TA #159: 🥨 The 1 question your marketing should answer

Sunday, March 31, 2024

What's the word, Baby Bird?

Right now, I'm folded into an aisle seat, 35,000 feet over Colorado.

The flight attendant just dropped a tiny bag of snack mix into my lap. Pretzel twists. Seasoned bread sticks. What appears to be off-brand Cheez-It-style crackers.

Because we're in Marketing, the obvious question for us is:

What if you're in business-to-business snack marketing?* What if it's your job to sell millions of these ubiquitous single-serving square packs to airline procurement departments?

How would you craft the sales collateral for the Snack Mix Sales Team? How might you position your product? What might your messaging be?

*Side note: Is B2B Snack Mix Marketer (SMM) a career choice? I want to say yes.

Where do you start?

You open up your laptop. Hands curled over the keys, claws ready to clack.

Should you focus on price...?

Create some clever copy...?

Drop in a graphic of a sustainably sourced mini-pretzel, perhaps hand-twisted by the Amish...?

Ask generative AI to write a first-person story from the point-of-view of an off-brand Cheez-It who's finally found work...?

Here's my suggestion.

Don't write. Not yet.

Instead, take a beat.

Instead of jumping in... let's pause to ask and answer this one question:

"So what?"

* * *

I spent last week at the incredible Adobe Summit in Law Vegas: 11,000 attendees; hundreds of speakers (including me); an experience and show floor that felt like the magic of Willy Wonka meets Wall-E meets the production value of Cirque du Soleil. Incredible.

(Also, there were rescue puppies and kittens on site to remind us of what really matters in life. The few minutes I spent holding an 8-week-old kitten named Maverick was a highlight of my highly lit week. His little nose! His tiny paws! I died dead.)

Anyway... the event is a wonder and spectacle of innovation and invention (within the spectacle of wonder and invention that is Las Vegas itself).

* * *

A major theme of Adobe Summit 2024 was hare-rabbit speed.

How quickly AI helps us create! How fast you can spin blog straw into highly converting gold! How quickly we can iterate on ads! How fingertips-close your data and creative can be! How robustly rosy and plump your customer profiles are!

You can shoot out personalized campaigns with the rat-a-tat of an arcade machine gun.

It was seriously impressive. (The stuff still in development at Adobe that won't see the light of day for a few years...? Even more mind-blowing.)

As I walked the show floor last week and witnessed the speed of those Wonka and Wall-E moments, I had two thoughts:

1) The swift pace of the tech is exhilarating! This is why I love marketing; it's always changing. 

2) It's easy to forget how the slower, thinking part is needed, too. 

Even in our always-on, mile-a-minute, AI-accelerated world... there remain moments when we need to pause. Not all the time—our world moves too fast for that—but at specific, strategic moments.

* * *

Lately I've been obsessed with this question: What are those moments?

When should we floor it and sit back and enjoy the wind in our hair? And when must we tap the breaks?

My theory is that there are specific moments when we need to slow down to get to the best possible outcome.

My theory is that those of us who have the biggest wins and most joy don't get there by always going faster. We get there by... wait for it... slowing down at key moments.

And if that's true... then when is the slowest way also the fastest way?

* * *

Right here in Seat 6C, let's explore one of those slowest-way-is-the-fastest-way moments together.

Let's punch into our job as a B2B Snack Mix Marketer. (CHING!) 

Here's what we're going to do together: We're going to create some product copy to convince the Airline Procurement Team that our white-label snack mix packages are objectively superior. We're going to get the Procurement Team SO EXCITED for our snack mixes that they're going to buy out all available inventory, on the spot!

How: We're going to use that So what? question as a prompt. 

We're going to ask, "So what?" and then answer, "Because..." until we've exhausted our ability to reach a reasonable answer. We're going to pause and ask/answer a series of So whats/Becauses... before we cut and paste any copy into our working document.

In doing so, we'll find crunchy, salty nuggets of messaging gold.

We can prompt ourselves, on our own. Or (if you wish) we can prompt a gen AI tool. Up to you.

Lezgo.

B2B Snack Mix Marketer: I want to drive awareness of and interest in our new YumMe white-labeled brand passenger snack mix to all the major carriers.

So what?

B2BSMM: Because our YumMe-brand snack mix features high-quality noshing for your passengers. It's a perfect blend of salty and savory, packaged conveniently and attractively with an easy-to-open tab. It's shelf-stable. It won't rot or turn stale or rancid.

So what?

B2BSMM: Because rancid snacks will make your customers mock you on social media. And because the package opens easily, it won't cause an accidental cracker explosion that rains down all over Row 6.

Flying literally sucks. The coach passengers are already cranky. Everyone has a production studio in their pocket. Snacks they like go viral in a good way; bad snacks might be the last straw that inspires viral hate-posts.

So what?

B2BSMM: Because that'll be embarrassing for you. The airline brand will suffer... and all because of something easily avoidable. And you'll suffer when the Director of Procurement at your top account scapegoats you to their boss. The boss blames your snacks for the drop in stock price. You're left holding the (tiny) bag.

So what?

B2BSMM: Because suffering is... umm... bad. And job loss is... {sad trombone}.

* * *

Our B2B Snack Mix Marketer might then get to something like this:

Our new YumMe snack blend will do more than just entertain your bored passengers... it will delight your passengers! 

It's a cut above typical airline fare. They'll be inspired to share the good vibes on social media. They'll make TikToks and Reels from coach. They'll Instagram selfies with the fun packaging (did you notice the packets are square, like Instagram?) They'll search on how to get a case delivered at home.

Happier customers make for more brand loyalty.

More brand loyalty makes for a more successful company and a happier work culture.

You'll be a hero! You'll get your picture on the break-room bulletin board! Your own parking spot! A shout-out in the team Slack!

B2B Snack Mix Marketing is a ridiculous premise.

Or is it?

The modern internet is a study of niches. (My friend Zach is TikTok famous by reporting on trends in the Snack Industry.)

Whether you sell snack mix or motor oil, cacti or kittens... the necessary moment for hitting pause is this So what? question.

Slow down and ask yourself So what? before the start of:

Every marketing program
Every piece of content
Everything you write or produce

You'll avoid making your own agenda the focus—instead of the things that matter to the people you are trying to reach. (Really, they don't care about you all that much.)

(Side rant (said with love in my heart for Marketing): There are too many websites, social posts, and emails that look gorgeous and are optimized within an inch of their lives... but could be so much better if they were interrogated with a little So what? questioning.)

Empathy, Humility

The So what? question is an empathy shortcut and a humility shortcut.

It takes you and your brand out of the story—and puts your audience at the heart of it. It makes your customer the hero of your story.

And, ironically—and this is the wonderful part—slowing down enough to ask and answer that series of questions will get you the results you want faster and more successfully.

At its heart, So what? embraces the philosophy of what the very best marketing really is:

1. Understanding our customers, and
2. Helping them make the best decisions by framing things on their terms, not ours.

And that's true whether you sell apps, apples, appliances, apparatuses, airplanes... or the snack mix I just ate.

* * *

WHAT SHOULD I ASK BJ NOVAK?

On May 7, I get to interview writer, actor, comedian, and best-selling author BJ Novak live & in-person on stage at the Content Entrepreneur Expo (CEX)!

Am I excited about this? Well, did I just write 1,000 words about B2B snack mixes? HECK YES!!!

CEX is the event for serious content creators who want to build and grow their content-based businesses without total reliance on large technology platforms. It's happening in Cleveland, Ohio, May 5-7.

Check out the rest of the stellar lineup: Andrew Davis, YouTuber Roberto Blake, executive-turned-creator Soundarya Balasubramani, content entrepreneur Rafat Ali, video creator Latasha James, author Cat Margulis, as well as CEX founder (+ friend of Ann), Joe Pulizzi.

Join us in Cleveland! [Code ANN100 gets you 100 clams off.]

BJ & I close out the event. You might know BJ from his breakout role on The Office. But as a writer I'm especially excited to ask him about writing. (I'm holding his two books above.)

What do you think I should I ask him...? HIT REPLY & tell me!

SELECT EVENTS

📆 MarketingProfs B2B Forum, Boston. What's the ultimate destination for B2B marketers to discover how to drive growth, elevate brand reputation, prove ROI, and stay ahead of the ever-changing marketing curve? It's Boston.You gotta be there this year

📆 1000Watt Brand & Marketing Summit, Dallas. Code ANN gets you a generous 15% discount!

Thanks for reading this far.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay healthy.

Breathe.

🫡 See you April 13!