Marketing Towards a Vision

I want to start this article off with a quotation from one of the most insightful and controversial philosophers of the past few centuries, Friedrich Nietzsche:

“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth!

I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.”

Now what does this quote have to do with marketing and business growth?

Many traditional marketing techniques focus on scare tactics. They focus on agitating their audiences, even getting them into a state of fear.

The fear of missing out on the next big product, fear of missing the sale. They prey on our base instincts and drives. The goal is to work us into a state of fear or pain that we must have the product.

We see this every year during Black Friday, but it is noticeable at other times too.

The goal is to get the prospect or audience into a state of lack, into a state of insecurity.

While maybe this might be necessary at times (not sure), I am suggesting that this is no foundation for a company’s marketing strategy.

That’s why I started this with the quote. Because rather than working our audience into a state of fear, we want to become Yes-Sayers in our marketing.

To market and advertise what we are for rather than what we are against.

By speaking about what we are for, we are creating a new vision of the future.

It is that future which should form the foundation of our marketing.

What are we attempting to create with our product or service?

What change are we aiming to make?

Rather than simply focusing on the features and benefits, or worse attempting to get the audience into a state of fear, focus on what is the meaning behind the company.

Market towards a shared vision. A shared future, that the customer enters into by purchasing your product or service.

This is the most powerful type of marketing. This is what will inspire customers to buy from you again and start a relationship that could be lifelong.

Market your mission.

Now this may be intuitive to some as they have a strong mission behind the brand already.

In this case, there is a significant opportunity to shift more marketing materials to speak to that mission.

It may even be the case that your current customers have already bought into the mission.

For those brands that don’t have as strong a mission, some soul-searching may be required. But I’d bet if you inquire a bit into this you will find the meaning behind your message.

Once we’ve established what the mission is we can then use this to form the foundation of our marketing.

It becomes a benchmark to measure all our materials and copy against.

How well do we communicate the mission?

For example, my mission is to change the paradigm of digital marketing and even marketing as a whole. I want to bring marketing that bleeds creativity, passion, and purpose into this world.

I can use that message to compare all my marketing materials against.

How well do I communicate this?

Now perhaps every piece of copy and graphic doesn’t speak about this, but we need to be aware of the overall message that our brand communicates.

Naturally, some videos may focus more on this than others, but if we tallied all our marketing together, what is the message the audience sees?

Ultimately, no matter how well we communicate this, the audience is the one that decides the message.

It is how they perceive your brand, not what you tell them, that determines if this is communicated.

Marketing can now be viewed as the skill that we communicate this message.

I believe that as we move more and more into “post-scarcity” companies this will become even more important.

If your brand isn’t a necessity like heating or electricity, communicating why someone should buy becomes even more important.

Ultimately, most of the products we sell are filling wants rather than needs or necessity.

If someone NEEDs your product, the marketing almost becomes trivial.

But most of us aren’t operating in this world, we are operating on the levels of WANT.

Which is a good thing!

Because people still want many things and there is no shame in marketing to what someone may want.

What many people want more than whatever feature or benefit you may have is belonging, meaning, and purpose.

Now I’m not claiming that your brand can be sufficient in supplying that for someone but it can speak to those areas.

Marketing your meaning is creating a shared future in which the customer identifies with.

By identifying with they are joining your tribe.

You are the one crafting a vision, and they are joining you in the creation of that vision.

This can work on the level of a product or the level of a service.

For example, when I buy Patagonia I am stating that I value sustainability and the environment and want to purchase from a company that values this as well.

The vision serves as the pillar for the marketing material.

It is the first step, then we can bring in other items like the particular details about a product. But first and foremost, we want to make sure the customer wants to walk the same path as we do.

By creating this vision, we can become Yes-Sayers as a company, to focus on that which we want to bring into the world rather than preying on fears and scare tactics.