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The marketing power of many corporations is so potent that they can create demands for whatever goods and services they choose to provide. That was the assertion - way back in 1958 - of John Kenneth Galbraith, author of "The Affluent Society" and a Harvard economist. A shocking statement back then, his premise is even more true today, particularly when selling to consumers. However, that statement is less true in business- to-business selling because emotions are less a part of those buying decisions.
Yes, companies large and small cater daily to the needs of consumers, their need for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, information, entertainment, companionship, health care. The list of consumers' needs is virtually endless. And, while the majority of such companies may be profitable, not all can be called truly successful.
The truly successful companies - those that generate huge revenues and proportionately huge profits - are the ones whose approach to marketing is vastly different. They choose to sell the sizzle rather than the steak. Their marketing approach tends to focus on creating an almost insatiable Want in the minds of consumers, a virtually unquenchable appetite for the products or services they and only they are able to provide.
Yes, some of these companies eventually have competitors, but there is historically a tremendous sales and profit gap between the first company to create a Want and those that rank second and third in satisfying it.
My earliest recollection of a company marketing to a Want it created is Sony with its Walkman. Though now that I think of it, it may have been Philco - a brand name from the more distant past. Philco, as I recall, created one of the earliest so-called portable radios, radios about the size of small breadboxes that, because of the battery needed to provide its power, weighed well over five pounds.
For years, Sony's Walkman' owned the take-it-with-you personal music-player market. For an even longer time it was considered the Cadillac of cassette players. There's another discarded term - cassette - from the distant past. Philco also had a lock on the portable radio market for quite some time.
Who are the Kings of the Hill today? Apple in the product category is a prime example. Verizon in the service sector is another. And in the drug category, at least until recently, it was Pfizer, the developer and manufacturer of Lipitor. In luxury import cars there's BMW, "The Ultimate Driving Machine," followed by Audi. In American-made light trucks, it's Ford, with Chevy licking at its heels.
Creating a Want is definitely how to make the greatest profits...if the marketing efforts are on target. Creating a Want among people who appear not to have the money to buy what you're selling is not the smartest marketing move in the book, though Nike seems to do that well with its uber expensive line of Michael Jordan athletic shoes. Proving once again that if people are made to want something badly enough, they'll find a way to pay for it.
For companies able to create such Wants, companies that can identify potential buyers able to afford their product or service, that can identify ways to embed their well-defined marketing messages effectively and cost-efficiently into the minds of their potential buyers, selling the sizzle instead of the steak is without a doubt the most direct path to success.
© 2012 Philip A. Grisolia, CBC
An accredited Certified Business Communicator (CBC), Phil Grisolia specializes in creating results-oriented marketing programs that generate additional revenue for his clients, money they can take to the bank. An award-winning copywriter and respected marketing professor, Phil is the author of 30 Money-Making Marketing Secrets No One Ever Told You which is available from Amazon. He is also a syndicated business columnist and an executive business coach. Discover for yourself the broad range of services Phil provides for his worldwide clients by visiting http://philgrisolia.com/.
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