Enter Your Customer's Journey And Your Sales Will Grow

The brand and the message changes all the time. We were talking about Weight Watchers as an example yesterday. Their brand and their message has changed and adjusted. They use some keto products now they can use. They add in new diets, they bring in new food, they bring in new spokespeople, they bring in new case studies. It's changing all the time. What has never changed is that the target market is the person who has always struggled with weight is tired of the yo yo diet, and we are still here for you. That's what doesn't change. Marketing messages change all the time. So when you're saying like, we're trying different things, we're trying to find it, what you're really missing is that core person and speaking to them. And when you think about that, it gets really easy to speak.

Story that connects, that allows them to scale. So when you find that, that thing that you've been looking for, the thing that's this close.

When you find that you can have exponential turns up. So Max is the best in the world of going in and finding that and helping you bring that out.

A couple points that I want to go on just based on the last conversation we had, specifically some of the things that you were asking about in terms of does your message change, right? And to Ryan's point, it's more about your audience, and your audience stays consistent and all that kind of stuff. And that's definitely true. The other piece of that is I think generally like the promise, the overarching conceptual promise, the thing that you always come back to, the reason you exist, that doesn't change how you communicate it. And what you message out specifically does change with, you know, the changing needs of that customer. I would say that you build brands for, you know, your ideal customer, the avatar, and you market to segments, so you're really focused on just that one version of your ideal customer. But as you get bigger, as your resources expand, as your team expands, as your audience expands, right? You can start to figure out, like, okay, what are the different versions of this person that I can, you know, hit with us, lead with a different pain point, essentially, from the second they wake up to the second they go to sleep, right? What does that day look like? And then what is the role that your product plays, right? Or that your brand can play in the course of that day? Realistically, like, everybody has goals, right? They're not just trying to get through their day and just get to bed again, right? They're building to something, right? They're building a family. They're building a career, they're building a business, they're, you know, building a body or a lifestyle or something like that. Everybody's building something. What are they building? Right? What is the vision, vision for that look like? And what is the relationship with your product category? Right. Again, it's easy when it's something like sleep or skincare or something like that, where you're like, you know, what's your relationship with your appearance, Right. How you look and all that kind of stuff. And these are questions that, you know, we're going to sit here and I want to go through in kind of like a theoretical exercise. But I highly encourage you to have a conversation with your customers. Right. I wouldn't have been able to do that work on the bath bombs if I hadn't had those conversations and heard the emotion in their voice as they describe what their day looks like. These conversations again, are more about what can I play into, what's available to me from a product development standpoint, from a marketing standpoint, where I'm going to add value to this person's life and make them feel better about themselves and make that good day feel more achievable.

I could understand their passion and stuff. Things I didn't ask, which I'm wondering about is like career and that sort of stuff because a lot of the guys are retired, close to retirement. So the field they come from is what could vary, which I didn't grab.

Yeah. Well, and I guess in those like. And again, difference between doing a survey, right, where people are just filling stuff in and having a conversation, right. Is like, I want to understand how that guy sees himself today. Does he define himself by his former career? Does he define himself as a grandfather? Like what, what is the key thing? What is the box that he's putting himself in? What is his identity? Right. And the reason is that brands like play a real role in helping people form that sense of identity. Right. So we're trying to play into that and we need to know how he defines himself or herself. When they talk about that good day and the bad day, I don't want them to talk about it just like, you know, theoretically, Right. I want to hear the story of like, tell me about the last time that happened. Right. Like.

I had, you know, one woman practically like break down in tears and a project that I was working on, where it was, again, it was kind of like a busy mom type, right? But she's talking about just kind of the, how difficult it is to balance everything and like her 8 year old was at soccer practice, and he was acting up and kind of distracting the other kids. She had to go out on the field and, like, you know, straighten them out and everything. And then when she gets off after doing that, right. Some other mom just comes on the field and just, like, lays into her, right? And just tells her how terrible of a parent she is and how her kid is distracting all of the other kids, and how could she do that and all that kind of stuff. This woman can't decide whether she's gonna go cry in the car, punch her in the face, right? But that's the kind of. That kind of specificity, right? Doesn't come unless you ask for it. There's three questions that I like to ask that are kind of like.

It'S my barometer for, like, okay, is this brand really dialed in? Right? And those questions are, what does it say about somebody that they use your brand over all others in the category? Right? What is the singular thing that you deliver to that ideal customer that they can't get anywhere else? Right? And how do you make your ideal customer a hero in their own story? But in order to really, like, put it into practice, you kind of have to figure out, like, okay, now that I know who this person is, where are they starting from? And where do I want them to go? Where do I want to lead them? And so that's really what this next piece is. There's an ending place that we want them to get.

Once they have a relationship with us, right? This is kind of like the. You know, this is kind of nirvana, right? It's like this. Like. Okay, like, I. You know, I've really. I feel like I've reached a better place mentally, physically, whatever it is. And I'm like, I feel heroic in my life where maybe I didn't before, right? And I'm able to do these things. I have more good days than bad. You know, all that kind of stuff, right? Starting place, ending place. You can think of this again, if you think back to the previous question, like, this is the worst day of their life. This is the best day of their life. You need to, like, meet them where they're at and lead them down this thing where, like, hey, this is possible. You don't have to give in to this, right? You can.

You know, you just need the, you know, the right products, and this is what the right products look like, and we're the right ones, Right? But again, the whole time, not, like, communicating with an understanding of, like, who they are as a person, right? And where they're coming from what their goals are, what their dreams are, whatever, and then you end up down here.

Kind of related to the square brand thing. So in that they're kind of like the theory, you hear a lot of people talking about.

Not trying to change people beliefs or habits because that's kind of super challenging, right?

Yeah.

To change people.

So I'm just trying to get the distinction.

So it's more think of it as establishing and reinforcing beliefs, not changing beliefs. If they don't believe this is possible.

Get them out of there.

So we're not trying to really say, hey, you believe this currently, like for example, hey, you currently believe that like diets don't work, but diets really do work and here's why.

Yeah. No, no, no. You want, this is a qualifying belief, right? If they don't believe diets work, they're a terrible fit for your product and you're going to waste a ton of money trying to get them in. Yeah, they're the uninterested, uninspired, Right.

You want to like, hey, you know, diets work, but you just have not one that's right for you.

Yes, exactly.

Yeah, everybody's different.

Yeah, yeah. Or like, you know, to use Ryan's Weight Watchers example, right? Of like, you know, you've been yo yoing it's okay, right? Like, it happens, right? People break diets, it's fine.

And you don't want to like, you know, shame them or try to like, here, let me convince you of something that you firmly don't believe. Like, that's just gonna be a waste of your time, right. And a waste of a lot of your money people, right. If you look at Maslow's hierarchy, they have basic functional needs, right? Things that food, water, sex, sleep. Things that if they're not getting them, they're gonna be consumed with trying to get them to survive. Right. Once you meet those baseline requirements for existence, you can move up to that next level of finding relationships and community and knowledge acquisition and things like that. Things that kind of add a layer of meaning and emotional support to your life. And once you have satisfied those things, then you can start to tackle the more existential questions of what makes me, me versus you. Brands behave in much the same way in the sense that for any given category, there are baseline requirements. Things that you need to provide for anyone to even consider you. Right. If you're selling, you know, thickening hair products and they don't thicken your hair, people are either not going to buy from you or they're going to buy from you once and defect, right? That is a baseline requirement to be in the category, right? Once you have satisfied those things, then you can move up to the emotional, which think of these as like options packages, right? Which is.

Like, I like to use, like cars as an example. But you know, the first time you had a car that had Bluetooth, right? It's like that was something that you had to pay for at some point, right? And you like got in, like you didn't have to fuck around the aux cord or have a huge CD book or whatever. And it's like it just connected and you're like, oh, damn, that was pretty cool. I'm glad I got that right. Now you can't buy a car that doesn't have Bluetooth, right? If you buy a new car, it's got Bluetooth, right? So options packages become standard equipment. We have to be very honest with ourselves about like, what qualifies as something that someone would be willing to pay extra for, right? But those options packages, as long as they're truly up here, right, they do make people feel a certain way and we can charge higher prices for that. Once you have those options packages, right, Then you can start to get at like what makes a Volvo a Volvo and not a Kia of like being known for something, saying something about that person. And this is the stuff that really gets at your idea, customers, like kind of core values and beliefs. Sometimes you don't have anything that actually qualifies as this. And if you don't have anything that actually qualifies as this, you can't get here, right? You can't. If there's nothing that sets you apart. And, and again, this doesn't necessarily have to be product related, right? The example I gave earlier of the guys that focus solely on first responders, right? That is an emotional benefit to their ideal customer, right? The fact that it's like, this is our sole focus. We have a discount, lifetime discount specifically for first responders, right? All of our stuff is clearly geared towards people who live this lifestyle that's very challenging. All that kind of stuff that is an emotional benefit. They can build to this. But if I just was selling their supplement product and I was like. And then like, this is one that I love where people are like, it's third party lab tested. That's a. And it's like, I'm actually pretty sure that's required by law. But yeah, so like, you know, if you say, like, oh, it's something I have to pay extra for so it's an options package? No, only if your customer is willing to pay extra for it. Is an options package, right. If it is an expectation for them, then it's a baseline requirement. So you have to be really honest with yourself. But, and again, this is the stuff that's really hard to kind of get to. And you know the best case scenario, right, is you are a Volvo which has like one word at the very top that says safety, right? Like they have built an entire brand, they have enough equity, they've spent tons of money on research, marketing, product development and everything all around this idea of safety. And they own it so completely that it would take major fuck up by them and then like 10 years of someone else pouring money into it for someone else to take that from them. And so up here, this is where you start to get those questions that I asked earlier. The like, you know, what does it say about somebody that they use my brand? Right? Like that's where that's kind of self expressive place. Like, you know, there's a lot, a lot of stuff out there on just how people use brands to construct their identity, right? If you see me wearing Ray Bans versus Oakley's, you know, something different about me. If you see me driving a BMW versus a Kia, you know something different about me. If I have an iPhone versus an Android, you know something different about me. And you know, everyone likes to say like, oh, I'm a rational creature, I, you know, I, I'm not susceptible to brand or whatever bullshit, right? You're wearing a rogue shirt, right? Like that you're choosing to make a statement about yourself, all that kind of stuff.

So like it's just a shorthand, it's a shortcut that people use to tell stories about themselves. And so like what is the role, what is the story that you're helping them tell?

Good shit.

Thank you.

If you want to just apply this.

To get your exit and be done, that's cool. I get really excited about working with the businesses who want to grow through that and build something really, really cool. That's fun and that's what we do together. So you want to come to breakfast? We'll see you then. Otherwise, rest of the time until 6 o' clock is yours and we'll see you at 10 o' clock in the morning. Thanks guys.

Awesome, thank you.

You bet. Good stuff.