Don’t sell the drill, sell the hole

"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.

This is just one example of how advertisers and marketers get the art of selling horribly horribly wrong.

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.

They're not selling tickets to a boat trip. They're selling an escape to luxury and relaxation.

Take clothes shopping for example (the favourite past time of most women, myself included).

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.

Advertising bug repellent, Avon spends little of the page on the actual product and the majority on the benefits of using that product hold.

The Art and Science of Marketing by Dowling: Chapter 1

I have been reading the most amazing book on marketing! Before you start thinking that this is the next big thing, it's not! I am a great advocate of the fact that we should master the basics before we start getting fancy. And that is exactly what The Art and Science of Marketing: Marketing for Marketing Managers by Grahame R. Dowling is all about.

If you want to see for yourself, here is the link to the Google Books version and if you would like to purchase (which I would strongly recommend), here is the link to Amazon.

Following is a summary of what I got out of Chapter 1:

"There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. (To achieve this purpose): Any business enterprise has two, and only two, basic functions - marketing and innovation." - Peter Drucker (The founder of modern management).

p1
Most consumers are agnostic to particular forms of technology. What they really want and value are the benefits and the solutions to problems that the technology can provide them with.

p2
Marketing, as the root word in the term implies, is the function of a business or a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on the marketplace. This begs the question of what is a market?

Dowling then uses the example of how the Polaroid camera competed with the entertainment market in the 90s. 18 to 30 year olds stopped going out so much, but rather took instant photographs at house parties and so denting the entertainment industry's market share with a total different need satisfaction object.

Supply-Side View
This perspective traditionally focuses on all the competitors that supply physically similar products and services. Descriptions include the type of industry, the number and nature of competitors, business models, manufacturing processes etc. Adopting a supply-side perspective can result in losing sight of the needs of customers.

p3
Business-to-enterprise / Internal Marketing
Another group of people to whom the ideas of marketing can be applied is employees. Here, the task of managers is to 'sell' the vision, culture, control systems, operating procedures, etc. of the organisation to employees and agents.

p5
Two of the roles of marketing are to act as:

• the 'match making' function of the organisation
• the market-sensing part of the organisation