"Unless you can show a consumer how those features can contribute to solving their problems/needs etc. you are probably only going to sell one, and that will be to your mother"
This is an age old and basic marketing and advertising principle. Yet, some marketers seem to be getting it horribly wrong. I almost fell over this week when our local blood bank was doing a blood drive.
Guess what stared me in the face as I was walking on our campus? A larger than life billboard showing a needle penetrating an arm in all and glorious gore with that very same arm pumping blood!!
I don’t know about you, but I am petrified of needles and that image is the very last thing that will motivate me should I ever pucker up the courage to donate.
As flattering as the thought might be, consumers don’t buy your product because they want your product.
No, they buy it because they have a real or perceived problem/need/desire/want etc. that they perceive your product will satisfy.
Don’t think for one second that women buy clothes because of the fear of going naked.
That might be a valid reason, but definitely not the only one. If that was the only reason, we could all cut some holes in refuse bags and wear that.
No, most women buy clothes because they want to look and feel beautiful. And how do Woolworths, Truworths and Foschini etc. adverise their clothing? They don’t lay them flat on the floor and slap the unedited pics in magazines and on billboards. NO, they get gourgeous models to wear the clothes in unbelievably beautiful settings that portray the ideal lifestyle and sell that image.
So next time you are thinking of selling something to someone, stop looking at it from your perspective.
You might know everything there is about your product, but unless you can show a consumer how those features can contribute to solving their problems/needs etc. you are probably only going to sell one, and that will be to your mother.
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