Pain or Pleasure? Take a Pick

A marketing plan is shaped by your message.

In order to be able to tell whether your message is effective, it's important to understand why people respond to certain messages better than others.

There's debate among marketers about which focus should be used.?

Two options:

Market based upon people’s desire to avoid pain

Market desirable outcomes – aka for pleasure.

And, there is an entire separate segment that a business needs to reach people who also WANT? and can? AFFORD what you offer. I’ll save that for another article.?

So let's examine the choice to focus on pain or pleasure.?

When you market based on pain means that you're creating your marketing materials from the standpoint of how your product or service helps people avoid pain.

It can highlight how to solve problems - aka - eliminates pain or the potential of pain.?When marketing from this approach, you explore the pain a potential client has from their problem by asking them questions.

Let’s look at marketing messaging for basic auto insurance.?

If you get into an accident, and you don't have auto insurance, then you're likely to experience a high cost associated with repairing your own vehicle and others involved. You may also incur additional medical expenses, and you could be responsible for paying off damage caused by the accident. You may face a municipal ticket fees. Or, if damages are high enough, it could cause the loss of your home or bankruptcy, etc. In certain cases, it could get catastrophic.?

Those are financial pains associated with accidents involving cars. Car insurance does relieve this pain or risk. It also provide some measure of “peace of mind.”?

The message here is about relieving any potential pain caused by X, Y or Z

People tend to think that pain-focused marketing is inherently negative. Not necessarily. The language or messaging that’s used in the content you create can highlight positive outcomes and numerous ideal scenarios.

You can choose to emphasize what will go wrong if no solution is implemented to address those pains. Or, you can create messages about what goes well.

Let’s look at pleasure or desire-focused marketing. Marketing based on desired satisfaction means what you create speaks directly to a person’s current desires. You market by telling them something they want right now.

Desire is based on emotion. If you study psychology deeply you’ll find that decisions are 100% emotional (topic for another day - or dm me, I LOVE a good debate if you disagree!)

Back to the point – a desire is an emotional state of wanting something. It can be a physical object, an experience, or a combination of both.

A desire can be any kind of wish or wishful thinking. Maybe you're not satisfied with what you have right now. You might feel like your life would be better if only you had a new car. Or maybe you just wish you were thinner to fit into your favorite outfit.?

Desires come in all varieties, ranging from a minor thing, like a pair of Ray bans to major ones, such as creating a business that leaves a legacy for future generations of your family?

An obvious example of a marketing strategy that focuses on pleasure and desire tourism and travel.

Obvious pleasure (and pent up demand caused by the pandemic) is to get away, have some fun family time, and have a change of scenery.

The marketing message would focus on a deeper connection with your travel mates and creating memories that last forever. And you'll take home mementos to remind you of the special time you spent together.

Seeing those scenarios clearly defined would help viewers/readers better understand how they could achieve that desire.

Which approach is better: pain points or desires?

You can use both approaches when marketing; for example, you could speak to a desire but then hint at the pain points if the desire isn't met.

Generally, in messaging with a cohesive brand message and identity, you’ll select one approach as your base. It makes content and executes the plan to create foundational pieces of marketing (your message, positioning and content strategy). Meaning, you spend some time investigating the specifics of either the deeper desires your target audience has...or the pains they're experiencing in their lives.

Once you've decided which approach to take, other pieces tend to fill in naturally because you'll have key answers for questions about how to communicate with your target audience.

Without a marketing plan, your firm is simply “doing activities” without a planned outcome. Doesn’t work in other areas of business. Doing things without any plan certainly doesn’t work in marketing. Doesn’t matter if you’re heeding well intended advice such as “ this or that social media tool is HOT!!! Your firm’s gotta get out there.”

Slow down enough to make a plan, or you’ll waste time, effort and create a mixed message. Marketing is, at its core element, communicating with people.?The essence of your "message" is key to your brand identity all around.

As for me and mine, well. Perhaps not surprising to you, but it is a desire-based approach. And that’s why we start our marketing strategy generator by exploring the desire your targeted audience has. Later, we do integrate pain points, but once again – they are explored through that desire.

My preference for desire-based marketing comes from having experienced firsthand that most people respond better to marketing that makes them feel understood and seen positively.

In other words, I prefer to bring positive thoughts into the world and speak directly to what a client desires. I focus on creating the potential for an ideal scenario, while offering pragmatic insights. I speak directly to their desires.

What are your thoughts about this - pain point vs. desire-based marketing?