Stop Chasing the Status Quo—Chase Sticky.
To find the ultimate “Why”… you dig. Ya dig?
Ok, so the best product doesn’t always win. Check. Then why do some products stick and others die?
To thrive, you must give your customer a reason to care deeply. Emotionally.
Most brands won’t dig this deep. The pull of the status quo is too great.
Products and brands that resonate deeply, stick with their customers. And I’ve found three secrets for creating such sticky products.
My checklist serves as a helpful reminder (for me too!). And as a loyal reader of this newsletter, I’d like to give you this as a gift to say thanks!
To get your free pdf, click the visual below. 👇
Need the TLDR version instead?
Here is one tangible and actionable callout from the pdf.
To find the ultimate “Why” of the consumer, ask the Five Why’s. This will help you find a Deep Truth.
Ask five probing questions to get to the “true” motivation. Start with the product need, and then go deeper.
An Example: Five Why’s for an Airbnb customer:*
Why is this product important? Hotels are overpriced, generic, and lack soul.
Why does that matter? People don’t want to feel like tourists. They want to see a new place like the locals do.
Why does this matter? Because they want to have authentic experiences. They want to feel they’re experiencing a place as an insider.
Why does that matter? Because they travel to make their lives richer.
Why does this matter? Because the moments we remember are not the mundane ones in front of a computer or doing laundry, but the ones when we truly feel a part of something, where we belong to something bigger.*
The key insight that enabled Airbnb to flourish was tapping into a much deeper need that its competitors had overlooked: that sense of belonging.
*Adapted from an article by Matt Johnson Ph.D., Psychology Today