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Want to connect more deeply with your customer, and create branding and marketing that’ll capture their attention?
Take the “Why Test”.
It’s a simple framework developed by Emily Heyward, cofounder and chief brand officer of Red Antler, the branding agency behind Hinge, Ramp, Allbirds, Supergoop, and other highly accomplished brands.
Here’s how it works.
Why use the Why Test
When Heyward meets founders, she often asks them a question: “What’s the problem you’re trying to solve for people?”
In response, she says, people often share their business idea. They’d say something like: “Oh, the problem that I’m solving is that I made a cereal with natural ingredients.”
“That’s not a problem,” Heyward says. “That’s a solution.”
To truly connect with consumers, she says, you must understand their problem — down to a fundamental, human level.
“So I created this little exercise for the team at my team,” Heyward says. “When you’re writing a strategy and you have a really deep consumer insight, you must be incredibly annoying and keep asking, ‘Okay, but why does that actually matter? Why does that actually matter?’ Like, people want to cereal with natural ingredients? Well, why?”
How to take the Why Test yourself
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: State Your Brand’s Core Message
Write down how you describe your brand or product in a simple sentence.
Example: “We make high-quality running shoes.”
Step 2: Ask ‘Why Does That Matter?’
Answer why your core product or message is important to your audience.
Example: “Because runners need reliable, comfortable shoes.”
Step 3: Ask ‘Why Does That Matter?’ Again
Keep pushing deeper into the emotional or functional significance.
Example: “Because when runners have the right shoes, they perform better and avoid injuries.”
Step 4: Repeat Until You Hit an Emotional or Differentiating Core
Keep asking why until you uncover a unique or powerful insight.
Example: “Because running is more than exercise — it’s about pushing personal limits and feeling unstoppable.”
Step 5: Refine Your Brand’s Messaging
Once you land on an answer that resonates deeply, use it to craft clearer, more impactful messaging.
Instead of “We make high-quality running shoes,” your brand might say: “We help runners break their limits with gear designed for performance and endurance.”
Your answers should get deep!
At the end of this process, Heyward jokes, the Why Test will always end in a fear of death.
“The idea is that the ultimate motivator of anything a human does is, like, our sense of our own mortality — whether that’s to look younger, or sexier, or eat better, or whatever it might be,” she says. “Obviously, we don’t end up writing strategies that are all about fear of death, but then you can go back up and say, ‘Okay, what are we actually solving for people here that’s on a deeper level?'”
You can see this logic inside of all great marketing. For example, let’s use this old FedEx ad:
The ad is set in an office. The boss calls in sick, and everyone immediately gets up to go play golf.
What does that have to do with FedEx’s shipping services? Consider the Why Test.
Step 1: The mission. FedEx’s core value is making shipping easier.
Step 2: Why is that important? Because it makes work more efficient.
Step 3: Why is that important? Because people don’t want to work all the time. (Why? Because there’s more to life than working — and one day we’ll die! As Heyward says, it all ends in mortality.)
From there, we’ve arrived at a great insight: If FedEx can help people work less, FedEx will become more beloved. That idea is heavily infused into the ad.
The goal, Heyward says, is find “the emotional hook” — the insight that’ll connect deeply with your consumer.
After that, the marketing and branding ideation can really begin: “The next question is like, ‘Okay, then does that lead us to an interesting place creatively?'”
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