Marketing 101 For Startups - Part 4

I trust you've been following this startup marketing series from part 1. This is the final session and we are going to wrap it up using how you can run adverts and pull off publicity stunts starting with WHY.

Before we begin, in case you missed it, here are the previous sessions

Startup marketing 101 - what happens when you don't start with WHY

Startup marketing 101 Part 2 - Always start with WHY

Startup marketing 101 part 3 - Team building starting with WHY

Today, we'll round it up by going in-depth about how you can set up effective advert campaigns and pulling publicity stunts starting with WHY.

Volume is easy to reach. Money or publicity stunts is all it takes to get in and stay in front of customers. These are good, they are effective: making sales by pouring money into ads. But it doesn’t plant seeds of loyalty.

Once, Pontiac motors, a car manufacturing company decided to pull a publicity stunt so they teamed up with Oprah to give all her studio workers cars. You would think giving away lots of cars to a popular celebrity will return many good rewards for you; let's see how it ended: It was cool publicity for  Oprah. It reinforced Oprah’s already high rating on generosity but did nothing for Pontiac. Everyone remembers the stunt but the issue is that no one remembers the model of the cars she gave away. What went wrong was that Pontiac had no sense of WHY before pulling the stunt. A message needs more than publicity, it needs a higher purpose, cause or belief before it can generate lasting success. Loud is nothing more than excessive volume. The WHY has to be weaved into every publicity stunt if not it would just be there for short term gains. Clarity of purpose, cause or believe must be amplified enough to tip the scale. 

GETTING WHY RIGHT 

Without a clear message, what will you amplify anyway? When we don’t understand the WHY behind a company, we don’t usually know what to expect, so we expect difference in price, features, quality, service. The issue is these are the WHATS. People need to know your why before they make the rational decision of WHAT. People decide to buy the iPhone first because of its WHY - a symbol of thinking differently and doing productive work - before they think of the WHAT - storage, camera, speed. 

To be great, you shouldn’t operate as a regular corporate company. You need to exist as a social movement. Inspire a large number of loyal followers who will pay a premium or turn down cheaper services because of you. You can only do this if you state clearly your WHY and if you get people to believe in your belief. 

Dr Martin Luther didn’t give the I have a plan speech, he gave the I have a dream speech and over 250,000 people gathered to listen not because they believed in Luther but because he inspired everyone to take the belief as their own - both whites and blacks- a belief in equality. 

Finally, we compete against ourselves only. Your sense of WHY should basically be for beating your own record. When you compete against everyone else, they won’t help you. When you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you. 

The story is told of Ben, who was born with a disease called Cerebral Palsy. It is caused by complications at birth, it can misshapen the spine and it creates a twisted posture, affects balance and tighten the muscles. 

Ben went for a race. 

When the whistle went off, everyone started running. But not Ben, Ben was slow. He started late, few moments later, he tripped and fell, this happens occasionally. It takes others 25 minutes to finish the race, it will take Ben 45 minutes. 

What Ben teaches is beyond “when you fall, pick yourself up” or “when the going gets though, only the though gets going”. Here’s the thing with Ben, he will finish the race. He is the only runner who after the race is done, people will come back and run behind him until he finishes. He inspires everyone. There are a hundred people running behind him and there’s a crowd waiting to give him standing ovation at the finish line. He is the only runner who when he falls, someone else picks him up. This teaches a special lesson: when you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you but when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you. Ben’s sense of why gives him the drive to keep going and pick himself up. 

Why do you do what you do? 

Thinking of how to rediscover your WHY? 

Answer these questions: 

1. What do you believe - your inspiration

2. What do you offer - your unique proposition/service

3. What are the logical reasons you can give that will make people love you - your features. 

Closing thoughts 

I trust this brief review of Simon’s excellent book “Start With Why” has inspired you in lots of ways to craft your marketing message and weave the WHY into your company DNA. I would highly recommend you buy the book and read it through yourself as I have only scratched the surface. 

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