That’s an interesting question. In an online world where people make ‘yes-or-no’ decisions in one or two seconds (should I stay or should I go?), this is not just idle curiosity. You business may depend upon it.
I was reading Patsi Krakoff’s Writing on the Web blog, and she says
“the same marketing principles exist today on the Web as they did 50 years ago when professionals used newspapers and yellow page ads. If you’ve taken marketing courses, remember the 3 P’s?
- Position – what makes you unique?
- People – who’s in your target audience?
- Product – what are you selling?
It’s the same on the Web.”
Reading further, I discovered that Patsi has a Doctorate in Psychology, and that reminded me of the oldest book I ever read on marketing. I found it in a used book store, a creased and dog-eared paperback; it is called The Hidden Persuaders, and was written by a man named Vance Packard. In it, Mr. Packard notes that 1952 was the first year Madison Avenue marketing firms employed clinical psychologists. Patsi’s right – some things have not changed for over 50 years.
It also means that, for many of us, there hasn’t been a buying decision in our entire lives which was not influenced by marketers using psychology. How does all that factor into Malcolm Gladwell’s concepts in Blink? What really defines how we make those critical decisions?
Simon Sinek makes it simple. He says “Start With Why”, actually the title of his book, and the subject of a great TED video. He starts at the center of a circle and goes from Why, to How, and finally to What.
Let’s look at 3 P’s from that perspective. Heather White, of Vancouver’s 20/20 Communications, asks her clients ‘Why’ with impact. At Vancouver’s recent Crave event, I heard her ask a business owner “why do you do what you do? Why is this so important to you? What about your business has you so passionate that you would strip and get yourself body-painted to promote it?!” That passion, coupled with your values and beliefs and a few other things, combine into what we call your Persona. It’s also a big part of why people connect with you, and it’s my P 1.
Let’s talk about ‘How’. How do you see yourself? your business? How do you approach what you do? How do you best serve your clients? How can you help me? How can you solve a problem I have? That means you can see me and my problem, as well as see yourself with a solution….which gives you a unique Perspective….you can see HOW this works and you know how to do it. Perspective is my P2.
Here’s where it gets interesting. When you have that passion in your Persona and you understand both my (problem) and your (solution) Perspective, ‘what’ just naturally comes next. What to do? What to make? What service to provide or what product to offer? And you know what else? When I “get” why you care, and understand how you see my situation, ‘what’ you are actually going to do to solve my problem is not the ‘big deal’ here. By then, you have my trust, and I will be sticking around on your blog and following your Twitter message and buying your products – WHATever they may be. On that, Patsi and I do agree; Product is also my P3.
There’s just one difference here; “product” is what you provide, to me……not just something to “sell”.