Why Over What - Using your story to connect

If you struggle to articulate the story behind your brand, you’re not alone. Most organizations stop at the “what” of their offer but never go deeper with their “why.” It’s one thing to communicate the facts of your products and services but quite another to frame them within a larger narrative of who you are as an organization and the story you’re inviting customers into.

The problem is that this leaves customers and clients with little more than the “what” of your organization. What products. What services. What details. What price. Etc, Etc. For some customers, that’s all they need. Looking for toilet paper? Found some? Problem solved.

“What” can only get you so far. “Why” is a much stronger lever for inviting customers to join in the story your organization is telling.

The majority of our onboarding process typically ends up revolving around teasing out the story of where an organization came from, where they are at right now, and where they are going. In fact, that is the basic narrative framework we use when crafting interview questions or larger brand video projects.

Where you are going is completely meaningless without the context of where you’ve been. Unless you are doing something so utterly unique that there is no competition, your customers need good reasons to choose you over the other options out there.

You can focus on price, quality, value, customer service - all of which are important. However, these are all the same strategies your competitors use against you.

There’s only one thing they don’t have - YOUR story.

We want to use your unique story to be the driving force behind all those other strategies in helping you stand apart from other companies and connect on a heart level with your customer base. That unique “why” behind your particular goods and services, the “why” behind why you treat your customers the way you do, the “why” behind why excellence internally and externally matter within your organization. These aspects of your organization’s story can help your customers connect with you and your products on a deeper level and make a long-term commitment that leads to repeat business.

Don’t sleep on the most unique tool your organization has for sales and marketing - your story!