Inexperienced marketers tend to fall back on a benefit-focused approach, believing they’ll win customers by listing their virtues (better products, better customer service, technical improvements, etc.).
Unfortunately, most practical benefits don’t address the issues that really frustrate consumers: the higher needs of affiliation, aspiration, and identity. Instead, they treat consumers as logical, dispassionate decision-makers who carefully weigh out decisions and select the option with the best benefits. They fail to acknowledge even seemingly practical decisions are, in reality, often driven by emotion.
BMW knows why its customers buy cars
Fact-oriented language of basic physical needs doesn’t carry over to the subtle, intangible traits of brands aiming to satisfy consumers’ higher needs. That’s why most marketing materials (regardless of the quality of copywriting and design) fail to perform — they simply have no deep connection to what consumers actually want.
