Your product helped me with something? Good, thank you for that.

Depending on how much it helped me, I’ll be more or less grateful. I may tell friends who could use it and benefit from this incremental upgrade. Most probably, this product made me do something faster, with less resources or just made something more efficient.

However, that’s not something we share with all our friends. And you might object, say “But I did share within my group this new add-on I found somewhere”.

That doesn’t mean all your friends. That means a group of people who are centered around a subject: say it’s programming, for the sake of an example.

However…

When something helped you and it made you feel something: that’s the moment when you want to share it with more people. Not necessarily all your friends but the audience is now not just a “tribe” — i.e. people centered around a subject.

It may be multiple tribes. It’s not just the programmers. It’s the make-up artists, the singers and the bankers. Three tribes who might not be related on a regular day.

That was abstract. Let’s look at practical now

Make-up artists, singers and bankers have iPhones. I know, I went for the most classic example. I know, Apple is an almost-trillion-dollar company.

However, they created experiences. It’s not just something that helps me with my day to day life. They made stuff that you can play with.

And if playing is just for kids, there’s that saying — men don’t grow up, they just find bigger toys. Women are more developed on an emotional perspective, and there’s biological evidence for that.

It makes sense why an experience is adding value to people.

Don’t misquote me though: I’m not saying build experiences for everyone. In fact, I’m advocating for the opposite.

Here’s the counterintuitive thing: experiences are designed for a certain group of people and only them. A very refined group. Hyper-focused. And somehow it eventually catches onto others.

Why? Because the impact of that product is at least tenfold stronger on those who are targeted. And as a consequence of this impact, they are tenfold more likely to share it with people.

And once again, they share it with an audience that engulfs more than just people who would benefit technically from the product. See the loop here?

The bottom line

If something just helps me, it’s good. If there’s an experience to it (i.e. what you offer makes me feel something), it’s more than that — it’s worth sharing with more people than just who it’d help.

And that’s how word-of-mouth gets on steroids.

About Ch Daniel

I run Chagency_, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. We’re building a credo around this belief.

If I’ve brought you any kind of value, follow me and get in touch here: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email | Quora | YouTube (same content but in video)

I’ve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times – check it out at chdaniel.com/app

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Illustration credits: Dave Martinez, Gerardo Gonzalez