How Great Leaders Inspire Action | Simon Sinek | TED

Just had a discussion with some coworkers, and we settled on a conclusion, which may be beneficial or not. Impulse buys are feelings, not thoughts (see Simon Sinek's TED talk ), so it really depends on your market and why they're buying your product. If it's the sort of thing that they'll do a ton of research on, compare other products, and then settle on a conclusion, then you should be fine either way. If it's the sort of thing people will either impulse buy or forget about, then you may want to consider the issues involved with making a currency conversion. 1. When a user encounters a currency they're not familiar with (for many Americans, this is any non-USD currency), there's an immediate break in their purchase flow as they suddenly have to try to figure out what it's going to cost them. This requires math or research (most people don't know Google will do currency conversion), which gets in the way of their quick-purchase-then-off-to-facebook workflow. 2. When a user sees your product at (for example) €20, they see the number, they see that it's twenty, and they decide in a split second whether twenty is a reasonable price. When they realize that it's twenty Euro* and the price is actually thirty of their local currency, then, despite their conscious awareness of how currency works, the price has effectively increased by 50%. This can hurt purchasing depending on how devoted they are to the service. Even if '30 of something' is a fair price, their brain got used to the

When I saw the Simon Sinek video on leadership ( [VIDEO] ), it quickly clicked with me that the supporters of Apple are also people who above all want a quality product, that has beautiful design and is easy to use. Also, people who support Google believe in what Google believes - freedom, openness, personalization, and not getting overcharged and arm and a leg for the service they provide. But when I thought of Microsoft, I couldn't get neither a quick answer, nor a good one. What are Microsoft's beliefs? What is their mantra? Why do they exist? I couldn't really come up with an answer - except "making money". 15 years ago Microsoft's mantra was about putting a computer on every desk. They've pretty much accomplished that mission. But Microsoft doesn't inspire that in me right now - what they inspire and makes me think about them is that above else, they want to make money. Every company wants to make money, but we "believe" in the companies we love for different reasons, not because they want to make money. We love the companies that share our beliefs. What exactly are Microsoft's beliefs nowadays? To kill Google? Is that what makes whatever fans they have left to still love them? I don't think that's enough to win over a larger crowd in the future, as they start losing their monopoly on "computing machines", and all the negative sentiment they are gathering with the patents right now, will come back to haunt them later and create a negative halo around all their products.

This is very relevant (How great leaders inspire action): [VIDEO] Hint: It's all about the beliefs of a company and how consumers associate their beliefs with a company's beliefs. We know what Apple stands for (higher quality and more beautiful products). We know what Google stands for (more openess, more user freedom). What does Microsoft stand for? Can you answer it quickly? The only answer that comes fast enough is "money". I don't think Microsoft has an inbred culture inside the company for much else, at least not anymore. I also agree with the ending conclusion of the post, about Microsoft trying to cater to the "people in the middle", like not wanting to be close enough like Apple to deliver a great user experience, but not open enough like Android, too. In fact WP7 is even much stricter than desktop Windows. So they aren't addressing neither the Apple users, nor the Android users with this "mediocrity" strategy. Seth Godin likes to talk about how mediocrity is a bad place to be in, too: [LINK]

I think this video by Simon Sinek explains very well why Apple is successful. It's the motivation behind doing the things they do that matters, not just what they make. This tends to attract a lot of customers to think the same way, and believe in Apple's goals and philosophy. [VIDEO]

Apple ads have always emphasized "why" I should be using that product. Its not about the product itself or its specs but why I should have it. They are not straying away from that principle here so I'm not really sure where your beef is.. relevant link : [VIDEO]

I was confused. There should be a clearly visible video explaining it in 30 seconds. Explaining why it exists, how it works and what it does; the problem, the solution. The WHY is missing - WHY do you offer it? Why does it exist? - WHY should I care? - WHY should I be a part of what you do? - WHY do I need it? Related: "Start With Why" [VIDEO] Besides that I wish your project all the best. It looks very interesting!

> "When you think about Microsoft and you hear our mission – to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more – it’s powerful." What? They're 'starting with why' - [VIDEO] TL;DW: a marketing consultant suggested replacing "We make computers to empower people" with "We empower people; we just happen to make computers"

You can apply this idea to everything, though. "How is it the interest of Github stockholders to not censor certain projects when China starts DDoSing the whole site?" or even "How is it in the interest of Cloudflare to raise the prices for all of its customers, just to protect a site Russia doesn't like?" It can't all be about money. Companies that think only about money fail in the long term. If you don't believe that, then I urge you to watch this Simon Sinek video: [VIDEO]

This essay is in radical need of a TL;DR. If something is this important, you owe it to the subject matter not to bury the lede under a mountain of history and flowery exposition. Ask yourself: who is this for? People who are not already deeply passionate will stop reading unless they are engaged in a minute of reading. Note that a minute is being extremely generous; on a commercial consumer site, it's apparently an average of 7 seconds before someone will click away. I recommend that you check out this video and reconsider how you might reframe your message as a call to action that speaks to a better future we can create together. [VIDEO] I even jumped you to the good part.

I find this a rather simple take on Apple marketing. Not saying it is wrong, but surely it can not apply to other products. I recommend watching this take instead. 10 years old, and still clicks: [VIDEO]

Your assertion that there's nothing wrong with not explaining why a thing exists is not backed by reality. [VIDEO] Of course, it's their choice . But don't conflate that with being the best thing for the project or the visitor. Presumably the site exists to convince people to use it, no?