Identify the Human Need/Desire & Fulfill It
To build something worth buying, identify an underlying human desire or need and make sure your product fulfills it.
The first step of effective marketing is as easy to say as it is difficult to do:
Make something worth buying.
But wait – isn't that the task of designers and manufacturers?
Yes, but it's also a task for marketers.
To see why, let's drill down into what makes something worth buying in the first place.
Consider a literal https://media.giphy.com/media/ZDENP6MVo9SjbjAUUH/giphy.gif , with a quarter-inch bit.
As the @HarvardUniversity marketing professor Theodore @TheodoreLevitt pointed out, nobody wants a quarter-inch drill bit for its own sake; they want it for the quarter-inch hole it makes.
But no one wants a hole for its own sake, either.
It's just a means of accomplishing something else – perhaps installing a shelf on your living room wall.
And that shelf is just a way of storing things, which, in turn, is just a way to make your home look tidy.
And why do you want tidiness?
Well, maybe it makes you feel that you have control of your environment.
Maybe it makes you feel admired by your visitors.
Maybe a bit of both.
In other words, you don't really want a drill bit.
You want safety and respect – two of the most fundamental human needs.
The drill bit is just a tool for fulfilling them.
Effective marketing begins by identifying people's underlying needs and desires.
These almost always boil down to deep-seated, emotionally-resonant aspirations, such as adventure, belonging, connection, freedom, strength and tranquility.
A product is worth buying if it provides a compelling answer to one or more of these aspirations.
To see this in action, imagine a man buying an https://media.giphy.com/media/Z9WP2I0xcUAqq3Znhd/giphy.gif . Why does he buy it?
Perhaps he's attracted to its off-roading capabilities.
But here's the thing; he may never actually go off-roading, and yet the mere promise of being able to do so can be enough to motivate his purchase.
Why?
Because it speaks to his thirst for adventure.
Here, the task of marketing is to persuade the man that the SUV can quench his thirst – and the most compelling way to do that is to build an SUV that can actually go off-road and conveys this fact by having a rugged appearance.
Another example is a product called Qubii, designed to speak to people's desire to stay fit: https://www.youtube.com/embed/vkJ5H6e7Q54?start=0&end=21
Effective marketing therefore begins at the design and manufacturing stage.
After identifying people's aspirations, it guides the process of building products that speak to them with compelling, deliverable promises of fulfillment.
Identify the Human Need/Desire & Fulfill It
To build something worth buying, identify an underlying human desire or need and make sure your product fulfills it.
The first step of effective marketing is as easy to say as it is difficult to do:
Make something worth buying.
But wait – isn't that the task of designers and manufacturers?
Yes, but it's also a task for marketers.
To see why, let's drill down into what makes something worth buying in the first place.
Consider a literal https://media.giphy.com/media/ZDENP6MVo9SjbjAUUH/giphy.gif , with a quarter-inch bit.
As the @HarvardUniversity marketing professor Theodore @TheodoreLevitt pointed out, nobody wants a quarter-inch drill bit for its own sake; they want it for the quarter-inch hole it makes.
But no one wants a hole for its own sake, either.
It's just a means of accomplishing something else – perhaps installing a shelf on your living room wall.
And that shelf is just a way of storing things, which, in turn, is just a way to make your home look tidy.
And why do you want tidiness?
Well, maybe it makes you feel that you have control of your environment.
Maybe it makes you feel admired by your visitors.
Maybe a bit of both.
In other words, you don't really want a drill bit.
You want safety and respect – two of the most fundamental human needs.
The drill bit is just a tool for fulfilling them.
Effective marketing begins by identifying people's underlying needs and desires.
These almost always boil down to deep-seated, emotionally-resonant aspirations, such as adventure, belonging, connection, freedom, strength and tranquility.
A product is worth buying if it provides a compelling answer to one or more of these aspirations.
To see this in action, imagine a man buying an https://media.giphy.com/media/Z9WP2I0xcUAqq3Znhd/giphy.gif . Why does he buy it?
Perhaps he's attracted to its off-roading capabilities.
But here's the thing; he may never actually go off-roading, and yet the mere promise of being able to do so can be enough to motivate his purchase.
Why?
Because it speaks to his thirst for adventure.
Here, the task of marketing is to persuade the man that the SUV can quench his thirst – and the most compelling way to do that is to build an SUV that can actually go off-road and conveys this fact by having a rugged appearance.
Another example is a product called Qubii, designed to speak to people's desire to stay fit: https://www.youtube.com/embed/vkJ5H6e7Q54?start=0&end=21
Effective marketing therefore begins at the design and manufacturing stage.
After identifying people's aspirations, it guides the process of building products that speak to them with compelling, deliverable promises of fulfillment.
#IdentifytheHumanNeedDesire