Best advice for making money.

[HenryTheGreat]

Today i stumbled upon a post in /r marketing:

Seriously, there are some things that stand the test of time and some of the best advice I ever got was from a friends father. One of the wealthiest men I had ever met up to that point when I asked him for his best life advice for making money.

"Never underestimate how lazy, greedy and selfish human beings are and you will never be poor."

The lesson was: humans are humans and if you can help them be lazier, greedier or more selfish you will make money.. also known as 'solving a problem'.

For marketing this applies to EVERYTHING you see in an AD uses FEAR to sell. EVERYTHING.

Fear of not being loved because your diamond wasnt dug up by child slaves. Fear of being a bad parent because your kids underwear isnt WHITE enough or soft enough after the laundry. Fear of having sweaty underarms before that big meeting.

Fear of not having a cool enough or eco friendly or gas guzzling enough of a car. Fear of drinking a beer that makes you want to watch Transporn so you have to shoot the cans to make yourself feel better about your sexual identity doubts.

Fear of not buying the RIGHT kind of beer for your superbowl party. Fear of not being an individual enough to buy the same closed access phones, ipad and software that all the OTHER 'unique and special individuals' all have the same exact of..

You get my point. So here are the guidelines.

Your customer has a problem (fear). Remind them of it. Remind them of why is sucks. Save the day with your solution. Tell them why its better, easier, cheaper, faster etc.. Tell them to buy it now with scarcity, limited time etc.

The art comes in how to do that in 15, 30 or 60s in video ads or in a print ad etc.

Pretending that marketing isn't all of this is just silly.

Marketing is the skill of selling people things they DO NOT NEED but you make them WANT.

This was really eye opening for me and being in struggle to find problems, i just realized how simple the context of solving problems is.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Yup very true, some human behaviors you can count on; the path to easy, simple, and shortcuts are just a few!

 

[Andy Black]

It's not all fear imo. It is all WiiFM though (What's in it For Me?).

I disagree with this:

"Marketing is the skill of selling people things they DO NOT NEED but you make them WANT."

I prefer to sell what people *already* want to buy. Whether they need it or not is up to them.

 

[StrikingViper69]

Some people think that "needs" are living in a cave with 1000cal of dirty food. Enjoying life is a real psychological need we all have and should all be trying to maximise.

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

"Marketing is the skill of selling people things they DO NOT NEED but you make them WANT."

Whoever said this has never tried to make people want something… it’s F*cking hard!

 

[Supa]

I agree with this, though I don‘t think it is all of marketing.

Fear can be a one reason someone wants to buy something, but there are more.

Psychological and emotional needs could be the overarching term for it, with fear sometimes being a factor in it.

I mean, take someone going to the cinema to watch a great movie. Does fear apply here? I mean, it could, like in fear of missing out. But they could also just want to have a great time with their loved ones and watch a great movie.

The same goes for the iPhone example, not everyone who owns one does so out of fear of something. Many just want to have one because they enjoy it.

What I do absolutely agree with, though, is that one can count on humans being humans. We all have specific needs (physical, psychological and emotional) and we will go to great lengths to fulfill them, or avoid having them unfulfilled.

 

[Guest31xr384]

"Never underestimate how lazy, greedy and selfish human beings are and you will never be poor."

The lesson was: humans are humans and if you can help them be lazier, greedier or more selfish you will make money.. also known as 'solving a problem'.

I'll be be definitely keeping this in mind,
thanks for this post HenryTheGreat.

 

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[Saad Khan]

Today i stumbled upon a post in /r marketing:

This was really eye opening for me and being in struggle to find problems, i just realized how simple the context of solving problems is.

Good post