Dominic de Souza的动态

Transcript

A couple of months back, I was struck by a realization, why meaning and sharing your 'why' with a business has become more important than ever. It actually comes back to the Maslow hierarchy of needs. If you're not familiar with that, it's like a pyramid. Along the base, you've got survival: eating and shelter. Then above that, you get into things like creativity and whatever. At the top you've got meaning and self-actualization. The theory is that until the base layers are met, you can't get into things like self-actualization, meaning, and ultimately happiness in life. If you don't have the basics, then the higher stuff isn't gonna factor in for a lot of us. Especially for maybe the Millennial audience where there isn't a lot of money. We now have to make choices based on things like meaning. If I'm going to pledge my loyalty to a brand, especially if it's going to be something for the long term, then I want to make sure that it's going to be really valuable. It's going to be a worthwhile investment. That's why so many businesses are now pivoting into meaning as a differentiator. Taking a stand for something that means something to their audience. Or coming forth and communicating their story, or what inspires them, or why they are wildly passionate about how they deliver their service, or why they exist at all as a business. Business is more than just the delivery of services. It can be a powerful source for doing good in the world. Your your clients or your visitors want to know how they can be a part of that. So when you have limited funds, and tons of options, you're not just playing on the level of clarity. Although that can be a huge differentiator, because not everybody's doing that very well online. Perhaps you're battling for for attention, and your competitors are very good. They have great website, great branding, great testimonials, great customer service... How do you stand out? Come back to meaning. Niche down have a look at who is really your dream client, somebody that you would love to work with. Why are you in business in the first place? What is something that you believe about how the world should be? What you'll then start doing is you will start filtering out from the traffic your dream audience. Your target audience. The people that you can serve best, and the people who best want the kind of service that you're offering. You also get this residual impact from being super clear for a target audience: you're not just communicating with them, but helping anybody else know who you are going after. It's a way for them to refer you to the right kinds of people. So when it comes to clarifying your brand, it's not just a matter of talking clearly. It's also a matter of communicating more effectively why you're there at all. And if you have a deep reason, or if you have a powerful story that's putting you in business, that could give you the edge that you need to stand out. Because again, people have limited funds so they're not just shopping around based on availability. They're also shopping around based on "What can I be loyal to?" There's it now a new element in how they're shopping. It's not just you know what shoes can I get. It's what shoes plus the story and the maybe the cultural impact. The environmental impact. The the societal impact. Or what it tells me about myself and the kinds of people that I'm aligning myself with. So what do you think? How are you differentiating yourself in terms of meaning? Do you have a reason why you're in business that is setting you apart from your competition? But even more than that, that's just helping you align more cleanly, more closely with the kinds of people that you want to be working with. It's like Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft is famously focused on what Apple's doing next and how can we beat them. Apple is like "What is Apple doing with our clients and how can we beat Apple." How can we be focused on helping them more concretely. Don't quote me. It may not be true, but it's part of the legend. Same thing with us. We can keep one eye on our competition, but be more focused on who is our audience, and how can we create more meaning, more value for them. And sometimes it's not a matter of adding more features. Sometimes it's not about changing the dollar price. Sometimes it's about the meaning that we attach to how this thing is delivered, what we do, what the product is. I'd love to know your thoughts. It's something that I'm deeply fascinated by, and helping businesses pivot into more of that meaning, more of that resonance with their audience. Would love to know what you think!