There’s not a whole lot that comes to mind right now, but my inspiration for this blog comes from simply looking around in my room and asking questions about the things I have:
Right now I’m drinking water, not from a cup, but from a bottle. Do I really need to drink water from a bottle? No, I could easily just take some from a tap and boil it. Is there a difference in taste between bottled water and tap water? There probably is, but I can’t taste it. If there’s no difference between the two, then why didn’t I just boil some water and save myself a dollar fifty? The answer to this is because I’m lazy and I didn’t want to wait fifteen minutes before the water boiled and cooled down.
I’m wearing a Guess tee and a pair of Levi’s. I’ve been to Walmart and seen some of their clothing. Some of the stuff there looks horrible, but there are a few items that look decent. Clothes are a necessity; their main fuction is to keep you warm. So why did I pay an extra fifty dollars for brand name clothing? I guess I like the image that Guess and Levi’s portrays and I get an unexplicable satisfaction in buying their clothes.
I look into my closet and see my Epiphone Les Paul. I love this guitar to death, but why didn’t I buy a Fender or an ESP? All three companies make great guitars, so why Epiphone? My favourite guitarists right now are Slash and Jimmy Page. They exclusively use Les Pauls, so maybe if I play them too and practice really hard maybe I’ll be able to play like them some day.
All these examples have something in common; they involve an intangible benefit. Marketing creates value by creating a physical manifestation of our unsatistfied wants. A successful marketing campaign is one that can identify an unsatisfied desire and exploit it. By doing this, a company can create a huge competitive advantage.