Marketing 101: Your Customers Don’t Want to Buy Your Products

Let me pose a simple question to you.

Why do people go to a paint store? You know, a store that sells cans of paint? Or if you prefer, a donut store, or an auto parts store. It doesn’t matter. Why do they go?

The answer seems obvious right?

I’ve taught an introductory marketing course to undergraduate college students for many years. The course represents the first time that kids at that age have had to think about what marketing is all about. And on the first day of every course, I pose this question to the class. Because if a student can answer this question correctly, then they already have the right mindset for marketing.

Now I’m sure most of them sit there and think to themselves: “This is the dumbest question I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Finally, just to get on with it, someone speaks up: “To buy paint of course”. Was that your answer too?

Unfortunately, it’s the wrong answer. Or more specifically, it’s the wrong way to think about the question.

To get to the more appropriate — and useful — answer, I’ll paraphrase the Merovingian from the movie “The Matrix Reloaded”: Buying paint is not a reason, it is not a why. The paint by itself, its very nature, is a means, not an end. And to go to a paint store to buy paint is a means to do…what?

So why do you buy paint? Because you want to? Because you wake up one day and say to yourself “Gee, I’d really like to buy some paint today!”

The funny thing is that most consumers would probably say “Well yeah, that’s true. I go to a paint store because I want to buy paint.”

But again, the paint — any product actually — is a means, not an end — even if you as a consumer don’t see it as such.

Think about it for a minute. The real reason you go to a paint store is because…you want your bedroom to feels warmer and richer. Because it will make you happier.

Or, you are a paint contractor who is painting a new house, and you want to get paid for doing so. Because it will make you happier.

Or, you want your child to get a good grade on a school project that needs to be painted. Because it will make you happier.

Or because the paint on the exterior of your house, door, or window frame is peeling, and you want your house to look better. Because it will make you happier.

The examples are endless. But in each of them, when it comes right down to it, a person buys paint not because they want to, but they are at a certain level of satisfaction (utility) with their life, and — consciously or subconsciously — they want to be more satisfied (more utility).

Said more simply, we all buy products (and services) because we want to create better versions of ourselves. That’s it.

Unfortunately, this fact is all-too-often forgotten by business owners, cashiers, marketing managers — anyone in a business that works with customers. Here’s an example.

Years ago, when my late wife and I were about to have our first child, we wanted to make sure that we had good pictures of those first moments that we’d never be able to capture again.

So, I went to a specialty camera store. I was greeted by a salesperson who said “How can I help you?” I explained my situation, and said that I wanted a stupid-proof camera that took good pictures.

The salesperson pulled out a camera from the display case, and proceeded to tell me about all of its technical features — like F-Stops, focal lengths, exposure settings, and who the hell knows what else.

I sat there with my mouth open. After a few minutes, I stopped him and said “All this means nothing to me. I just want a camera that takes pictures that I can’t screw up.”

The salesperson looked at me like I was an idiot and said “Well that’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

He didn’t get it. I didn’t want to buy a camera. What I really wanted was to create beautiful, lasting memories of my new child. So that I’d be happy and satisfied. A better life. The camera was just the means to do it.

Needless to say, he didn’t sell me the camera that day.

When I explain the better answer to the “Why do people go to a paint store?” question to my students, I follow up by saying that the rest of what they will learn about marketing in my course will be somewhat mechanical, with elements of creativity sprinkled in. But if they don’t truly get the fact that people don’t want to buy products, but rather because they want, in some large or small way to create a better version of themselves, then the rest of the course won’t matter much.

So, if you work with customers in your business, instead of asking them “How can I help you?” ask instead “How can I help make your life better?” Because that’s really what your customers want to buy.

More Marketing 101 articles:

• Sell The Sizzle, Not The Steak
• Every Business says it ‘Delivers Value’. Do They Even Know What That Means?

Kevin Larsen is a software Product Marketing Manager and an Adjunct Instructor in Marketing, Software Engineering, and Computer Science courses. Follow me on LinkedIn.