Or, in plainer English, what’s in it for Me? Moi, (Mwah), is just the French word for me. I only use the French noun in an otherwise English sentence because I have heard it said that way so many times in marketing and advertising talk. It’s a smart-aleck way of saying something that is brutally universal. Every creature from mollusk to man is profoundly interested in what’s in it for them. If you want their attention, you better get to this important point first. If you don’t, they’ll walk away. People and animals, alike.
Typical to the self-interest of every creature is: Food/Shelter/Safety/Sex. Ignore this quartet at your own risk. Humans have an additional interest - Belief. Animals tend to devote most of their thinking to what they know, as opposed to what they believe. With humans, it’s just the opposite. Does that make you think that the animals seem wise, and human’s seem day-dreamy? Perhaps? I think being day-dreamy brings benefits the animals can’t dream of.
Reverie often inspires art, invention and insight. All three are real benefits.
Benefit-to-Consumer is the cardinal selling point of anything being sold, from goods & services to political policy positions. I learned in advertising that if you can’t explain your idea on a postcard, you probably don’t have an idea. That’s also true of explaining Benefit-to-Consumer. It should be clearly stated in your headline, and that headline should be terse enough to fit on a billboard. Get to it! People are impatient. They have things to do. Let them know the deal.
These rules apply to all communication, except poetry. Poetry is expression-with the-possibility-of-communication. Communication is an important part of Art, but it’s not the most important part. Journalism has similar rules. Every student is taught to explain: What?/Where?/When?/How?/Why? Not all journalists actually follow this useful formula, but wouldn’t it be nice if they did?
I suppose most folks will agree that all I’ve just written is true. They might even think It’s obvious. Strangely, when it comes to their own communication projects. they often let personal whims get in the way of substance. “My daughter’s favorite color is mauve”. “We must have a picture of our factory”. “Shouldn’t our logo be bigger”? …and, so on. Nobody cares about your daughter’s favorite color. Nobody is interested in how your factory looks. The logo is exactly the right size. Customers only care about, “What’s in it for moi”. Everything else is just got in the way.
My old friend, and business partner from M&S&F Advertising, Ed Matuzewsky, devised a tool that diplomatically removes these fruitless concerns from consideration. He called it: The Creative Platform. It is a masterpiece of clarity and reason. We used it with all new clients and projects. In conference with them, we asked them to fill out three columns of facts.
Column 1: Features What are you selling (products, services, etc.)?
Column 2: Benefit-to-Consumer What good are these named features to your potential customers”?
Column 3: Advantage-over-the-Competition. What are you selling that is better or cheaper than your competition?
Once completed, the Creative Platform became the touchstone for all further communication planning – from marketing to advertising. The simple process of filling out the Creative Platform focused attention on what was worth talking about, and what wasn’t. It also focused attention on what made money, and what didn’t. In some cases, clients dropped products that did not have any demonstrable advantage over the competition. There was never a single fact ever listed in the Creative Platform that wasn’t known by the client, beforehand. What was unknown - or unrecognized - was how what they were selling was seen by the consumer: What are you selling? What good is it? Why is yours better than the other guys? In other words, “What’s in it for moi”?
A tool this simple, this efficient, this universal, is nothing less than genius. I’m always careful to give Ed Matuzewski full credit for creating it.
So, “What’s in it for moi?”, That’s the question your customer, client, constituent, or any other audience wants answered first. It’s only natural.
So, is everything natural, naturally good?
There is a scene in the movie, The African Queen, in which the disreputable Captain of the boat, Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) is doing something the religious spinster, Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) regards as uncouth, or despicable, I forget which. She upbraids him for his behavior. He says, “Well, It only natural”. Rose replies, “Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we were put in this world to rise above”!
Quite so. Not all that is true, or useful, is necessarily good.