Risk & Business Magazine Cain Insurance Spring 2016 | Page 12

Why Are You Here?

The Simple Story That is Missing From Your Marketing
BY: ANDREW DAVIS, CO-FOUNDER, TIPPINGPOINT LABS

W

hy are you here? Not metaphysically.
But, why is your business located in
THIS city? Why have you chosen to build
your business in THIS town?

Your “About Us” Page
I am willing to bet that the most underserved and un-interesting page on your
website is your “About Us” page. Core
values that don’t mean anything litter these
pages. Your “About Us” page is a repository
for vague mission statements and boring
bios that do little to differentiate your
business. It’s time to use this page to tell
a story.

The Origin Story

Great origin stories become legends. They
become a piece of pop (or even corporate)
folklore.
What’s your orgin story?
WHY are you here?
We live in a global economy. We can
choose to buy from anyone anywhere in
the world. So why should I buy from you?

The Price of a Pen
There are two pens in front of you. They
look the same: a $5 pen made in China and
a $10 pen made in the USA. Which one
would you buy?

We love a good origin story.

If you are like most consumers, you’ll
purchase the Chinese-made pen.

An origin story is the back-story of a
person, place or thing. It is the legend
behind a comic book character, a
corporation, a product or even a sport.

So, how could I inspire you to buy an
American-made pen for three times the
price of its Chinese-made look-a-like?

When it comes to corporate origin stories,
it would seem that a garage or a dorm
room is one of the best places to build a
successful business. Hewlett-Packard,
Apple Computer, Google, Amazon,
Disney, Yankee Candle, Harley Davidson,
Mattel, Maglite, and Lotus all tell origin
stories that start in someone’s garage
and end with success. Facebook, Dell,
and Microsoft are all purported to have
started in dorm rooms. Read enough of
these origin stories and you might think
your business would be more successful if
you move into a garage or find yourself a
dorm room.

One self-made billionaire, Tom Kartsotis,
has figured this out, and the answer is
elegantly simple: imbue your product with
a powerful sense of place. Before I tell you
Tom’s story, let me help you embrace a
new sense of place.

These kinds of stories are powerful.
They are told and re-told.

Ironically, the more global our economy,
the less we leverage the marketing value
found in the sense of place. In a digitallydriven world, the products and services
we buy aren’t from anywhere. They are
from the web.

The Paradox of Place
Sense of place is a way of describing the
emotional relationship that an individual
has with a particular area. It is a valueladen concept that encapsulates a person’s
feelings, perceptions, attitudes and
behavior towards a specific location.

Unfortunately, the more global
our economy has become,
the less we believe our

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origin story – and the place we’ve built our
business – matters.

The Power of Location-Envy
Location-envy is the emotional belief that
one’s success is defined by the location of
one’s work.
We’ve been taught that envy is bad (it is one
of the seven deadly sins.) But location-envy
is benign. The envy we’ve been encouraged
to avoid is destructive. Location-envy
is constructive. It’s a unifying force, an
amazing source of pride, a tremendous
motivator, and — most importantly —a
powerful emotion.
Location-envy creates a connection
between the place we’ve built our
businesses and the success we’ve seen.
It creates a connotation, a feeling about
our town, that connects our desire for
success with a specific place in the world.
These kinds of emotional connections and
connotations are sticky. Not only do they
appeal to those in the industry, they’re
easy to remember.
So, who is the billionaire venture capitalist
who’s figured out how to inspire consumers
to spend $15 on a pen just by marketing
the place it is made?

The Power of Place

In 2011, billionaire venture capitalist Tom
Kartsotis (the founder of Fossil) set out to
launch a new luxury watch brand. Rumor
has it that before Mr. Kartsotis decided to
set up shop in Detroit, he commissioned a
study to find out if the Detroit brand alone
added value to the products he planned to
produce.
The study asked participants “if they
preferred pens made in China, the USA,
or Detroit at price points of $5, $10 and
$15 respectively.” The result? Given a
choice between a pen made in China or
the USA, participants consistently chose
the Chinese pen. As soon as they added the
option to buy the $15, Detroit-made pen
to the mix, subjects immediately decided