What do people "buy" your "product" for?

[Philip J. Fry]

I'm reading Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin. It's a fundamental book in the FIRE movement. In it, she quotes Donella Meadows in Beyond the Limits and says:

People don't need enormous cars; they need respect. They don't need closets full of clothes; they need to feel attractive and they need excitement and variety and beauty. People don't need electronic equipment; they need something worth while to do with their lives. People need identity, community, challenge, acknowledgement, love, joy. To try to fill these needs with material things is to set up an unquenchable appetite for false solutions to real and never-satisfied problems. The resulting psychological emptiness is one of the major forces behind the desire for material growth.

Which got me thinking from the consumer, employee, producer and content marketer perspective. As a consumer, I find it very true. I do consume stuff for the respect that the social status conveys. Or, now, I do consume stuff just to convey that I fit in and am normal. Not a super high earner who is buying his way to respect. I went to clubs to connect with people and mostly women. It was a community and love and joy. The best businesses that I've been involved in as a consumer had community.

For employees, it is community or some idea of a group identity. This is a real group identity if the company stays together a long time and isn't a revolving door. I really think we need to do team building and figure out who we are, as a company.

As a producer, I realise that the quote is true. People buy products for a reason other than what the product's stated reason is. The "market" buys products for a reason other than the stated reason. People donated to BLM to feel good about themselves (and BLM used some of that money on strippers to feel good about themselves too... but that's a tangent). For travel, people are buying an adventure and are buying stuff that would make their trip hassle free. For expats, they want a retirement dream and how to make it possible without worry. They're buying reassurance. It's security for people who want even more security.

As a content marketer, people share content to get something from the people they're sharing it too. They share a post on Facebook to show their friends "I'm such a good person" or "I'm so angry!" or "I'm so patriotic!" or "I'm so righteous!" It is not "this is interesting to me" but "I'm telling you this about myself". It is self-expression through other people's content. They want to connect with others though the content. And that's how your content goes viral.

Just food for thought. What do you think?

 

[AlbyE]

People buy products to satisfy pain points as they are termed in marketing lingo. Basically solving a problem. Think about it, if you have a problem and find a solution that is cost effective and solves that issue for you, generally you will buy it. If your need outweighs the element of cost, and you feel it's worthwhile, then its a sale.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

People buy products to satisfy pain points as they are termed in marketing lingo. Basically solving a problem. Think about it, if you have a problem and find a solution that is cost effective and solves that issue for you, generally you will buy it. If your need outweighs the element of cost, and you feel it's worthwhile, then its a sale.

That's one theory but what pain point does buying a Lamborghini solve? None. The guy who bought the Lamborghini is buying for social status and self-esteem. Same with Rolex watches. It isn't to know what time it is. It is for social status, a sense of achievement, pride and showing off. People buying stuff to solve a problem is very logical but that's not how people are all the time.

 

[eliquid]

That's one theory but what pain point does buying a Lamborghini solve? None. The guy who bought the Lamborghini is buying for social status and self-esteem. Same with Rolex watches. It isn't to know what time it is. It is for social status, a sense of achievement, pride and showing off. People buying stuff to solve a problem is very logical but that's not how people are all the time.

No. Wrong.

The social status and the self esteem IS the pain point.

I think you underestimate the pain of social status and self esteem. Buying the lambo and rolex solves that very real and deep pain point.

How else did Bernard Arnault become the richest person in the world, twice, recently?

LVMH is just all social status and self esteem

There isn't just 1 pain point or 1 way of thinking. You have to remember multiple people have multiple pain points.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

No. Wrong.

The social status and the self esteem IS the pain point.

I think you underestimate the pain of social status and self esteem. Buying the lambo and rolex solves that very real and deep pain point.

How else did Bernard Arnault become the richest person in the world, twice, recently?

LVMH is just all social status and self esteem

There isn't just 1 pain point or 1 way of thinking. You have to remember multiple people have multiple pain points.

I agree with you with that. In the post you quoted, I argued how solving the actual problem isn't the only purpose of a purchase. Someone buying a Lambo is not solving their transportation need. The hidden need, social status, is much higher and is not obvious. This is the social need. The practical and tangible need is transportation but it is the social need that outweighs the practical. This social need is what someone would fork out $1,000,000 for (or rent it for $1,000 a day).

In @AlbyE 's post, he says people solve problems with purchases but the "problem" they're "solving" is not an obvious one. A Lamborghini doesn't solve a transportation need. It solves a hidden need for status, acceptance, and respect. That is not obvious.

Also, what I'd like to add, and what Viki Robin says in her book, is that those non-obvious needs are all internal and you don't need to make any purchase to receive the "solution" or benefit. If you have a lack of social status and self-esteem, buying a Lamborghini doesn't solve that. Some people might hate you for that. At the same time, you can just work on accepting yourself and having the "self" in self-esteem.

To buy a Lamborghini and get "self-esteem" from society is being dependent upon society for the response. You can't expect society to respond like that. Some might demonise you for being so wasteful. What you wanted from buying a Lamborghini was internal all the time.

So, yeah, in conclusion, what I stand for and what Viki Robin argues, is that the "pain points" of capitalism are all internal and buying a product will never solve the problem. To solve the pain point, you have to turn inwards and solve it yourself, without any purchases. This is free. It is also something you can't buy, unfortunately.

But, yeah, for consumers, they have many pain point and when you can hit it, you can get them to buy it and it's wonderful.

 

[tziahs]

People buy things for... literally every reason imaginable. Just think about it:
- some products or services solve immediate problems, like food, shelter, clean water, health insurance, and so on
- products and services that provide status or act themselves as status symbols, like fancy restaurants and hotels, custom tailored suits, expensive cars, and so on
- products and services that we buy to make us feel better, but don't provide status, like art, hobbies, vacations to Macchu Picchu
- products and services we buy out of boredom, fear, laziness, or simply to try out new things, like new restaurants, gifts, and so on
- a plethora of things we buy for absolutely no reason, just because we feel like buying them, things we don't even need, and never solve any problem whatsoever; we also buy things out of spite, hate, or to troll people. I once bought a book just to write a bad review.
- we buy products or services because they are cool and other people have it; is it just a fad?

To sum it up, I think the phrase "it has to solve a problem" is only partially right. We buy things for the stupidest reasons.