In the last post, we described how Simon Sinek put his finger on the source of what makes a company succeed. In his words “People don’t buy what you do, or how you do it. They buy “WHY” you do it.” They want to connect with what you believe.
But they connect with what you believe only when it’s consistent with what they believe. Human beings are wired to foster kinship and form tribes. We want to connect with companies who clearly align with our values. We want the safety in knowing that when we buy from them, our purchase is an expression of our values. This is also a signal that communicates to others who may also be in the same tribe.
That’s why we start with understanding our clients’ market. Not in a superficial way that asks general questions to a large base of people that are then categorized into segments based on preference. We go deeper. We use behavioral methods to help us to understand their deep motivational drivers. These drivers are the true guides to our decision-making. Importantly, they are very difficult to pinpoint directly, even in a deeply probing interview, or from any other observational or ethnographic methods.
It’s not the method, it’s what you do with it. Once we do the research, we’re only getting started. As mentioned in a previous post, a motivational insight is not observed or stated. It’s derived. And after it’s derived, it’s tested. And we’ve developed methods to test the validity of the conclusion.
Our clients win in the market because we ensure that they start on this very solid foundation.
The next post will discuss what comes next.