How Creating Consumer Needs from Scratch Leads to Brilliant Marketing

by: Grant Gooding

“Reality is not something we need to worry about right now.” 

This is a statement I make often when working with clients to figure out what will motivate customers.  Sometimes it can be difficult to untether leadership and marketing teams from the logistics of reality but it is an important exercise because, in many instances, reality is irrelevant. 

For years, the best marketers have ignored reality to solve problems we didn’t know existed and turn baseless claims into category-killing products and services.  

Consider, for instance, the claim that “stress sweat smells worse than regular sweat,” a notion that has been leveraged by brands such as Secret and Degree to sell deodorants specifically formulated to tackle this supposed problem. While the scientific basis for such a distinction in sweat odors is debatable (the prevailing science indicates existing bacteria on the skin cause odor), the emotional pull is undeniable. It speaks to our fears and anxieties, transforming a regular deodorant and a normal problem into a fear-alleviating product that builds confidence.  Brilliant.

The appeal does not lie in the product itself but in the emotional messages used to convey the value.  If the marketers and product developers were hunkered down in addressing the stated needs of the consumer, this product category may never have seen the light of day.  

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The marketing world is replete with instances where companies have crafted emotional narratives around products by inventing problems that didn’t exist before, thereby embedding their brands into the emotional memories of consumers.

Listerine was a surgical anesthetic before a marketer thought to ignore its intended purpose and created the mouthwash category.  Smart refrigerators managed to solve the challenging problem of … opening the door and that market jumped from $2.66 Billion to 5.23 Billion from 2021 to 2022.  There are now diapers that will send a parent an alert to their smartphone when they are wet and now our apples come pre-peeled.  All of these products were created by inventing needs from scratch and ignoring the reality of how they are commonly used.  

As a marketer or business leader, remember that reality is your enemy.  Many brilliant product and marketing ideas were created from needs that did not exist – they were not discovered but designed.