What People Really, Really Want

Legendary Harvard Business School professor and marketing guru, Theodore Levitt, once famously said, “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill bit. They want a quarter-inch hole”.

The point being that the drill bit is merely a feature and the hole is the benefit. So, stop pitching the features and focus on selling benefits.

I’m sure most marketers and business people have heard this.

Despite this sage advice however, today’s marketers chase goals such as capturing likes, click bait tactics, hype, bait-and-switch trickery, over-promising and under-delivering, monetary enticement and false claims to name a few.

And all the while they pitch features.

Why do they all do that? Because that’s what everybody is doing. 

Consequently, most marketers get zero results with those tactics. Not only that they end up pissing off their targeted audiences.

What People Really Really Want

Let me tell you a story about my neighbor, Mike.

Mike had a problem.

His 2-car garage was a disaster.

He had so much “stuff” piled up in the garage that he could barely fit one car inside it let alone two.

His wife, Judy, had been after him for years to organize all his “junk”. She was embarrassed by all the clutter.

Not only that, she told Mike that the garage had become unsafe and it was a dangerous environment for their kids.

Now she was angry. 

And as the saying goes, “If Momma ain’t happy, nobody’s happy”.

Mike knew he couldn’t procrastinate any longer. He had to take action.

So off to Lowes he went.

He needed a new drill and some drill bits, you know, because he needed to make some holes. 

But it wasn’t just holes he wanted. What he really wanted was shelves. To put up all his stuff on the walls of the garage.

It took most of that day for Mike to complete his garage renovation project.

As he was admiring his work he was feeling pretty good.

He felt the self-satisfaction of a job well done.

Now his garage wasn’t a safety hazard for his family anymore which was a relief.

Best of all, Mike felt really, really good about the fact that Judy was going to be happy. Hopefully she was going to be very happy. Maybe even ecstatically happy.

Mike smiled. The feeling of anticipation was exciting.

So he had that going for him. Which is nice.

People DON'T Really Want Just A Hole

Mike didn’t really want a drill, or drill bits, or holes or shelves. 

What he really wanted was those feelings of satisfaction, safety, and the happiness of pleasing his wife. 

And most of all that feeling of something to look forward to.

People make purchases based on a wide range of emotions.

Everyone’s narrative is different. 

It is the job of every marketer to figure out what emotions they will need to evoke from their target audience to enable them to purchase their product or service.

So people aren’t really motivated to buy based on the features you offer. They buy based on the benefit they will receive and how it will make them feel.

These emotions may include status, comfort, ego, affection, security, indulgence, pain, fear, exhilaration, love.....

And sometimes even positive anticipation.

Your feedback is welcome. Please feel free to leave a comment.

With Gratitude,

Tim Cronin, CEO, Apio Media

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