What, How, Why?
What, How, Why is an exercise based completely on Simon Sinek’s “Golden Circle”. Sinek’s premise is basically this: You need to know why you’re in business — and talk about it. When a company has a strong motivation and that motivation shines through, customers buy the product.
Plus, knowing why you’re in business can be motivating for you.
What’s your secret sauce? What technology or approach sets you apart from the competition? Examples: “best-in-class friendly service”, etc.
The why should reflect the core reason your company exists, and it won’t change much over time. You may pivot the business, launch new products, and enter new markets, but your why remains the same. E.g. “Promote healthy living”, “help people get where they need to go”, etc.
Top Three Values
Next, you’ll make your why more specific by listing and ranking your company values.
Examples:
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Sustainable
- Affordable
- Luxury
- Data-driven
- Service
- Simple
- Trusted
- Reliable
- Accessible to everyone
Lots of companies list their values, but very few do the hard work to reduce and prioritize. And prioritization is essential — you’ve got to cut down to just three values and rank them so you have one single most important value. If you have ten or twenty values, anything you do can be considered “on brand”. Knowing your most important value makes decisions easier, clarifies your message, and sets you apart from the competition. It’s hard work but worth it.
Top Three Audiences
Values are helpful for brand decisions, but they’re not the whole picture — you need to know who you’re talking to. In this exercise, you’ll list all your possible audiences, then figure out who’s most important.
When you answer that, you may realize your brand matters not just to customers but also to other businesses, reporters, advertisers, employees, potential hires, and heck, maybe even government regulators.
You'’ve got to cut down to just three benefits and rank them so you have one single most important Benefit.
No matter whether in B2C or B2B, you interact with people who are supposed to buy from you. You need to deliver real added value that is better than what is already out there, and then elevate it to an emotional level that connects with your customers.
Competitive Landscape
Keeping an eye on your competitors helps you anticipate shifts in the market, spot new trends and successful tactics, and stay on the cutting edge of what’s working within your niche.
A competitive analysis is the analysis of your competitors and how your business compares. By evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your competition, you can begin to formulate how to give your company an advantage.
Competitive analysis helps a business determine potential advantages and barriers within a target market around a product or service, and generally helps brands monitor how direct and indirect competitors are executing tactics like marketing, pricing, and distribution.
How a competitor analysis can help your business:
- Make more informed decisions about your marketing strategy
- Identify industry trends
- Create benchmarks for yourself
- Determine your pricing strategies
- Unearth new ways of speaking to customers, or even new customers to speak to
- Finding a gap in the market, but also ensuring there’s a “market in the gap”
You need a good mix of 3-5 relevant competitors that:
- Sell similar types of products
- Have a similar business premise
- Market to similar and slightly different audience demographics
- Are both new to the marketplace and more experienced
E.g. Prospective home owners, real estate investors, business owners, people whom money isn't an issue and just care about getting the job done right.
