Growth Newsletter #136

Rituals turn mundane tasks into experiences. 

When customers follow a series of prescribed actions for a product they tend to:

• Enjoy the experience more
• Enjoy the product more
• Pay more to have it 

But rituals can't be random gestures. They need to be systematic and repetitive. It has to feel natural to how people actually use the product, and enhance the experience.

Some familiar ritual examples:

• Oreo: Twist, lick, and dunk cookies in milk.
• Corona: Press a fresh lime wedge into the bottle.
• Champagne: Pop the cork, cheer, and pour into flutes. 

Why rituals work:‍

Rituals increase people's involvement with a product in a unique and memorable way.

• A ritual instructs people on the "right way" to use it.
• A mini version of the IKEA Effect, the ritual makes customers feel like they had something to do in the creation of the product experience, therefore increasing its value and appeal.
• It gets them in the right mindset for using the product.

They also turn a mundane moment into an experience. They're not just opening up a bottle of sparkling wine, they're celebrating a win.

Steps to implement:

Elements of a great ritual:

• Easy to do: If it's hard, people won't do it.
• Tied to an emotion: Like celebration for champagne. Relaxing for Corona + Lime.
• Have a trigger: Celebration for champagne. KitKat increased sales by creating the ritual for KitKat + coffee—drinking coffee is a very common trigger.
• Add to the experience: Let's face it, Corona is kinda meh. The lime adds to it. 

Once you have an idea for your ritual and you've found an emotion or context to tie it to, test it on a small scale. 

Then associate the ritual (lime in a corona) with the target emotion (relaxing) by showing it in a context that evokes that emotion (someone on a beach in Mexico on vacation).

If you've done it right, your ritual will grow organically and become inherent to the
product experience.

Warren Buffet's net worth is $117,000,000,000 and his company's investment portfolio gains on average 19.8% per year.

His own company's stock costs $548,984.95 each—wild.

He's famous for his "buy and hold" strategy—resisting selling in the best and worst of times.

Besides insane willpower, one of his greatest strengths are his expertly written shareholder letters.

In them he convinces and assures his shareholders to continue to hold their shares. To believe in him and his strategy even through the worst crashes and recessions.

His tactic for writing compelling letters, as John Harrison wrote:

Or as Jeremy wrote:

Write marketing copy, newsletters, emails, and messages as if to a sister, a best friend, or your mom/dad. And not for a state of the union or to a supreme court judge.

Most founders/marketers completely wing their growth strategy.

Here are 3 ways to use research to find opportunities in the market: 

#1. Audience Whitespace

Of people interested in your product/category, who isn't being being served? For example:

#2. Channel Whitespace

Where are customers spending time and competitors are not?

For marketing channels, Charlie says to find the intersection of:

1. Where your potential customers hang out
2. Where there's the least competition
3. Where competitors are already seeing results
4. Where your content/voice makes sense

#3. Positioning Whitespace

What are your customers:

1. Searching for (search trend analysis) and
2. Asking for (social listening)

That competitors are not focusing on. For example:

Take time to study these 3 whitespaces to find opportunities—and if you're willing to invest, tools like SimilarWeb have a ton of data to parse through.