Common Sense vs. What They Really Want

Common Sense vs. What They Really Want

Any marketer will tell you that if you want a slam dunk, you might just as well forget what people need. People don’t dig deep and often for the things that they need.

Consider this ...

• Everyone ‘needs’ gas if they drive a car … nobody enjoys paying for it…. They do it because they WANT to use their car.
  
  
• Everyone ‘needs’ to eat … but their grocery choices are driven by their own tastes and desires to have a result … without WANT, there would be no reason for any variety on the shelves.

• Everyone ‘needs’ to brush their teeth every morning …. But it’s not the need that drives you to the sink … you WANT that funk out of your mouth!
  
  

Looks like I’m going to have to blow my generic cover at this point… at least a little.

We know that everyone ‘needs’ long distance service … but clearly I haven’t ‘wanted’ a reasonable price badly enough to keep tabs on my options year in and year out. What I really WANT is for someone to do it for me.

Now THAT I would pay for.

‘Wants’ not needs drive people to action.

Focus on giving people what they want and your business has no way to go but up. All fine and well in theory … but how to pin down these wants?

Market research, testing, demographics, advertising, testing, knowing your customer, etc… These are all things that will go into figuring out people’s ‘wants’.

Because I’m not an expert in these fields, I have to go with the most obvious ‘want’ marketplace at this time and place in our history … Health and Wellness.

I’m sure you’ve heard the ‘Health and Wellness, the next multi gazillion dollar industry .. yada yada yada …’

The real point is that there’s an unusually large generation of people who are growing old all at once who don’t like it one iota. Right here right now, we are still near enough to the beginning of that wave to take advantage of a huge demand for things that this group of people can use.

Now, on the surface, Health and Wellness might seem like a ‘need’ marketplace … everyone should eat better and make every effort to be as healthy as they can, right? And sure there are those who once they are already sick really have no choice but to change their habits … their bodies force the issue.

But the question is do people ‘do’ health stuff because they ‘need’ to?

I don’t know about you, but personally, I only do the things that I can see the effects that I am seeking.... and the faster the better. My wants have to be clearly tended to before I am motivated to be consistent with anything.

Needs vs. wants … something to weigh very heavily into which business you choose to pursue.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Ask yourself, ‘Why would I want to use this?’
• Consider it from your customer’s perspective too.
  
• Come up with real life benefits that answer the wants of a large segment of the population.
• Find a way to get those people to raise their hands.
• Offer them the solution to that 'want'
  

And you’ll have your slam dunk!

To your success!
Andrea

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Ready to grow?
I will mentor you.
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