The No. Secondly, they search outside themselves for happiness — in a job, a husband, a family, a title, a paycheck, a fancy house. As a result, happiness is constantly out of their control and a perpetual moving target that never stands still long enough for them to grasp. The question is: how much money do you really need to bring about the life experiences that will truly fulfill you? And if you want more money, do you understand the key principles and behaviors required to generate it?
Finally, do you understand your own money story and how you habitually operate with money? Ah, freedom. What is necessary to experience freedom? And it takes forging your own path in life and work, despite the challenges and the naysayers. We long for peace, desperately. Peace from noise, chatter, pressure, responsibilities. Attaining peace is a practice that we need to cultivate and commit to, regardless of what's going on around you. Joy comes from the process of becoming more of who you already are.
Discover that and honor it, and you'll be on your way to a more joyful, rich life. Then, you'll want to create messaging that gives them reassurance that they'll be taken care of. For example, let's say you're selling a home alarm system. It might be tempting to discuss all the bells and whistles of the product as if it were the neatest piece of tech on the market. However, a better approach would be connecting those features to the prospective customer's safety needs, explaining how each one provides another level of safety for their home, their valuables, and most importantly their loved ones.
Speaking of loved ones, as humans, we're inclined to do all that we can for ours. And we're also inclined to seek connection. For this reason, our social needs can be powerful motivators. Just think about how De Beers, the diamond retail company, changed how we look at engagement rings with their ads in In a time where a diamond ring might be seen as a frivolous expense, they were able to create the illusion that diamonds are rare and sought-after as well as create a sentimental attachment to them with their popular slogan, "A diamond is forever.
As a result, the diamond industry was never the same. Some products represent who customers are as people and act as a symbol that represents their social status or personal identity. They want their peers to think that they're driving the best car available. Therefore, BMW creates and markets high-performance vehicles that are intended for luxury buyers. If BMW were to come out with a cost-effective, economic vehicle, it wouldn't be as successful as its current products. BMW's existing customers would have no interest in this type of car because it doesn't reflect who they are as people.
When developing the next product for your business, be sure that it aligns with the social status or identity that your customers desire. The need for self-actualization is difficult to target since it looks different for everyone and because your product will not be enough to achieve it for your customers. However, self-actualization is still a powerful motivator, which means that, done right, messaging that appeals to this need can be persuasive.
Consider language-learning app Duolingo's message to "make every day count" by dedicating a sliver of it to learning a language. While your product or positioning will be so much stronger when you target one of the above needs from Maslow's Hierarchy, there are a few additional things you should keep in mind as you develop and market your products.
At the end of the day, your product has to solve the problem that you advertise. That's why customers bought it in the first place, and you can't fault them for being upset or turning to your competitors if you don't solve the problem that they're having. This is easily the most important function that your product should perform. Now, you need to make sure it can continue to solve their problems moving forward.
If it breaks easily, customers will be frustrated with having to return products or constantly working with your customer service team. For this reason, it's important to invest in your product's quality so that you can ensure long-term customer satisfaction. It doesn't matter if you're selling shoes or subscription magazines, your product should make your customers comfortable.
It shouldn't be exhausting or stressful to work with, but instead, customers should feel relaxed and rewarded whenever they continue to engage with your product or service. This will keep them interested in your business and more likely to return for an additional purchase. Have you ever purchased a product only to feel regret once you took it out of the packaging? This is called buyer's remorse and it occurs when our expectations aren't met by a product we just purchased.
To prevent your customers from experiencing this phenomenon, it's important to reassure them with a strong customer service offer. Having a dedicated support team ready to solve issues is key to making customers feel confident in the purchase they just made. And, that confidence can be the deciding factor between staying with your business and switching to a competitor.
Unless the customer is required to purchase your product, most won't be jumping at the chance to buy it if they don't find it interesting. The best products are entertaining to use and keep the customer stimulated throughout the user experience. Think about mobile-based games for this example. Some, like Snake, are very simple games that aren't complicated to master. But, they're incredibly popular because they keep users engaged in every moment of the game experience.
Creating that same level of interest for your business is a great way to get customers hooked on your products. Since needs are the purpose of your product, its core offering, wants are the things that will help you develop the features and perks that make your solution unique and more competitive.
Here are examples of what customers want when they buy from you:. Whatever the primary function of a product, customers want the experience of using the product to be simple and easy.
With that in mind, it's important to identify and eliminate friction or cumbersome roadblocks where possible.
In software production specifically, that might mean reducing the number of steps to get a certain result. For example, you might implement a "duplicate" feature for repetitive tasks, making the customer's life easier when executing their routine.
Convenience is a similar want to keep in mind. Prospects want the process of buying, subscribing, receiving, implementing, and returning the product to be simple and easy.
With this in mind, it's important to identify and eliminate friction in your operational models, particularly when it comes to purchasing or obtaining customer service.
For example, you might implement a one-click purchase feature to reduce cumbersome steps in the buying process. Because time and money are finite resources and are part of a person's livelihood i.
If two similar products are completely equal, the more affordable option will often win out. However, the other factor here is value. If you can find a way to provide more value than competitors, you'll be able to gain an edge as prospective customers are evaluating. For this reason, you should always iterate how to deliver For example, additional perks that your competitors don't have more deliverables, a better experience, better customer service options, more durability, extra features, etc.
In the spirit of ease of use, you should continually be iterating how your customers can get more bang for their buck out of your product. As alluded to in the previous example, customers want value in exchange for their investment, and value can often come in the form of flexibility.
For example, this might manifest in the software world as integrations with other common software products your customers use so they can build a system that works for their needs without siloing. It makes sense that people want their products to address their needs in a way that's simple, easy, and convenient. However, it also makes sense that, if two products have the same features at the same price, the customer will factor in style and aesthetics.
For example, if an individual is choosing between two evenly matched software systems, it's not hard to imagine that the one with the sleeker UX will win out.
While the above are all great examples, keep in mind that the motivations, needs, and wants will vary depending on the audience and what you're providing. It's up to you to innovate solutions that will drive your target buyers wild. To identify your customers' wants and needs, you'll have to do research on who your buyers are. This can be done throughout the product development process.
But, if you're not sure where to start, the following are a range of metrics you can use to get insight into what matters to your customers. As outlined by HubSpot's Sophia Bernazzani, first-party data is "data that your company has collected directly from your audience.
You can use this data to identify customer needs and wants that are specific to the people who are already interacting with your business. Some first-party data reports that we recommend are:. A customer behavior analysis is a report that describes the buying habits for different target audience segments. It uses the customer journey map to highlight how certain personas will react to different roadblocks. Using this report, you can look for consistencies between different customer segments, and then outline individual needs at different moments in the customer's journey.
Product usage reports contain interesting information about how customers are currently using your product or service. They have detailed analytics that highlight the most used aspects of your offering, as well as point out areas that are being underutilized or abandoned.
The tools being used the most are features that customers need from your product. Look closer at those products and identify what the customer's goal is when they're using it. Style, entertainment, value and ease-of-use are defining characteristics of customer wants. Although customer wants were somewhat downplayed in because of economic hardships, customer wants are still very important as customers want to buy items that suit their personal style and will fit in with their home aesthetic.
The ideal product should fulfil both customer needs and customer wants. Focusing on a specific target market can assist in fulfilling both customer needs and wants. The most needed products in will differ greatly depending on what authority you ask. According to an article by ShipBob, a tech-enabled fulfilment provider, the most in-demand products for are:.
In a completely separate article, USA Today outlines some of the top-sellers which have been influenced mostly due to the Coronavirus. These include:. For this reason, consumers need products that make working from home easier, such as printers, monitors, laptops etc. They also need products to entertain themselves while at home, such as board games, puzzles, books, the latest video games, and whatever else they may be personally interested in.
Sanitisation and hygiene products are also still very popular, as are health products and supplements as people aim to keep their immune systems healthy and ward off the risk of falling ill. A good product serves a definitive purpose and is likely to provide a solution to a problem that many people face.
Consumers should be able to understand the product easily and use it effectively. Over time the consumer should find even further value in the product, and it should become an item that would be difficult to part with.
The product should also be of high quality and should be made to last. A good product should also look good. While this is more of a customer want than a customer need, no one wants to buy a product that has zero visual appeal.
Even purely practical items should have some sort of design element to it, and thought should have gone into the packaging and the overall design. Another thing that should be noted about good products is that they should have good reviews. How do you determine which products are hot right now and will be for some time to come. Social media is a great way to start. Social media is an absolute gold mine when it comes to consumer and popular product research. Social media platforms worth scouring include:.
These online marketplaces are also great for reading reviews. Google also offers a very helpful trend tool that you can use to measure trends for different years and in specific geographical locations. By looking carefully at all of the factors that influence product trends, you can begin to determine which types of products may become popular in the near future and be able to start trends before they happen. Things like fashion and design usually work on year cycles, with styles from 20 years ago often making comebacks.
This is why we are seeing so much early s fashion creeping into Remember that a lot more goes into the success of a business idea than just coming up with a good product to sell. Finding the right product is just the first step! How to make money as a digital nomad. Is university a waste of time these days? Find out our thoughts. Terminating an apprenticeship early? When do I need to register as self-employed. Right to buy faces further criticism due to social housing shortages.
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