Need a drill or a hole?

Some appliances in the house need to be hung on the wall, and the tool to do so is a drill/expansion screw. What is important to achieve is the degree of certainty. But if in this case, when someone asks what is really needed, many people will answer: Need “holes”! But is that the real nature of the matter, or is it just one of the views?

In fact, labor tools such as hammers and drills mentioned above are just means for people to achieve their goals. And then, we can completely borrow, buy or even rent to minimize costs and maximize the goal of drilling holes.

But is the hole the end goal of the customer yet?

Seth Godin wrote in his famous book “This Is Marketing”: “The customer does not need to buy the drill. What they need is the hole.” But that view is still biased. No one suddenly needs to drill a hole for anything.

What they needed was to be able to mount the shelf on the wall after drilling the hole.

But that is not the end goal, what they need is the “FEELING” they get after cleaning the house, arranging the furniture neatly on the shelf that has been hung on the wall thanks to that hole. They also want the satisfaction of having done it themselves

Or the pride when his wife praises his “work”. Or the feeling of peace of mind when the house is clean and tidy, not flooded with garbage. The customer did not buy the drill bit. What they want to buy is “FEELING”!

Or when entering a pho restaurant, no one asks if the meat is fresh, whether the processing is clean, etc., but people only care if the pho is delicious. Other issues are just minor details. Therefore, when selling pho but advertising fresh beef, using a lot of bones to cook broth, friendly staff … is wrong. Because when pho is delicious, even if the owner sells it while scolding, people still come to eat as usual!

The “hole” is just a hint for businesses to understand what customers really want

If only selling what the business has…

Enterprises often own the material and experience accumulated in the development process. Therefore, if you sell what you have, you can provide a product or service.

Back to the story of the drill. If the business is only trading this particular product, the customer file may be limited to businesses operating in the field of construction, furniture or small personal needs… Not only that, the competition between businesses in the same industry will become more and more fierce because all of them are targeting the same customer file with the same products, sales tactics, advertising… the same.

This shows that the ability to supply specific products will be limited by technology, financial capacity, marketing, … of the business itself. But what if a “sell at a loss” solution is provided?

Instead of selling drilling, how effective will it be to open more drilling rental services? Because customers only need “holes”. That is changing the business landscape by changing the traditional business model.

This change of traditional business model is also the foundation for replacing traditional taxis with a giant, transnational taxi company Uber. Present in Vietnam in recent years, “technological taxi” has created fierce competition, causing many traditional taxi companies to also change their business form or face bankruptcy!

Or the company that specializes in renting vacation homes and apartments online, Airbnb. Founded in 2008, acting solely as an intermediary for tenants and lessors, the company has tens of millions of rentals for vacation homes and apartments in more than 190 countries. The company’s 2021 revenue is estimated to reach 5.99 billion US dollars!

Obviously, businesses have many options to solve problems and break their own limits.

We all understand that the biggest goal of every business is profit, it is the driving force for business development. So when selling products or services, customers will have a comparison between businesses, thereby forming an expensive/cheap assessment (Elevator Magazine has an article What is expensive, what is cheap) is inaccurate, greatly affecting the buying decision behavior of customers.

Besides, in order to promote the development of the business, when selling what you have, it is imperative to increase your competitiveness. If competing with technology, at some point, the features of other products will catch up or even surpass them. The evidence that we can easily see in each smartphone segment, for example, the race between brands is getting more and more fierce, pushing each other into a whirlpool. There will be outstanding product lines that rise to dominance, there are things that will be wiped out. The once famous phone brands Nokia, Ericson, Sony… have stepped back into the past to cede the playing field to a brand that was born late after giving birth to iPhone when this brand made breakthrough changes in the definition of smartphone. Even now iPhone has become a common noun, not a proper noun!

What the world needs is easy to recognize?

Customer benefits are the needs and motivations for customers to come to the business. But often, customers will not express exactly what they need, but businesses must work to understand this deep need.

That’s “Customer Insight” (referred to as Insight) drives the customer’s buying decision to be “Yes or No”! The story below may surprise you.

You have to “peel” off one or more layers to realize the Insight of customer

Please answer this question first. We want to test a new type of laundry detergent with dirty laundry in the machine. When the washing process is complete, what is the first action you will take?

That’s putting clothes on your nose to smell!

If it smells nice, the signal is transmitted to your brain and the brain will identify the above washing liquid as very clean, very good. If it doesn’t smell good, the brain will send a message that this cleaning chemical is unsatisfactory.

From a rational perspective, we all know that through the sense of smell, the smell of clothes after washing only reflects the aroma of a fragrance in the washing powder. But deep in our thoughts, what we can’t say is by default: just smell clean! The brain has deceived us.

So, if understanding Insight in this case, besides investing in cleaning ability, the use of fragrances with pleasant scents will create huge competitive advantages for laundry detergent brands?

What are the benefits of focusing on corporate customers?

Back to the story of buying the elevator. Why would anyone have to spend a ton of money to buy a device that may or may not have been used.

That’s because they want to buy a feeling of comfort and convenience when moving, or sometimes living in a luxurious and comfortable space… The elevator will solve all the discomforts in old age, when there is bone disease, joints, gout…and even lazy to move. Therefore, when advertising good elevators, durable elevators, and beautiful elevators, it is unlikely that customers are interested. Customers need many times to be safe, fast, quiet and convenient, spacious, easy to use…

Special Elevator Collection “GamaLift with Swarovski”

This shows that the customer’s Insight is not constant but will always move. The problem is that businesses need to be sensitive enough to understand this need.

In the first stage, the basic insights of consumers is that the quality of the elevator must meet the standards of safety during use.

But up to now, when this industry has developed to a new level, the demand for “making ends meet” has gradually been replaced by living with luxury. Safety criteria are gradually becoming a default that product and service suppliers must ensure. Insight will be special emotional values.

Products and services are always good and safe, but corporate culture makes the difference 

The concept of a successful business is that quality products, safety and good service are just the conditions that need to make a brand. And it is the corporate culture that will create the customer’s perception of the company’s difference, which is a sufficient condition.

Sell ​​what the world needs or sell what you have. There is no one point of view that is absolutely correct. Sometimes, understanding to choose to lead the trend in a different direction will bring more value to both businesses and customers.

That is what brings sustainable development./.