Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

I was watching Peppa Pig with Aditi. A morning ritual of ours. She, on my lap, munching down her brekkie while pointing out things she recognises from the cartoon.

It's a nice little "us" time that we enjoy.

One episode has a scene where George (Peppa's little brother) keeps asking "Why?" in response to everything Daddy, Mommy and Peppa say to him.

What George Pig's WHYs have to do with marketing...

It reminded me of a conversation with a former client. I was helping him improve his website and copy.

Our Zoom session went 90 minutes over. And no, we weren't shooting the s*it.

I asked him questions. A lot of them. Some even led to him thinking of his business in a different way.

He said, "Naveen, the web agency only sent me a Google survey asking about my products, and what pages I'd like on the website. Their priority was which websites I really liked to model mine after."

That's how most marketing service providers operate. They ask what the client wants and give that. And even that is a stretch.

They fail to assume the position of EXPERT to diagnose the client's problem and recommend a solution.

Have you ever gone to a doctor and said, "Look doc, I've got heartburn. Can I you get me something for it"?

No. The doctor asks you questions to ascertain what's wrong, before diagnosing your illness and recommending a course of action

Effective marketing is not about how good a writer, designer, event manager, and/or developer you are.

You must understand your customer.

To do this, you must learn everything you can them. Everything.

A moderate marketing strategy executed with deep understanding of your market trumps the best strategy rolled out with little to no understanding.