Mary Minnick, the relatively new CMO of Coke, likes to talk about 10 primal “need states” (e.g., hunger and thirst, health and beauty, etc.) in understanding the triggers around a customer purchasing one of Coke’s products, according to an interesting article I read in in BusinessWeek this week….
It’s not anything new per se (think of segmenting by needs, need payoffs, Maslow’s hierarchy, etc.), but I like the hypotheses that could come out of the thought process, which could be tested with any prospect/customer in any industry.
It gets to the question of why people (B2B or B2C) purchase anything. Most people say it’s to satisfy some need. However, we also know that people have “wants,” like a new Lexus (or to retain the pre-eminent strategy firm), which goes beyond a need for transportation.
But if we drill-down even more, we find that the “want” is really around certain ego needs, like wanting to impress people or to show off one’s “success.” Ultimately, we can probably get down to a primal need state with each “want.” A lot of people talk about needs and wants, but it seems that it’s just a matter of layers and peeling-the-onion to get to a real need.
Anyway, I think each business can probably identify, isolate, and intensify the various need states that its prospects/customers have, similar to Coke. I know there are a finite number of meaningful “buckets” that apply – it’s probably less than 20 and more than 1.
Then, each need state discovery process can be used to identify unmet needs, new need markets, and new offerings to satisfy some latent or unfulfilled needs. Getting better “health and beauty” (think green tea or an antioxidant-rich juice drink) out of a beverage begins to seem reasonable and aligned to our basic, fundamental needs.
In the end it’s just the “find a need and fill it” adage with some added overhead and process. Nevertheless, becoming a “need state” analyst is probably time well spent, as adages and platitudes are great to say, but you still got a lot of work to do –
MP
Technorati tags: Mary Minnick Coke marketing PR BusinessWeek strategy
I tell my clients that it is never about products and services. It is always about filling the “wants, needs and desires” of our target markets.
I think many of us have “wants” and it is not until we need something that has been on our “want” list that we act.
I want an HDTV. IF my old TV broke today, I would get an HDTV tomorrow. However, it stays on my want list.
Much of the marketing that is successful in the business-to-business world really does focus on needs first and brings home some wanted desires after the need has been established.
Mike
I think that something like this must have been behind the consultative sales process we taught at Saturn.
Knowing that there were a limited number of needs that a potential car buyer might deem relevant we trained sales consultants to interview with a view toward uncovering the “need state” of the person before us.
I know for a fact this sales process worked very well.
But it required counter-intuitive thinking on the part of sales people. The sales consultant had to learn how to slow down the Saturn guest in order to get a good interview and thus “speed up” the sale.
Thanks for enlarging the conversation!
Great comments … Per Michael W.’s comment, I think the foundation of most good sales processes is need discovery … it’s the input for everything else – the solution construct, the proposal, the negotiation based on remediating a pain or realizing a goal.
I like the need-want link … they are almost two-sides of a coin. The HDTV example is good … Why would someone want HDTV? What’s the driver? What need does it fulfill? If I were selling it, what would I say? How would I tap into a need state? I don’t know the answers, but those are some questions I’d ask.
Michael
You really built a great case for looking at opposing views here — and your post made me wonder how much we miss when we jump on one view alone. Thanks!