For just a moment, take the time to think about why the company you work for does what it does.

Not just what it does….but why it does it.

What is its purpose?

The founder of the company you work for had the opportunity to go into so many other areas, industries and products…..but he/she/they chose the thing you are marketing right now.

Why? Do you know? Probably not right?

Flick through any magazine and what you will see is advert after advert ‘We do this…’ and ‘We make that’ and ‘We make this better than anyone else’.

A few months back I asked a few of entrepreneurs ‘why they do what they do’. All of the replies explained what they did. Not why.

• ‘To make good money’ – This is a result of what you do.
• ‘To create high quality products’– This what you do. Not why.
• ‘Our directors had experience doing it before’ – This is what they did. Not why they did it.

Now, going back to who you work for.

Find out why the company does what it does.

And then market the ‘why’.

The WHY is what will truly make your company different from your competitors. Anyone can copy your business model, your products and services. But they can’t successfully copy the why, the cause and the belief of what the business does.

People who bank with FNB, always rave about its great attitude towards innovation. They don’t really complain about its bank charges or long ATM queues, they want to associate themselves with a bank that’s always setting the trends.

People volunteer to work for Gift of the Givers, because they believe the WHY of the organisation. The believe in helping and benefiting mankind.

A lot of people connected with Obama’s “Yes We Can” philosophy and volunteered long hours of door to door campaigns because to them it was more than just a first black president of USA but about the change they believed in.

Apple products are not cheap, but people buy them because they believe in the philosophy of Apple of “innovation” “think differently” “challenging the status-quo” “changing the world”. Apple fans will buy an iPad, iPhone, Macbook etc. If people believe in your WHY, they will buy almost anything from you. Apple produces watches, people will buy them. when Apple starts to produce television sets, people will buy them, if Apple was to be a soccer team or a rock band, chances are Apple fans will follow it in numbers.

This is more just a slogan or tag line, this goes to the core belief of the business and the way its operates.

When customers connect with your WHY, they will follow you for a very long time. It is very rare for a Mercedes Benz fanatic to change and buy a BMW (or vice versa) or a Pirates fan to change to Chiefs (or vice versa).

Its important that your customers connect with your WHY first, then the rest will follow.