People Don’t Buy What You Do, They Buy Why You Do it.
Using video to capture the essence of our app.
At The Pool boasts members in more than 100 countries. It’s a product aimed at connecting people offline, making it easy to find others and to have new experiences. Up until now we’ve been 100% web-based, but this is a product made for mobile. Four months ago we began building for the iPhone and a week ago Apple approved us. After thorough beta testing we are going live this Thursday and we’re really excited about it!
So how should we get the word out? A question we’ve spent countless nights thinking through. Of course we’ll message our members, put out an email, post to our blog, Facebook, Twitter, HN, etc. The press has been very kind to us and we imagine coverage will be good. But what about messaging? In that regard, I’ve been thinking about a quote I love from Simon Sinek, who said:
“People don’t buy what you do,they buy why you do it.”
What do we do? We make a product with x,y,z features. Why do we do it? Because we want to build better communities, get people off their computers and spending more time building lasting relationships and memories. We believe technology should empower us to live better lives and make it easier to facilitate those experiences. We decided we would show “why” we exist rather than the usual press release that explains “what” we do. So we filmed a video exemplifying our members and what they do, why we’re passionate, and the personality that we want to embody.
Video will launch with the app first thing Thursday morning. For now we’re showing some behind the scenes shots. Every photo in this post was taken at the film shoot and we’re really excited about the message it conveys.
My recommendation isn’t to film an experiential video for every app launch, but to think critically not about what your product does, but about why you created it. What are you hoping to achieve and why does it exist? We’re excited about launching a product that brings people together for real-life experiences. Hopefully our messaging conveys that excitement.
Written by Alex Capecelatro, founder & CEO of At The Pool
