Summary
This video explores the fundamental concept of understanding the deeper wants behind why people seek services or products, emphasizing that these wants ultimately relate to desired feelings rather than superficial features or benefits. By focusing on the emotional outcomes customers seek, businesses can create more valuable, differentiated services and charge premium prices.
Key Insights
- People don’t want products or services; they want the feelings those products or services deliver.
- The classic analogy of selling a drill bit for the hole it makes is expanded: customers don’t want a hole; they want to hang a picture, but ultimately, they want the feelings associated with seeing a photo of loved ones displayed.
- All wants resolve to feelings.
- When a person desires something, the ultimate motivation is emotional—security, belonging, pride, status, relief, control, etc.
- These feelings are the true “ends”, everything else is just a means to achieve them.
- There are six basic axes of feelings that create all other feelings.
- Although not exhaustively listed in the video, examples include belonging, control, safety, and relief.
- Understanding these axes helps in identifying the core emotional drivers behind customer behavior.
- Selling feelings allows businesses to:
- Create more valuable services.
- Charge higher prices.
- Become indispensable and irreplaceable to their customers.
- Example: Rolex vs. Smartwatch
- Despite a smartwatch being functionally superior, Rolex commands a high price due to the feelings it delivers: status, pride, security, and milestone celebration.
- The material aspect is secondary to the emotional value.
- The creative challenge lies in delivering these feelings uniquely.
- There is no fixed formula or rulebook for how to evoke desired feelings effectively.
- Innovation requires breaking away from traditional rules, pushing boundaries, and experimenting with new approaches.
- Learning from other industries and from those with more resources is crucial.
- Innovation often comes from adapting ideas proven elsewhere rather than creating entirely new concepts.
- A balance must be struck between following existing knowledge and pioneering new methods.
Benefits of Understanding and Delivering Desired Feelings
| Benefit | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Increased Value | Services better aligned with core desires become more valuable. |
| Higher Pricing Power | Customers pay more for emotional fulfillment. |
| Indispensability | Emotional connection makes a service/product irreplaceable. |
| Clear Direction for Improvement | Focus shifts from features to enhancing emotional impact. |
Practical Recommendations
- Identify the deeper emotional desires behind what customers seek.
- Use these insights as a compass to guide service/product development.
- Innovate by changing how the service is delivered to better meet emotional needs.
- Look beyond your industry for ideas and inspiration.
- Respect existing knowledge but do not be bound by it—push boundaries creatively.
Conclusion
The essence of successful marketing and service design lies in recognizing that what customers truly want are specific desired feelings. By focusing on these emotions, businesses can create more compelling offerings, foster stronger loyalty, and unlock greater economic value. The path to delivering these feelings is not formulaic but requires artistic creativity, innovation, and thoughtful iteration informed by cross-industry learning and a willingness to challenge norms.
This video underscores the transformative power of emotional insight in service design and marketing, making it essential for businesses aiming to thrive in competitive markets.
00:00:00
So let’s talk about wants because when we understand what someone actually wants when they seek out you and your service and I’m not talking about at the service level but the deeper want that cause that desire to get that service fulfilled. When we understand that and when we can start to play into that and develop our services to deliver those wants better then we can ultimately create a service that is more valuable. Another benefit is that when we understand what they want, we have direction for how to improve our
00:00:35
services because the alternative is defaulting to what we consider better and to what we would want which is very different from what another person wants. What people want are feelings, desired feelings. At the end of the day, it all boils down to feelings. If you ask yourself why you want anything at all and you keep asking why why why it ultimately resolves to feelings. So the analogy that was made very famous was the idea of features and benefits. We sell benefits not features and and the analogy was the quarterinch hole in
00:01:18
the wall. That what we aren’t actually selling is a quarterinch drill bit but what we’re actually selling is a quarterinch hole in the wall. Right? the drill bit is the feature whereas the hole in the wall is the actual benefit. But that analogy is a bit short-sighted. And what we do is when we extend that analogy and when we go down the rabbit hole, we find that that person didn’t get didn’t want a quarterinch hole in the wall. What he wanted was a place to place a stud so that he could hang a
00:01:48
frame painting or picture. And he didn’t want to hang a picture. What he actually wanted was he wanted a photo of him and his family up on the wall. And that’s not what he actually wanted. What he actually wanted was for him to be able to look at it and his wife to be able to look at it. And that’s not what he actually wanted. What he wanted was the feelings that arose when they were able to look at this photo of their family on the wall. Right? These feelings are the ends. They are like everything
00:02:21
else is a means to the end which is a feeling. So what we actually want are feelings certain feelings and we seek to accomplish we seek to get those feelings from many different things. So if we feel a bit insecure we might look into if we look feel a bit physically insecure we might look into some gym memberships. If we feel maybe we are lacking in belonging, we might seek out more community activities. But what’s important to understand is that we’re all seeking to address feelings. And when you understand that
00:03:05
you are here not selling a service or a product, but you’re actually here selling feelings, then it creates a massive shift and you can start working doing the work of improving how you deliver feelings through your medium. What we also need to understand is that we aren’t trying to create these new feelings that have never been felt by humanity before. And that there’s actually only six axes of feelings. And those six axes create all of the other feelings that we experience. And if you want to know what those exact
00:03:44
six are, it escapes me right now. But it’s things like belonging, things like control, things like safety, relief, and these feelings make up everything else. If you want to see those exact six, I’ve made a video on it somewhere and it’s also in my course. When we identify the desired feelings that they want, we’re able to charge more. Why does Rolex cost tens of thousands of dollars? Why do people insure it? Why do people get it for milestones and celebrations? Whereas a smartwatch functionally
00:04:27
performs better. It does the job better. It tells time better. It is more accurate. It adjusts automatically to daylight savings. Sure, you can argue that it’s material, but there’s a lot of things that are made of cheaper material that are more expensive. And ultimately, what we realize that it comes down to the feelings that we get, the feelings of status, the feelings of pride, the feelings of lack of security, more more securess in status, all these things that Rolex delivers. And to deliver these feelings better is
00:05:09
not this is the creative part. This is the art aspect of marketing that there is no playbook to creating these feelings. And I think this trips people up a lot too when we’ve been taught for so long academically to follow a set of rules and that you pass and you get an A when you follow the rules even better than the other person. It creates a situation where we engage in business in the same way and we’re as a result we’re always looking to follow the leader to follow the beaten path to
00:05:46
look for instructions for ask for advice on how to do things which is all in all great but there comes a point where we have to push the boundaries where we have to play at the edges and we have to push what is considered normal. And to do that, to work on these desired feelings in a way that no one else has done before is an art. There is no way to like there is no rule that says this is how it must be done. And the best ways that I found when it comes to approaching this is looking at other industries. How are other people doing
00:06:32
it? and improving on it. Right? It’s not to say that we have to create something totally new. That what we can do is iterate that we can take what’s worked before and improve on it. Right? And and that itself is a process of creation. and also in other industries because what we find is that people in the same industries are so busy copying each other that it’s in other industries where we find new, better, and sometimes more applicable ideas. It’s also respecting the idea that people with more resources, more time,
00:07:14
more energy, more dedication, more commitment have come before us and they’ve done greater things than than we have. And we can learn from that. So another paradox where you can’t you have to stop following the rules, stop following the beaten path, but also at the same time learn from the beaten path, learn from the rules and use that to innovate into something new. So to recap this video, when you address what people actually want, the deeper desires and not just the surface level stuff, what you can do
00:07:54
is you can create more value, you can charge more, you can be more indispensable, you can be more irreplaceable and all these benefits. So it benefits you to do that to deliver more of what people want. That’s pretty obvious. What we find is that what people want are feelings, desired feelings. Your goal is to identify what desired feelings people have, what they’re trying to achieve with your service through your service or product as a medium. And when you identify that desired feelings, your next role or your
00:08:26
next job is going to be to deliver on that. To do things differently, to change the rules, to change how you operate, to change how that medium is delivered in order to deliver more of those desired feelings. So figure out what that is and make that your compass. Once you do, everything becomes more valuable and in service of the people you seek to serve. All right, that’s it for this video.