why. Then it was clarified What (emphasis on) the business it is really engaged in (making “daily necessities” simple) and how to convey it.
It’s important to know the why of your brand.
But (don’t get too meta here) know your customer’s reasons More important for marketing and content development.
Match your why with your customers’ reasons and differentiate through content
I often see situations like those described to me by CEOs. Teams craft messages to convey their ideas Branded why not connect it to their customer’ Why.
They get frustrated when people’s response to their ideas sounds like this: “But does the customer want this?”
The great thing about the “Think Different” campaign isn’t that Apple claims to be a “Crazy enough to believe they can change the world” (and those who do).
Rather it makes a creative bet that customers will see themselves Among those iconoclasts. Apple’s campaign doesn’t say: “us Think differently. It said: “you Think differently.
Businesses are still struggling to create content that is truly differentiating. But it’s not because they don’t understand how to find out their Why. There are many books and workshops available to help brands do this.
This is because they believe the brand’s reasons should determine their behavior.
Your brand only matters if it’s defined Why you do What you do and how Connect with what your customers care about. But you can’t stop there.
You still have to convince your clients that they like what you do and how you do it.
How to find out your customers’ reasons
One of the techniques I use to move from “tactical ideas” to “bigger goals” is a classic exercise based on: 5 reasons to exercise From Six Sigma problem solving techniques.
Here’s how it works. First, come up with content marketing ideas (either in a group or on your own). These ideas might look like this:
- Launch social media campaigns to educate potential customers on the products we sell.
- Position our company/brand as a thought leader in the field.
- Create a white paper or video series about the business benefits of the services we offer.
- Use blogging platforms to curate industry news and position yourself as a thought leader.
Then, come up with one of the ideas and ask why five times. This will help you understand the true purpose behind the idea and how it fits into your larger story. (BTW, this example comes from an actual workshop at a B2B company.)
Let’s try out the idea of “curated news.”
Starting idea: Use blogging platforms to organize industry news and position ourselves as thought leaders.
1. Why Is curating news to position us as a thought leader important to our clients?
Because our customers will see that we have our finger on the pulse of the business and point of view About the industry.
2. Why Is it important for clients to see that we have our finger on the pulse and have a perspective on the industry?
Because our customers and potential customers will have more trust in what we have to say.
3. Why Is it important for our customers and prospects to have more trust in what we have to say?
Because our industry is changing rapidly, our customers need a trusted partner to stay current.
4. Why Do customers need a trusted partner to keep them informed of the latest industry news?
Because they’re busy succeeding, a trusted partner can help them stay informed.
5. Why Is knowledge important to customer success?
Because if our clients understand the industry correctly, they will be more competitive and more successful.
Well, isn’t that interesting?
In the space of Five Whys, we have transformed from a blog focused on “positioning us as thought leaders” to a platform “helping our clients become more competitive and successful.”
Go back and read the answers backwards and you’ll find what motivates you and your team.
I conducted a similar exercise with CEOs of professional services firms. We run an exercise to determine how their perspective aligns with the customer’s reasons for solving the problem.
The answer to the reason is “to make the customer’s business more forward-looking in terms of technology.” But this doesn’t touch on core values.
When we get to the fifth reason, we find that our clients’ answer is to “provide employees with stable employment opportunities, support their families, and create a legacy that lasts long after their tenure is over.”
This aligns with the CEO’s views on how their services can help future-proof SMEs. But now they have something more interesting to hang their hat on than saying “I’m passionate about helping businesses become cutting-edge.”
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Connection reason
You may have heard the advice: “Do what you love. The money will follow.” This advice summarizes why it’s important to know your why.
But for content creators and marketers working for brands, I recommend this tweak: “When your audience loves what you love to do, the money will follow.”
Matching your brand’s why with your audience’s and customers’ reasons allows you to convince them to love what you love to do. This is how your brand can succeed in any field it Like to do it.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
