Why, How, What. But where’s the “Who”?
I’m sure you have seen this amazing “Why, How, What” talk before. If not, here’s your chance. Yet, this talk is almost perfect. In my opinion, it is just missing a tiny essential part: the “Who”.
My job is about engaging communities around brands/companies on social media. Or, to be more specific: finding those who already care about the brand’s purpose, and engage with them.
This talk is fundamental to my approach. It basically says that we have to share a cause, a purpose, a “why” with our community, before taking the conversation any further. Whoever agrees with our “why” is going to follow up, get involved, and eventually become someone important to us. But, first we need to make sure we’re aligned on our common mission.
“People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” — Simon Sinek
This mission may be very simple: this kitchen brand could help me “make my life easier at home” and provide me with life hacks. Or it can be very ambitious: I want to “make the world a better place”, and this organic grocery store helps me by telling me about initiatives that have social impact, and ways to lower my environmental footprint.
Heetch is a great example of a company sharing a strong purpose with its community. In this case, the cause is so pregnant that when the service gets threatened, the community is actively defending the company. I have detailed the Heetch case here.
“Who” is the bullseye
So you probably think this video is great. So do I. The guy has convinced me to start with the “Why”. Frankly, who could disagree? I only want to suggest an update: in a few cases, you could just put a “Who” in the heart of this target-shaped strategy.
People don’t buy what you do. They buy who you are.
So who you are explains your obsession on achieving your mission. “Who” comes before everything. Plus, it’s a great start for any storytelling purpose (it’s personal, we can identify, it speaks to the heart, …).
Agricool: two sons of farmers
The What-How-Why way
“Agricool grows strawberries. They figured out a way to do this within a container, in the heart of the cities, right where you eat them. They do this because it is cheaper and less wasteful — most of what you typically pay for fruits and vegetables is transportation — and because it tastes much better as they do not need to use any pesticides or GMOs. Their mission is to eat better than our parent’s generation.”
So I’ve gone the “What-How-Why”-way here. Let’s try to go from Why to What.
The Why-How-What way
“Let’s eat better than our parent’s generation. Most of what you typically pay for fruits and vegetables is transportation. And all you get is tasteless products. We figured out a way to get rid of most of the transportation costs, and to bring back the taste. We grow vegetables and fruits in containers, in the heart of the cities — right were you eat them — and avoid using pesticides or GMOs — because we don’t need to. For now, it is only strawberries in Paris. But this could happen anywhere, with any fruit or vegetable.”
Same way Apple can sell you different products because they focus on the mission (see above video), here we can open up to different products then strawberries.
The Who-Why-How-What way
And this feels even better when you add this simple statement, before saying anything else: “the 2 cofounders are actually sons of farmers. They grew up eating fresh, healthy and tasty fruits and vegetables. Once they moved in big cities, they realized everyone regretted the fruits and vegetables they could taste in their grandparent’s garden. Guillaume & Gonzague decided to think backwards and eat better than our parent’s generation”.
Wouldn’t you say that this personal touch that adds even more power to the pitch?
This is actually the way they chose to introduce their company on most of their appearances, as well as on their homepage. But I have to admit that there is a little confusion on the How, which is both with the Why and the What.
Their pitch still perfectly flows. Rules are meant to be bent.
MÊME: they both have witnessed cancer
Another example of “Who” being the top layer of your pitch is MÊME Cosmetics. The two cofounders were colleagues in a big player of the beauty industry. They realized they were going through a similar experience: a very close woman in their family was fighting against cancer. This is “Who” they are. Their life experience is at the heart of their project.
It appeared clearly to them that beauty was essential for women going through cancer (this is Why).
These women need advice and products to preserve their femininity (this is How).
MÊME is precisely developing a complete range of cosmetics for this purpose. In addition, their blog and social platforms provide the community with useful content — such as tips on how to tackle side effects of cancer treatments (this is What).
They solve their own problem
Not every “Who-story” is as strong as those detailed above. But in many cases, you can still get a bit storytelling from it. Most of it is founders explaining they started a company to solve their own problem.
Frichti’s Julia Bijaoui and Quentin Vacher were busy Parisians, with demanding jobs. They were getting home late and had to choose between:
- A pain: queuing up at the grocery store at 8:30pm + spending another half-hour to cook.
- Bad quality: ordering pizza, or grabbing a can in your cupboard.
They were tired of it and created Frichti, delivering affordable, healthy food, that you could have cooked yourself if you had time to.
Emile et Jules (their real names) grow wheat in their family farm outside Paris. They’re into local farming and traditional baking. They welcome clients themselves in their bakery in Paris.
Now, sure, they put their face on half of the pictures from their Facebook page. You may think it’s a bit too much. But at least, you know who’s behind.
And so it goes with many projects. As soon as they’re trying to solve a problem, the founders may have experienced it themselves:
“Uber was born on a snowy night in Paris in 2008, when Kalanick and his friend Garrett Camp could not get a cab” — Vanity Fair
Of course, this “Who-thing” doesn’t apply to every single company and brand. But when we talk about young companies — say startups — we have a fair chance to meet a meaningful “Who”. So, let’s bring it out! :)
