Want to connect deeper to your client and create a brand and marketing that will attract their attention?

Get “why test”.

Is a simple frame developed by Emily Heywardco -worker and main brand official of ReddishThe brand agency after hanging, ramps, allbirds, supergoop and other very realized brands.

Here's how it works.

Why use the test why

When Heyward meets the founders, she often asks them a question: “What is the problem you are trying to solve for people?”

In response, she says, people often share their business idea. They would say something like, “Oh, the problem I'm solving is that I made a cereal with natural ingredients.”

“This is not a problem,” Heyward says. “That's a solution.”

To really connect with customers, she says, you need to understand their problem – up to a basic, human level.

“So I created this little exercise for the team in my team,” Heyward says. “When you are writing a strategy and have a truly deep consumer overview, you have to be overly annoying and continue to ask, 'well, but why does it actually? Why do THAT actually matters? 'How, people want to shake with natural ingredients? Well, why? “

How to get why try yourself

Here's how it works:

Step 1: Mark the essential message of your brand

Write how you describe your brand or product in a simple sentence.

Example: “We make high quality jogging shoes.”

Step 2: Ask 'why does this matter?'

Answer why your main product or message is important to your audience.

Example: “Because runners need reliable, comfortable shoes.”

Step 3: Ask 'why does this matter?' BACK

Continue to push deeper into emotional or functional meaning.

Example: “Because when runners have the right shoes, they perform better and avoid damage.”

Step 4: Repeat until you hit an emotional or differential core

Continue to ask why Until you discover a unique or powerful mirror.

Example: “Because jogging is more than training – it's about push personal boundaries and feel unstoppable.”

Step 5: Perform your brand messages

Once you sit in a deeply resonant response, use it to create clearer, more influential messages.

Instead of “We make high quality jogging shoes,” Your brand can say: “We help runners break their borders with gear designed for performance and durability.”

Your answers need to be deepened!

At the end of this process, Heyward jokes, why the test why it will always end in a fear of death.

“The idea is that the last motivator of everything a man does is, like, our feeling for our mortality – whether it is younger, or sexier, or to eat better, or whatever it is,” she says. “Of course, we do not end up writing strategies that have to do with the fear of death, but then you can go back and say,” Okay, what are we actually solving for people here who are at a deeper level? “”

You can see this logic within all excellent marketing. For example, let us use this old FedEx advertising:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecqh9koffxs

The ad is placed in an office. The boss calls sick, and everyone immediately gets up to go to play golf.

What does this have to do with FedEx transport services? Consider why the test.

Step 1: Mission. The essential value of FedEx is making transport easier.

Step 2: Why is it important? Because it makes the job more efficient.

Step 3: Why is it THAT Important? Because people don't want to work all the time. (Why? Because there are more in life than to work – and one day we will die! As Heyward says, everything ends in mortality.)

From there, we have arrived in a great mirror: if FedEx can help people work less, FedEx will become more loved. This idea is very injected into the ad.

The goal, Heyward says, is to find “emotional hook” – the penetration that will be deeply connected to your consumer.

After that, the idea of ​​marketing and brand can really begin: “The next question is, 'good, then does it lead us to an interesting place?” “