This Is Marketing: You Cant Be Seen Until You Learn to See

 CHAPTER SEVEN 
The Canvas of Dreams and Desires
Everything you’ve been taught in school and at work about doing a good
job has been about meeting spec, delivering on the assignment, getting the
A, doing the specific thing for the specific industrial purpose.
“What do you do” is about a task, a measurable, buyable thing.
Consider this job description from the U.S. government:
SEWING MACHINE OPERATOR; GRADE: 6
Sets up and runs a variety of domestic and industrial type power
operated sewing machines and related special purpose machines
such as buttonhole, basting and feed-off the arm machines. . . .
Makes independent judgments and decisions within the
framework of oral or written instructions and accepted methods,
techniques, and procedures. Continually handles objects weighing
up to 5 kilograms (10 pounds) and occasionally objects weighing
up to 9 kilograms (20 pounds). Works inside in areas that usually
have adequate light, heat and fresh air. Is exposed to the possibility
of cuts and bruises.
While this is the description of a job, it’s not the description of a dream
or a desire. While it’s specific, it could easily be changed without altering
what it delivers.
This is how money works as well. Twenty-dollar bills are meaningless.
It’s what you can buy with them that we work for.

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The same is true of your product or service. You may say you’re offering
a widget, but don’t believe it. When you’re marketing change, you’re
offering a new emotional state, a step closer to the dreams and desires of
your customers, not a widget.
We sell feelings, status, and connection, not tasks or stuff.
What do people want?
If you ask them, you probably won’t find what you’re looking for. You
certainly won’t find a breakthrough. It’s our job to watch people, figure out
what they dream of, and then create a transaction that can deliver that
feeling.
The crowd didn’t invent the Model T, the smartphone, or rap. The crowd
didn’t invent JetBlue, City Bakery, or charity: water either.
Crowdfunding is one thing, but the crowd isn’t that good at inventing a
breakthrough.
There are three common confusions that many of us get stuck on.
The first is that people confuse wants and needs. What we need is air,
water, health, and a roof over our heads. Pretty much everything else is a
want. And if we’re privileged enough, we decide that those other things we
want are actually needs.
The second is that people are intimately aware of their wants (which they
think of as needs) but they are absolutely terrible at inventing new ways to
address those wants. They often prefer to use a familiar solution to satisfy
their wants, even if it’s not working very well. When it comes time to
innovate, they get stuck.
The third is mistakenly believing that everyone wants the same thing. In
fact, we don’t. The early adopters want things that are new; the laggards
want things to never change. One part of the population wants chocolate,
another vanilla.