Oui le marketing, permet de faire prendre conscience, de sensibiliser au besoin, mais ça, c’est la 2ième étape. Find the pain first!

Quel est l’inconfort, l’inconvénient, le problème, la frustration, le malaise, l’inquiétude, etc. que vos futurs clients veulent se débarrasser (et sont prêt à payer pour le faire) ?

Right out of the bat, know that I totally agree with your statement: any business must begin with a NEED. It’s basic common sense. And it is also true that DESIRES are already based on some real, latent need.

My argument is not that you remove your statement from the equation. It’s not either Begin with a need OR You can create a need for your product/service. I would rather replace the OR by a AND. My point is simply that one should not discount a project/product/service/idea based on the fact that there does not seem to be a need for it. Need can be created. That’s why there is MARKETING. And DREAMS. AND THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX.

Sticking to the needs of your customers is most relevant in the context of consulting services. A client will hire a consultant/an agency only if he needs to achieve a business goal. You cannot sell a Mercedes to a client if he needs an Echo. Now, the agency can, over time, upsell its services, creating opportunities that were not apparent to the client. But again I agree with the idea that the business relationship started with a need to promote the product, make more sales, etc.

However, when you are selling a product, there is room to go beyond the need that is apparent. What makes the genius of some entrepreneurs is that they are able to uncover a need that the common man knew existed. These entrepreneur don’t maintain the status quo. They disrupt. They change things. Steve Jobs is most certainly a fantastic example. Imagine this. In the 70s, before he and Steve Wosniak introduced the Mac, do people really NEEDED a personal computer? From our point of view, it’s an absolute yes because we were practically born with a computer. But honestly, dig deeper, and put yourself in the shoes of a pre-computer era human being… Same thing for Walt Disney. An entertainment wonderland does respond to our need for fun and socialization but within the narrow-mindedness of a culture that has not experienced it, such product would be futile. In the same vein, I can easily predict that someone will invent flying cars, à la Minority Report. That would be awesome, right? But do we absolutely NEED a flying car? Or do we need interactive glasses that will read the social status of a person we are meeting for the first time? I almost hear the naysayers: WTF?

From having had the awesome opportunity to speak with several successful entrepreneurs of businesses that are killing it those days, and from concrete examples in the industry, I can sum up two simple ingredients for success:

1. The product
2. Marketing

THE PRODUCT

If the product sucks, it’s game over. People are not stupid. No amount of marketing will save it. It begins with the product (or the service) that you are offering. There is a simple principle in marketing if that you are having issues defining and describing simply what is your product about or what you are doing, you must revisit your product/service. [from the book, Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, by Harry Beckwith].

As you mentionned in your post, 90% of businesses close because they have no sales [from Steve Blank]. Simple truth. But there may be no sales for many reasons:

1. The product is sub-par.
2. The owner could not have the necessary requirements to push his product: charisma, resilience, instincts, ability to communicate well, and most of all capacity to close sales.
3. It could also be a question of timing. The need is not there yet. Many companies have introduced truly awesome products in the past – for instance in the mobile realm – but we were not ready to embrace them five years ago.

MARKETING

The right mix of marketing can make miracles happen. Although marketing is not magic! It’s as much as an art as it is based on imprecise science. But in general, if you invest enough money in Adwords, Affiliate Marketing, List building and other Client Acquisitions, you are almost guaranteed to get some results.

I am not saying that marketing can sell any crap. I stick to my point that you have to start with an AMAZING product. In fact, an amazing product sells itself.

MY TWO CENTS

Your arguments for starting with a need are based on common sense and pragmatism. I cannot but agree with this. And I laud you for communicating this idea to your audience. But I am sure that there are some entrepreneurs who will share my sentiment… I want to be an innovative entrepreneur. I don’t want to stay within the safe confines of common sense. I want to disrupt. I want to fly. To be able to do that, I have to think outside the realm of the possible. This is what I think an innovative entrepreneur should do (in my humble opinion, I am not self-proclaimed guru):

• Create the need for something truly innovative. We have to dig deeper, think differently and create a desire for a product based on needs that even the customer does not know he has. The need is there, no doubt about it – especially that Maslow has already thought out a whole gamut of needs – but sometimes, we need to uncover that specific need for the customer.
• Do not take no for an answer. Most human beings will not go beyond what they are used to see and experience and will often balk at something truly innovative.
• Be an expert communicator. If you cannot simplify and communicate your product/idea, you are going to hit a wall. No geek talk or jargons.
• Be a game-changer [thanks for the word @ihaveanidea]. Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Anita Roddick, Richard Branson are all game-changers that we admire and aspire to be.

SALES VERSUS CRAZY IDEAS

Innovative entrepreneurs must definitely achieve sales but they must also dream and make things better. Plain business sense, yes. But also creativity, innovation, clear thinking, Sticking to something that is only obviously sellable can lead to an atrophy of ideas. Imagine that. If Ford did not commercialise a motorcar, we will be still driving horse buggies today… ). I know I am exaggerating, but you get my point.

Is it obvious that I am a disciple of Seth Godin? I absolutely detest mediocrity. To sum up my point is: let’s create amazing products [no bullshit] but not stop at concepts that we have not fully grasped yet. Either we are a purple cow and a linchpin. Or else?

What you and I are arguing could be just plain semantics or the Mars versus Venus thing. As it is usually the case between us, we actually mean the same thing but express it in a different manner. But I just wanted to drive home the idea of pragmatism versus innovation. I would definitely love to read/hear your thoughts.