This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "Start With Why" by Simon Sinek. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.
Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here .
Golden Circle marketing is a marketing strategy promoted by Simon Sinek in his book Start with Why. Golden Circle marketing depends on your WHY, your central belief. It’s the concept that motivates you to get out of bed in the morning.
In terms of an organization, Golden Circle marketing is the reason you’re in business. We’ll cover examples of Golden Circle marketing and look at how to use Golden Circle Marketing to maintain a successful business.
- Originally Published: January 30, 2020
- Last Updated: January 19, 2026
The Key to Golden Circle Marketing: Defining Your Why
In Golden Circle marketing, the WHY leads to the HOW and the WHAT:
- The WHY: This is the vision of your company. It’s the motivation behind your service or product. It’s the mission that you stand for.
- The HOW: The HOW is the practical steps you need to take to achieve your WHY. The HOW is the practical, operational knowledge that brings the vision to life.
- The WHAT: The WHAT is the product or service you’re selling. It’s the tangible part of your company, and it’s also the easiest to identify.
Sinek clarifies that the Golden Circle model isn’t really flat like a bull’s-eye. Instead, it’s a three-dimensional cone.
- WHY is the top of the cone—the narrowest and shortest ring, home to the organization’s top leaders. They’re the ones responsible for creating and sharing the WHY.
- HOW is the middle ring of the cone. These are the upper-level leaders who figure out how to execute the WHY.
- WHAT is the lowest and largest ring of the cone. This level contains all the employees responsible for interacting with customers, selling products and services, and manufacturing goods.
(Shortform note: Sinek’s “megaphone” model relies on a traditional, hierarchical structure to spread your WHY throughout your company and beyond. In Reinventing Organizations, business consultant Frederic Laloux envisions a different kind of structure—what he calls a visionary organization—that he argues is more efficient and better for employees’ well-being. In a visionary organization, there is no rigid hierarchy. Instead, there’s a fluid network of relationships between individuals or small teams who are all committed to the same guiding purpose. Leloux argues that with a clear purpose (the company’s WHY) in mind, employees will freely cooperate to reach decisions and distribute resources as needed.)
Sinek says that, in order to have a strong WHY, every ring of the company needs to be aligned with the organization’s guiding vision. Therefore, the leaders in the WHY ring need to communicate clearly with those in the HOW ring. The HOWs then pass the message on to people in the WHAT ring and make sure the WHATs are able to share the organization’s message with everyone else. This creates the Golden Circle Megaphone, which amplifies your message in a way that inspires everyone it touches.
(Shortform note: To keep everyone in your organization focused on the same goals and values, the authors of CEO Excellence advise you to choose a cultural anchor: a simple yet emotionally powerful idea that can serve as both a guide and a rallying cry. For example, if your company’s mission is to repair the environment, your cultural anchor might be “sustainability”—keeping that one word in mind could remind people to always choose the most environmentally responsible options, think about the long-term impacts of business decisions, and so on.)
Apple and Golden Circle Marketing
Apple consistently uses Golden Circle marketing correctly. They begin with WHY, then figure out HOW they’ll achieve their vision and WHAT they need do to get there.
This is clear in Apple’s marketing. Think about how strange it would sound if Apple took the typical WHAT to HOW to WHY marketing approach. It might sound something like this:
“We make good computers. Our computers are easy to use, elegant, and well-designed. You should buy one.”
Now, compare that to the start with WHY approach that Apple actually uses to inspire customers:
“We think differently. We want to challenge the status quo. The way we do this is by making products that are easy to use, elegant, and well-designed. And we just happen to make computers as our products. You should buy one.”
The difference is that Apple’s products are a result of their WHY. This is Golden Circle marketing. Their MacBooks, iPods, and iPhones are just a physical representation of the company’s core beliefs. Therefore, when someone buys an Apple product, they’re not just buying the WHAT: they’re buying the WHY, too.
Put another way, people don’t actually want to buy stuff. They want to buy ideas. They want to join movements. Putting your WHY first ensures that your ideas, not your product, are what make you stand out from the crowd.
It’s not that Apple’s products don’t matter – quality matters, of course. But the connection between a strong WHY and a high-quality WHAT becomes an unstoppable combination. Lots of companies make arguably equally high-quality products, but people don’t feel the same emotion and inspiration with a Dell laptop or a Samsung phone. Apple is unique in the strength of people’s emotional and inspirational connection to their mission – and this starts with WHY. This is the essence of Golden Circle marketing.
———End of Preview———
Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best summary of "Start With Why" at Shortform . Learn the book's critical concepts in 20 minutes or less .
Here's what you'll find in our full Start With Why summary :
- What Steve Jobs did right compared to every other business leader
- How to define your organization's WHY
- How to help your organization avoid losing its edge as it succeeds
