If I Build It, People Will Come. Not Likely

The world isn’t waiting for your invention, nor will it beat a path to your door. Over
95% of new products fail. That includes brilliant high-tech improvements.
That’s not new. Thomas Edison became rich and famous because he knew that only
a few of the great inventions of his labs would generate sales. He could deal with
failure. His cement business went down in flames, he couldn’t figure out how to
separate iron from ores, and his talking movie machine was way before its time.

New products fall into three categories:
Sure winners---less than 1%. Can’t get out of the way of success.
Dead on arrival---About 90%. No reason for being.
Possible winners---10%. Half of these will bite the dust.

So which half of the possible winners will still be around after a year?

The answer---and some technical people might cringe---are those few that use the
dirty words: Marketing.

The losers have misconceptions about the role of marketing. They think it is just
“sales,” and failure must be because of a lousy sales department. Or they think of
marketing—especially advertising--- as the icing on the cake, or the sizzle. Instead,
they should consider marketing as a partner in the process. It is the factor that
breathes life into the process.

But the winners understand that marketing is the way to connect a product to a user.
The product won’t get there by itself. It needs a bridge. It needs a message that says,
“Hey, I have a new thing that can help you.”

Marketing can be the inventor’s best friend. It can find the key to users’ hearts---or
brains. Then it can eagerly unlock their wallets.

Here is why winning new products work:
They serve a beneficial need. That can include a problem users didn’t even
know they have.

They fit into users’ lives.

They always work.

Users don’t care how they work.

Users want to know and trust the builders.

What should be obvious is that successful products start with the users, not with the
inventors.

Users’ motivation is the currency of marketing. It’s more of an art than a science. It
works by sorting through the hundreds of reasons why people buy, and finding the
driving force.

Are any of these four motivations for buying true for you?
Control. With bewildering advances in technology, do you want to believe
that you are the boss—not a pawn in somebody else’s chessboard?

Choice. The days of mass marketing may be over. People want to believe
they are individually intelligent.

Convenience. You don’t want to wait or be confused. You deserve flawless
service.

Clarity. You need to understand exactly what problem a product solves and
why you should choose this one.

Clarity is most vital quality for good marketing. This is the benefit that will be the
cornerstone of the product’s “reason for being.” It will be the basis for building a
brand, and a continuing stream of revenue called brand equity---meaning loyalty.