The saying goes “curiosity is what drives all problem solving”. So true.
As a child curiosity is how you “discovered” the world, driving your parents mad by asking why on EVERYTHING possible.
Growing up, why gets pushed back, sometimes out even. There’s a real danger in that… you THINK you have all the answers!
Bad mistake. “Why?” is actually the question that sparked all science, in the broader sense of the word whether philosophy, psychology, ethics, economy, or biology (and everything else for that matter).
Just asking that simple question leads to “deep” answers on almost all questions.
Asking why five times in a row is a true way of “drilling deep” for answers to however small or big
the underlying question is.
In marketing, “why” is the magical unlock to growth, creativity, products…
Here are its facets:
1) Consumer understanding. The obvious one. Why do consumers consume my product, my brand. But is goes deeper than that. Why do they respond to my communication, and sometimes why not?
2) Understanding of business dynamics. Why does my product sell in some instances and sometimes not. Why is share up, or down? Why is sales motivated to push it, or not? Why can or can’t I convince sr management of my plans?
3) Innovation! Answering the why questions ALWAYS sparks new ideas…new innovation. If it wasn’t for “WHY”, there would not be ‘solutions’ like mobile phones, faster trains, easy opening packagings, online-travel agents, Starbucks coffees and what not …
And then there is the shere power of ‘drilling’ the why: an example:
(Illustrative only)
Share on XYZ is down
Why?
Distribution down
Why?
Lost listings
Why?
Sales focusing on a promotion of a different brand X Why?
X has better margin than XYZ
Why?
More effort went into cracking cost-of-goods Why?
X closer to core competence; hence easy to get scale cost advantages Why?
Etc etc etc
The above example already holds some POWERFUL action points and solutions to rectify XYZ’s performance, whether through cost refocus, sales incentives, margin restructuring, retail interaction. And this is just a half second drill -imagine spending quality time on such an issue with an informed team of people; a wealth of stuff will come out!!
TAKE-AWAYS:
EVERY single thing you do should start with digging into the “WHY”
Curiosity didn’t kill the cat… it made it smarter. Curiosity and a good dose of creativity (!) is what drives problem solving is what I’d say!
So, step into the shoes of a child and pester everyone AND YOURSELF by asking “why”.
