Sell the worldview, not the product
The most profound way to provide value is to help people see the world in a different way, and understand it better. Gary Vaynerchuck provides value by showing young people that hard work and hustle are essential ingredients for success. Tesla helped the world understand that fast and performant electric cars are the future. Steve Jobs helped us understand that design is not an afterthought, but an essential component to how well a product works.
Each of those perspective shifts helped people be more successful in their life. People hate it when a marketer is pushing a product, they love it when they can get a new perspective on how the world around them works. Once they subscribe to your worldview, buying products from you will feel obvious.
Tips
- This book is an excellent example of this law in practice: through reading this book, you’ll better understand how growth and user acquisition works. It also shapes your thinking to match our worldview, which makes it more likely you’ll work with us — Double — in the future!
- This concept ties into the idea of anti-repulsive marketing: you’re bringing immediate value to the user, without demanding any form of value in return. This goodwill can now compound, and luck can turn your way. It’s not exactly scientific, but…
- Increasingly, people with influence and an audience dominate (David Friedberg point on D2C brands, Kim Kardashian, etc. Youtube 53:00)
In Practice
The world’s best example of this philosophy is Elon Musk: all his major companies—SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company—have this law at their basis. Elon Musk is always crusading for a bigger vision than simply what his company provides. SpaceX isn’t about launching cheaper rockets, but rather about a vision of humanity as a multiplanetary species. Tesla’s marketing isn’t much communicating about any specific features of the car, but rather is centred around the idea of turning the entire economy electric to help curb climate change.
Elon Musk understands like no other that people want to be subscribed to such a philosophy and such a worldview. Whether you agree with him or not, the worldview he projects is clear, consistent and coherent—all the various projects fit into the wider whole. If people love the worldview, then buying the product becomes rather obvious. In many regards, this is the best form of brand marketing.
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