What’s That Smell?
The most thought provoking thing I read last week came from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Here’s what I read to my 4-year old:
Twice a day, on his way to and from school, little Charlie Bucket had to walk right past the gates of the factory. And every time he went by, he would begin to walk very, very slowly, and he would hold his nose high in the air and take long deep sniffs of the gorgeous chocolatey smell all around him.
Oh how he loved that smell!
And oh, how he wished he could go inside the factory and see what it was like!
What a great passage. You and I live in a world where we talk a lot about demand generation. And here you have a target audience literally salivating at just the idea of knowing more about a business.
This is such a great illustration of how we should think about our agency marketing and business development. How are we creating the conditions for desire? Because really, that’s when external help is hired - when there’s an undeniable appeal to solving a problem in a way an internal team never could.
Creating the Conditions for Desire
We say “Like a kid in a candy store” for a reason, so Willy Wonka already has a lot going for him on the positioning side. But there are more concrete takeaways here for you and your agency.
What are your walk-by moments? It’s not your website. It’s very rare for somebody to stumble on to that. If you want people to feel what Charlie felt, you have to manufacture the walk-by: put your thinking and work out into the world on purpose, in places where your prospects already are, instead of waiting for them to arrive at your door.
What do people actually want? It’s interesting that Roald Dahl puts Charlie’s focus on the factory itself, not on a chocolate bar. Charlie isn’t dreaming about candy, he’s thinking about what’s going on behind those gates. Hundreds of factories make a delicious chocolatey smell, but only one has the Wonka mystique. For you, creating desire isn’t about deliverables. It’s about getting people excited about your approach, IP, or unique philosophy - the stuff behind the work.
What does a low-risk way in look like? If someone does start wondering what it’s like inside, give them a door. Maybe that’s a short paid engagement or diagnostic. Whatever it is, it has to let a prospective client experience how you work before committing to something bigger, as long as you’re getting paid and proving your value while they’re in it.
Most agencies are either keeping everything behind a locked gate and expecting people to stumble in, or wafting out some cheap, plasticky, chocolate odor. Let’s put something better out into the air.
