What. How. Why.
We’ve been working with a couple of clients who are experiencing a common branding problem. They’re not absolutely clear on what their businesses are about.
The know what they sell and have a decent understanding on how they go about it. But they’ve been struggling to communicate anything more powerful than that. And their branding is suffering. They’re unable to really engage with their audience groups. The reason is they haven’t identified their why.
Having facilitated a few branding workshops with both clients, the importance of the ‘why’ has become clear. Here’s a quick guide to why it’s so important.
The ‘what’
What do you do? What could you do? What do your customers think you do? What does your product / service actually do? What do they actually buy?
Each is a fairly simple question. And should be relatively straightforward to get to the bottom of. If there’s a strong link between them then you can go some way to knowing your offering is of perceived value to your customers.
The ‘how’
How do you do what you do? How does your product benefit your customers. How could you improve your offering?
You can list as many ‘how’ questions here that are relevant. At the heart of them are the essential operational workings of your business and the beginnings of the benefits your product / service brings to your customers. By focusing both internally and externally with your ‘hows’ you can refine your processes, improve your products / services, and improve the way you do business.
The ‘why’
Why do you do what you do? Why should your customers believe you?
Now these are much more difficult questions to answer. By thinking about your ‘why’ you can start to get to heart of why you’re in business. And take your branding to the next level.
You can start to build a promise to your customers that is accurate. And develop a proposition that has greater power and resonates more strongly with your customers. Your why can help you evolve your business into a better place to work.
Your why knits everything together. The outcomes and benefits to your staff and customers are endless.
We’ve been working on the ‘why’ within branding projects for clients for as long as we can remember.
One of the most eloquent overviews of the ‘why’ comes from Simon Sinek. He explains people ‘don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it’. Check out his TEDx talk below. It’s worth it. As are a few of his other talks.