This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See (Summary)
People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want to buy a quarter-inch hole. The drill bit is just a feature, a means to an end. The hole is the outcome, the change they seek. Most marketers spend all their time selling the drill bit. Great marketers sell the hole.
Find Your 'Smallest Viable Audience'
Stop trying to appeal to everyone. Mass marketing is dead. Instead, identify the smallest possible group of people you can serve and delight them. If you can thrill this core group, they will become your evangelists and spread the word for you.
A new vegan restaurant doesn't try to convert every meat-eater in the city. It focuses on the local, health-conscious vegan community, creating unique dishes and an environment just for them. This passionate base then brings their curious friends, doing the marketing for the restaurant.
You're Selling Feelings, Not Features
Customers don't buy what you make; they buy what it does for them—the feeling it creates, the status it confers, or the problem it solves. Marketing is about the change you promise, not the specifics of your product.
People don't buy a $5,000 Peloton bike just for the hardware. They are buying the feeling of being part of an elite fitness community, the status of a healthier lifestyle, and a convenient solution to their fitness goals, all broadcast from a charismatic instructor.
Generosity Trumps Interruption
The old model of marketing was about interrupting people with loud ads to get their attention. Modern marketing is about earning that attention and trust through generous acts, by consistently showing up to solve your audience's problems, often for free.
An accounting firm starts a weekly YouTube channel that offers genuinely helpful, 5-minute tax tips for freelancers. They aren't constantly pitching their services; they are building a reputation as a trusted authority. When a viewer's needs become too complex, that firm is the only one they'll think of hiring.
Create Tension to Drive Change
Effective marketing doesn't just present a solution; it first highlights a tension—the gap between where your audience is and where they want to be. This dissonance between their current state and their desired future creates the urgency for them to act.
A language-learning app like Duolingo uses streaks and leaderboards to create a gentle tension. The user feels the gap between their current, non-fluent self and the future, well-traveled, multi-lingual self. The fear of breaking the streak (losing progress) motivates them to open the app every day.
