What does your customer REALLY want?

A while back we talked about what your customer thinks about all the time. You can click here to revisit that article if you like but the simple thing your customer thinks about constantly is the future. Perhaps not surprisingly, that relates very closely to what your customer ultimately, REALLY wants – A BETTER future!

It’s just basic human nature. If things aren’t so good today, tomorrow we hope they’ll be better. In fact, most of the actions we’re taking today, including the less pleasant ones (like dieting or saving instead of spending), are about getting to a better future. If today things are going great, we hope to keep it that way tomorrow. Whatever a “better future” is, that is the benefit the customer is ultimately buying.

So how can we use that information?

Well, for one thing, we need to understand what “a better future” really means to our customer. You may know this through formal market research or through what your most satisfied customers have told you they appreciate most about your product, or you may have observed how your product benefits your customers first hand. There are any number of simple ways to visit the customer’s world and understand what’s most important to them, what they value, and what represents a better future to them.

Once you do, you know what to dramatize as you’re promoting the value of your offer. View any number of commercials on television, view ads in print, or listen to commercials on the radio, and chances are the really good ones, the ones that ultimately get you to want to learn more about them or take the actions they suggest, are the ones that dramatize the benefit of their product or service in terms of how it delivers a better future for you.

 The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men – the man he is and the man he wants to be.” – William Feather, Author