This is not Carlo’s cooking.
A Story About Listening
Carlo makes pasta with peas.
I am convinced that this is incorrect.
Carlo is Italian.
I am Welsh.
Carlo knows Italian food.
I think I know Italian food.
Carlo understands.
I think I understand.
Carlo very often presents me with Italian dishes. I know I'm lucky to have him as a business partner. Every other day he will put a beautiful meal in front of me and I will pronounce that the dish cannot be Italian.
Why?
Because in my experience peas do not go in pasta.
Tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic go in pasta. Peas are incorrect.
This is because I am not listening. I am more interested in telling Carlo what his product is than listening to him tell me what it is. I am a bad marketer.
This is bad marketing.
I need to listen to what Carlo tells me about his product. It is my job as a marketer and copywriter to listen to what the product is. To discover what is unique and interesting about this dish. It is not for me to tell Carlo that his product is wrong or something that it is not.
Bad marketing is me telling the designer or the client that their product is wrong.
Good marketing is letting the inventor tell me their product's story.
If we imagine Carlo’s cooking as a product, he understands it. Like any craftsman he has spent more time in the kitchen than I have. He understands his product - all the way from ingredient selection to presentation. I just idly enjoy what I think Italian cooking is then enjoying the sound of my own voice as I describe it.
What are the Peas in your business?
Now hold your horses.
If Carlo understood his cooking why would he need me. Why does any craftsman need a marketer or a copywriter?
Presentation of information. Seeing it from an outsider's perspective. The value of the marketer is seeing the peas.
Rather than criticising Carlo for including peas.
I should celebrate those peas.
If you listen to any client closely enough you will find their peas. You will find a USP that isn’t just a quirk you can milk for content. It is something that offers a unique value, that satisfies a need that no other product can.
Carlo makes pasta with peas. And that is his USP.
What are the peas of your business?
(The pasta is called pasta panna prosciutto e piselli for anyone interested)
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