“Ultimately people don’t so much buy what you make, it’s why you make it or provide it. It’s the why. Rather the Marketing Why”

Great ideas reap great profit. But that doesn’t always prove true for innovative entrepreneurs struggling to break even. One of the biggest reasons why small businesses aren’t able to grow is because they have their marketing all wrong. They haven’t got their marketing why.

We spoke about finding your message with marketing extraordinaire Whitney Vosburgh, Consulting Fortune 50 Chief Marketing Officer and author of Work the Future Today: Finding your Path to Purpose, Passion and Profit. He said it all lies in the ‘why’.

Don’t lose your purpose. Go back to the marketing why.

As businesses continue to expand, they can get bogged down in the scale and complexity of a growing business. The race to deliver value and beat the competition makes founders lose focus of why they started the company in the first place.

“All businesses of all sizes have the same challenge which is what is our founding purpose,” says Whitney. “Because ultimately people don’t so much buy what you make, it’s why you make it or provide it. It’s the why. It’s not so much the what or the how.”

Finding your marketing ‘why’

Finding your marketing ‘why’ requires going back to the beginning. Why did you or the original founders start the company? What real or perceived need does the business fulfil? What market audience does your product or service serve?

Your ‘why’ may not just be your purpose. It may be your passion, principles or value – something that drives the heart rather than the brain. It can take some work and creativity to keep asking yourself why you’re still in business, but it’s something every company should know and integrate in branding.

Your north star is your marketing why

The purpose behind the birth of your business is, what Whitney calls, the company’s “North Star.” It should serve as a compass that sets the direction and strategy of your organization.

“No matter where you are, no matter how big or small you are, old or new, you could always say, ‘That is our North Star. That’s the direction we need to go in.’ Everything else should be measured against that. Is that going with our north star, or not?” says Whitney.

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