Why did McDonald’s post signs saying, “More than a billion sold”?
Why do some people pay big money to go to galas that support charities, but not donate otherwise?
Why was the guy on the plane yesterday reading The Fault in Our Stars, years after it came out?
Why are some hipsters getting their tattoos removed?
What makes so many people vote against their long and short-term interests?
How come it’s so easy to like or dislike a person, a brand or a politician before we even get to know much about them?
What’s a fair price to pay for a decent bottle of wine?
Do doctors cure people more often than alternative medicine?
Is it worth owning a Leica?
When was the last time you took something out of the library?
Do you fly a flag outside of your house?
Enough with the facts and figures and features and benefits. They rarely move people into action.
It’s our worldview (the way we acted and believed and judged before we encountered you) and your story (the narrative we tell ourselves about who you are and what you do) that drive human behavior.
We make two giant mistakes as marketers:
We believe that everyone has the same worldview, that everyone in a group shares the same biases and expectations and dreams as everyone else… and,
We believe that the narrative is up for grabs, and we ought to just make the thing we make.
An accurate description of a worldview has nothing to do with you or your mission… it’s the way a person acts without you in the room.
In the case of McDonald’s, it’s the worldview of: I don’t want to take a risk in this transaction, and one way to do that is to follow the crowd.
And the story is the (true) narrative that unlocks that worldview and turns it into action.
Tell me what your ideal customer believes, at the most emotional and primordial level, and then you can tell me the story you’ll craft and live and deliver that engages with that belief.
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