What Your Target Audiences Want, What They Really, Really Want

Harvard professor Theodore Levitt once famously said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

The people you are trying to attract – to buy your product, come to your shows, enroll in your schools – have reasons for gravitating to (or away from) you. And their motivation is likely governed by emotion.

Marketing genius Seth Godin takes Levitt’s theory a step further:

“No one wants a hole.

“What people want is the shelf that will go on the wall once they drill the hole.

“Actually, what they want is how they’ll feel once they see how uncluttered everything is, when they put their stuff on the shelf that went on the wall, now that there’s a quarter-inch hole.”

As a marketer, you’re not selling a drill-bit, you are selling respect and the feeling of accomplishment.

Whether it’s product or service or performance you’re offering, dig deeper and find the underlying desires your customer seeks to unlock the secret to the stories you need to tell in your #marketing.

As Godin says, “Many marketers try to sell on facts and features. Humans buy on emotion and beliefs.”

Let your #storytelling take your audience on a journey that motivates them to engage with you.

Donner Creative Communication Strategies can help.