The Museum of Why

by Matt Heinz

Too many brands, companies and even vertical sectors assume what they do is, well, what they do. They define their value based on their current tactical, delivered product or service to the market and to their customers. But that's not at all what they do, of course. Let's look at a couple examples.

People don't buy a newspaper because it's printed news. They can get that news from a myriad places today. So what makes newspapers unique? What value do they really serve? I actually read the newspaper more often now than ever, but I don't subscribe to the print edition. I read online every day, check various reporters' blogs for intra-day updates, and count on newspaper reporters to take complicated issues and boil them down to something I can read briefly, get the gist of the story or message, and move on with my day. That's value, and has nothing to do with the means by which that value is delivered to me.

So many sectors, so many businesses need to ask "why" several times over to understand their value to their customers. Why is this important? Why do my customers care? Why is this different and valuable to the marketplace?

Let's say you're the curator of a museum. Historically, your product has been a building with artifacts, exhibits and other physical manifestations of the history and ideas you are preserving. But if you were starting the museum from scratch, what would you do differently? How would you boil down your purpose to its essence, combine that with the target audience you're serving, and deliver a product that more directly reflects and achieves that focus?

If you still think part of the answer is a building to preserve artifacts, that may be fine. But keep asking why. At the end of those "why" questions is your core value.

If you could start your business or category/sector from scratch today, how would you address the answer to that final "why" in a different way? How could you deliver value faster, more effectively, and more completely than you do today?


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Matt Heinz is principal at Heinz Marketing, a sales & marketing consulting firm helping businesses increase customers and revenue. Contact Matt at matt@heinzmarketing.com or visit www.heinzmarketing.com.