What’s in it for me?
We often hear this phrase in real life business and companies in particular ask this question when social entrepreneurs, artists and activists approach them to get involved financially in different kind of projects, therefore I want to shed some light on what companies mean by this question.
I decided to write this piece after I attended The Social Media Camp organized by BIZ, one of the leading business magazines in Romania. One topic caught my attention and made me think a little more about it: there are a lot of cool online and offline projects but most of them don’t get financed because the companies don’t want to get involved. The complaint was that there is always this stupid question raised by the companies’ representatives: what’s in it for me? The complainers were truly baffled: why don’t companies want to get involved in cool projects?
First, let me clarify that the ‘stupid’ question is not rhetorical: companies can’t throw away money, their purpose is to create value for their shareholders, to build a good reputation, to build their brand awareness, to return part of the profit for the development of the communities they are a part of. So they have to ask this question.
If you have a cool project in which you believe, just put yourself in the company’s shoes and think: why would you get involved? Just because it’s cool? Well duh, cool is not enough! You need to have more solid arguments than that.
Is the project in line with the company’s values, can it be aligned with one of the projects they are already involved in, does it bring value to a larger community, can it change lives, is it relevant to the company’s stakeholders (clients, employees, opinion leaders)? These are, but a few of the questions that a marketing representative or even the CEO of the company condenses into the shorter version: what’s in it for me?
If you have a cool idea that can change the world for the better and you have concrete answers to the questions above, then you stand a good chance to get the money. If you don’t, it doesn’t mean that your idea is less cool or that the world would be better off without it, it just means that you need to look for money elsewhere.
Just think about it!
Anca
Anca Nuta is Marketing & Communication Director of UniCredit Tiriac Bank, one of the leading banks in Romania in terms of profitability and she is working in this field for the past 12 years. She is currently an MBA student at Berlin School of Creative Leadership and she is very passionate about marketing, design and contemporary art.
