Skype’s Focus on The Bigger Idea (It’s Not the Technology, It’s What The Technology Allows You to Do)

Posted: 07 Nov 2013 09:40 AM PST

In Think Like a Rock Star I talk about the four ways that rock stars create fans and one of these ways is be tapping into The Bigger Idea behind their music. Instead of focusing strictly on themselves, rock stars focus on bigger ideas and themes that resonate with fans.

Brands can do this by focusing less on its product and more on how and why customers are using its product. What are they trying to accomplish, and what does the product allow them to do?

A perfect example of this is Skype’s new video Born Friends, embedded here:

This video already has close to a million views in its first week up. It resonates with us because it tells a human story, not a product story. The key to creating marketing that resonates with customers is to focus on how the customer will use the product and why they would use the product. This video doesn’t focus on Skype, it focuses on an amazing friendship that Skype helped make possible.

Many brands can’t make a video like this because many brands can’t see letting its product take a backseat to its customers. The reality is, your product is already secondary to your customer, so you might as well embrace it and give your customers the spotlight they deserve.

Hat tip to Ann Handley whose amazing post on the video inspired this post.