It’s all about your customer’s values | BRANDNAS

Twenty years ago, in 1997, Steve Jobs told us,

“Marketing is about values”

Jobs was right about marketing. He was right in that the way to talk about a brand is “not to talk about speeds and fees” or “bits and megahertz” or “why we are better than windows.” He was right that marketing is about benefits, not features. And he was right when he said,

“Our customers want to know who is Apple and what is it that we stand for?”

All true.

But what he didn’t explicitly say is that customers only want to know “what a company stands for” as it relates back to them.

Marketing, at the end of the day, is not just about a company’s values — it’s about understanding what these mean to a customer, and getting that meaning to be felt strongly enough that they buy.

Now, the real mastery of Jobs is that he almost certainly knew this, consciously or subconsciously. He almost certainly knew full well that people care more about themselves than Apple — and he also almost certainly knew full well that that speech he gave was not talking about marketing. It was marketing.

Which is why he said things like:

“Apple at the core — it’s core value — is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.”

And,

“The people who believe they can change the world are the ones who do.”

When he said this, he almost certainly knew:

He wasn’t talking about Apple. And he wasn’t even talking about the customers.

He was talking to them.

People didn’t buy Apple because they liked that Apple “believed people with passion can change the world” (like “oh, now isn’t that nice!”) No. People bought Apple because they wanted to see themselves as one of those people.

Apple isn’t just offering product features; they are giving people the tools we seek to move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to people’s needs. As a result, they are earning deep loyalty and sustained engagement.

Marketing is really about how customer values translate into aspirations, insecurities, fears, and motivations.

Our sense of ourselves is constantly evolving, but the path we’re pursuing rarely changes. This consistent direction is our aspirational identity. Career ladders, job titles or hobbies may have influence, but our aspirations are so profoundly connected to our identities that they show up no matter the context.

These aspirational identities are more important than ever as the millennial generation claims its place in the economy. There is plenty of press about millennials being selfish in their hipster-minimalist consumer values, but we’d say they are instead asking for validation of their aspirations. This means organizations must push past inspiring slogans and key to customers’ aspirational identities.

The difference between inspiration and aspiration and why it matters so much. People who are inspired are temporarily stimulated to do or feel something (Pinterest activates audience via inspiration.) Aspiration, on the other hand, involves striving in a long-lasting and meaningful way to achieve or become something in particular.

Some brands do a great job at digging deep into who they are, what they stand for and extolling the virtues of what they have to offer. They do such great a job, in fact, their marketing may seem to lose sight of the customer entirely.

 “People buy from those they know, like and trust.” could easily be expanded on. One of the best ways to get people to know, like and trust you is to make them feel good about themselves and the decisions they are making when interacting with your brand or purchasing your product. 

People don’t care about brand X or Y — people care about themselves, they care about you only to the extent that you fulfill their wants and needs.

The success of a business — and its marketing message — is partially figuring out what people want. And partially the promise of fulfilling it. Aspirational Marketing: Show Customers What Their Future Looks Like with You in It.

People do business with you because they believe you are adding value to theirlives — and how that sweet value set of yours aligns with their own.

If You Want Your Brand To Succeed, Make It Aspirational, Not Inspirational