Every single thing in this world, when you do it or have it, has a consequence. That consequence has a consequence, and that consequence has a consequence. So everything has the potential to change everything else. That’s true. So when you’re trying to sell something, when you’re trying to talk about something, when you’re trying to market something, you’re not supposed to talk about what it does. Because now you know that a thing can have multiple stages of consequences, first order, second order, infinite order. If you just talk about what it does, you’re stuck at the first level. But it can have a hundred orders of consequence, two hundred orders of consequence. The scope is massive, and if you just keep talking about what it does, you’re missing the point. You’re not communicating the whole story. It’s like someone ran a marathon and you’re just talking about the first hundred meters. That’s not how you’re going to sell it.

You’re leaving a lot of value on the table. You’re not communicating it. So I think this is how you’re supposed to actually market something: you’re supposed to talk about the butterfly effect it’s going to cause. You’re supposed to talk about the first order, second order, third order, fifth order, hundredth order consequence that thing might cause. And people are attracted to that, because the function of a thing on its own is going to be way too small anyway, no matter what it is.

Imagine a voting machine in parliament, the one they might use to vote on something. What’s the function of that button? It’s essentially just recording a click. But when you look outside that little electronic view and look at it from a macro perspective, it’s capturing data about people’s will, by proxy of a politician, and that will is now going to get transformed into regulation that’s going to govern the masses for years to come. And that governance is going to shape a lot of behavior, and that behavior might have good consequences, bad consequences. So that little button has so many consequences.

If you just stop at saying it’s going to record things, that’s not how you’ll be able to market it, because then what’s the point? You’ve left so much value on the table. You could have made your pitch: “Hey, this button is going to do so many things, it’s going to be this consequential, that’s why you need to use us. We’ll make sure all these consequences will be positive, because we’ll provide you the safety of this whole process being fair.” Whatever, you can have the language you want. Basically, you’re supposed to express the whole butterfly effect that the thing you’re trying to market is going to have. And when you lay that butterfly effect down, some people are going to be really attracted by it, because for them that’s the ideal state. Some are going to be repelled by it, because they’re like, “Hey, this is deviating too much from what I thought would happen.” And some just won’t like it.

Basically, it lays the ground for engagement that people just have to interact with. It’s like a huge candy in the middle of the street, someone’s going to bite it. I don’t know what that analogy means, but you get it. If you’re trying to market something, figure out the butterfly effect and just communicate it. You have to talk about the effect, the impact, the consequence, and not just the tiny little function that thing has.

So why exactly should we do this? First of all, you have to understand that it’s paramount that when you’re marketing something, you’re not supposed to talk about what it does, you’re supposed to talk about the impact it causes. You’re not supposed to talk about the line a mascara is going to make on your eyes, you’re supposed to talk about the confidence it’s going to give you, the compliments it might attract, the eyes it might catch, or whatever. A lot of things are going to happen just because you made a line there. So basically, you’re not supposed to talk about what it does, but the effect it’s going to cause.

I myself personally always struggle to figure out what the effects of something are. I have these XYZ projects, and what are going to be the effects of them? What’s going to happen because of it? I could never actually pin it down. Say I’m selling an AC remote: what are going to be the effects of it? Okay, it’s going to change the temperature, whatever, but how do I communicate to my potential customers what the impact is, what the effect is, what the consequences of the remote are?

I think it was happening because I was staying within the little boundary of sanity, rationality, logic, or whatever. But I think it’s better if you just go insane when you’re trying to figure out the answer to what the effect of this thing is, what the consequence of this thing is. And one of the most insane crutches for this, one of the most insane theories you can lean on, is the butterfly effect: a flap of the wing of some little butterfly in Latin America can cause hurricanes down in, say, Japan.

So what if it’s just ridiculous that such a tiny thing can have such an enormous effect, because of the chain of cause and effect? Why not use that for the product we’re talking about, this AC remote? What could be the butterfly effect of it? If you can’t come up with it yourself, just sit around with your friends, have some drinks, and talk about it. What would be the butterfly effect of this remote working, of this remote not working, of this remote not being the way it is right now, of this remote being the way it is right now? There are hundreds of questions you could explore there, and it will all give you a ton of really, really good marketing material that you can use.

Basically, the whole point is that it’s hard to figure out the effects or consequences a product is going to have, and it’s important to know them, because your marketing is based on them. So a really good tool to get to know them is to lean on the butterfly effect: the tiniest thing can have the most massive of consequences we can imagine. So what’s the butterfly effect version of this thing, and what are the various versions of that butterfly effect? That’s how I think we can win at marketing. I’m confident enough now that I can sell anything, because I can now market it.

I see a lot of advertisements where the product is dead simple, like a cold drink, but the ad goes: someone’s in a stadium, having the best fcking time of their life, completely overjoyed. It’s an insane amount of bullsht for a drink. But then I think: it’s a butterfly effect. If Pepsi’s making an ad, someone’s excited to go to the match, they get into the stadium, the player does something incredible, they’re holding a Pepsi, and they’re just really happy to be there. Of course Pepsi didn’t cause any of that, didn’t make the match happen or the player score. But it’s all an experience, and Pepsi was part of it. Without Pepsi, maybe it’s different, maybe the drink in your hand was sh*tty instead. It’s part of that whole chain.

Another thing: your ICP here might be a woman in her thirties who isn’t having much fun at the office, and she’s going to the stadium this weekend to blow off steam and have a blast. For that ICP, the ad makes sense: a woman having all this fun, drinking Pepsi. The butterfly effect you’re conveying should be a positive one for your ICP.

So either your product is causing the butterfly effect or is part of a wider butterfly effect that is really amazing and cool but I don’t see any way you can escape it

So the two modes are:
Product as cause — the thing initiates the butterfly effect. Works when the causal chain is tight and emotionally pre-loaded (mascara → confidence → attention). The product is the lever.
Product as witness — the thing is present during a butterfly effect your ICP is already living or wants to live. Works when the product can't plausibly initiate much (cold drink, shoes, a car in the background). The product becomes a prop in their desired identity film.

I think isolating yourself from butterfly effects and just talking about the product itself and what it does in the first order is never sufficient enough for the user’s “what’s in it for me”