How to Tap Into the Headspace of Your Buyer
*Is it possible to read minds?
A friend of mine has twin daughters. At the time they were four years old, and wildly persuasive.
For days, they campaigned for a family camping trip. There were coordinated asks, mock setups in their bedroom, even some assumptive closes like:
“Are we allowed to wear pink when we camp?”
It was relentless. Strategic. Adorable.
But their parents weren’t buying it.
Camping with toddlers? Hard pass.
Eventually, they asked what every founder should ask:
“Why do you want to go camping?”
The twins replied in perfect harmony:
“We want to roast marshmallows.”
That was the whole dream. Not tents. Not trails. Just marshmallows.
So instead of packing up the car, the parents turned on the fireplace and let the girls toast marshmallows from the living room rug.
Everyone won.
We fail to see the forest for the trees—or in this case, the roasting of marshmallows for the camping trip.
That’s why the best branding doesn’t begin with answers.
It begins with curiosity.
It assumes people don’t always know how to say what they mean.
Is it possible people don’t buy toothpaste to fight cavities?
Maybe they buy toothpaste because they don’t want to die alone.Is it possible people don’t drink oat milk for health benefits?
Maybe they just want to sound more evolved at brunch.Is it possible people don’t buy noise-canceling headphones for sound quality?
Maybe they just want a socially acceptable way to ignore everyone—without music and without explanation.
The request is rarely the real request.
The brief is rarely the real brief.
And the words they’re using aren’t always the ones that matter.
This is why most sales messaging fails.
We’re handed a request, and we deliver on it—without ever asking if that request is rooted in the real problem.
Marketing is an exercise in two silent minds trying to make sense of each other—
one trying to express a need it can’t fully articulate,
the other trying to solve a problem it hasn’t clearly understood.
This requires mind-reading.
But mind-reading doesn’t exist.
What does exist?
Curiosity
Empathy
The discipline to ask one more question
That’s how we get closer—layer by layer—like peeling paint from an old sign to reveal the original message underneath.
Is your messaging packed with answers no one asked for?
Explore how we bring teams back to the message that actually moves people.