Simon Sinek popularized the concept of finding your Why, which he defines as the purpose, cause, or belief that drives you. He states that the concept is “grounded in the tenets of the biology of human decision making.” Once you find your Why, you can live in alignment with it. Truly an important concept and exercise, both for business and for life, in general.
Seth Godin, on the other hand, talks about finding your Who. He calls out marketers for trying to sell their products to everyone, when that’s just not realistic. Instead, they should be identifying their Who: who is it for? The Who isn’t defined by demographics but by psychographics: their (customer) beliefs, their dreams, their desires. And the beauty is, you get to pick the Who. You get to pick Who you’re going to sell products to, based on their pain points, problems to solve, and jobs to be done because you have the means to solve for all of that.
Products for customers, not customers for products!
Novel concept? No. (Personas, anyone?) But he articulates it in a way that makes it clear and simple. Check out this short video, in which he explains the concept.
Great point when he says, “If you are having a challenge serving the people you seek to serve because they don’t understand you, because they don’t see you, because they don’t believe you, because they don’t talk about what you make, if you’re unable to make the change you seek to make in the world, those are the symptoms of a marketing problem.”
Here are a couple of reference blogs from the last few years about personas. Hope these are helpful.
- Customer Personas – The What, The Why, and the How
- Who Develops Your Personas
- Understanding the Cost of Not Doing (the Right) Personas
Every person is defined by the communities she belongs to. -Orson Scott Card
