Marketing and The Satisfaction of Desires

Posted by Andrew on August 31, 2007

You’ve heard time and time again that you have to sell benefits and not features, but on some of your projects, you have probably still failed at selling them well. Often times, the problem is that you are selling surface benefits, when you should tap into the deeper benefits - being successful, luring the opposite sex, feeling safe and secure. Mindhacks has an excellent post about the father of modern advertising, Edward Bernays.

Bernays pretty much invented the idea that you can sell products, not by making their practical advantages known, but by associating them with the satisfaction of desires - to be sexy, successful, a good husband or wife, the need to feel safe, well-regarded and so on.

Every time you see razors sold as babe magnets, or perfume sold as booty dust, that’s Bernays’ ideas at work.

He also invented the idea that marketing was more than just adverts. It could also be presented as ‘education’ that had no direct connection with a product but made people more receptive to other marketing.

You aren’t selling a product, you are selling a deep need, satisfaction, and success. Remember that, and you will be a much better marketer.