The mission of marketing is to persuade people to take action. You do not have to practice marketing, but you should understand some marketing: first, so you can persuade others, and second, so you can avoid being persuaded yourself. Marketing’s core mission is to persuade people to engage in the corresponding consumer behavior, and consumer behavior stems from consumer needs. Put in one sentence, it is: I want to get it. If we break this sentence down, we get the three elements of consumer needs: I want, get, and it.
The “I want” is the gap between the ideal and reality, also called a sense of lack; it is the reason people act.
The “it” is the solution that fills this gap, also called the target object; it is the purpose of action.
Acquisition is the cost of taking action, also called acquisition ability, and it is the process of acting.
Based on the actual logical relationship among the three elements of demand, a more accurate way to express the model would be a crescent-shaped spade: humans pursue completeness, but the sense of lack makes them realize they need something to fill in order to achieve that completeness, and the target object is the key that can fill this lack. The connecting link in the middle is the journey from lack to fulfillment—that is, the process of pursuing completeness. There is a distance in between, which is what the model calls the cost of taking action.
How should we think about a complete marketing plan? First, a sense of missingness can be unearthed through comparison. Any apparent perfection can be used to make people rediscover dissatisfaction through comparison. For example, start by comparing one's current situation with an ideal life. What problems exist in your current life? What identity, relationships, wealth, and status would your ideal self have? Comparing the present with past glory and future expectations will make people realize the deficiencies of the present. Only with comparison can there be a gap, and only then can a sense of missingness be found. Marketing is sometimes disliked because it easily stirs up uncomfortable feelings like anxiety, disappointment, and jealousy. Therefore, as consumers, we also need to see through, overcome, and reject marketing tactics that do not suit us. Regarding the second target object, we need to note that it is not your product or service, but the solution to the sense of missingness. Therefore, it should be a description of the product. For example, a bottle of herbal tea with a unique flavor can be explained as a tool for cooling off, corresponding to consumers' sense of missing coolness in summer. It can also be explained as a savior for those suffering from choice paralysis, corresponding to consumers' sense of missing out on novel flavors. What the target object is does not depend on what it actually is, but on what it is explained to be. However, it should be noted that the target object and the sense of missingness should complement each other. The expression of the target object must precisely fill the sense of missingness. Do not make the target object seem too small while the sense of missingness is too large, making people feel your small product cannot solve such a big life problem. Nor can you make the target object seem too large while the sense of missingness is too small, making people feel it is not worth buying your product. Nor can the target object be on the left and the sense of missingness on the right, making people feel your product is not meant to properly solve their problem. When the sense of missingness and the target object fit perfectly in size and balance, the remaining problem is the rod in the middle. There are several different cost factors here: how much money does it cost to buy it? How much more will you spend later? How embarrassing is it to use it? How strenuous is it to use it? Is it easy to get started with? Is it comfortable to use? How harmful is it to your health? How much do I trust it? How many problems might occur after I use it? Only when these costs are reduced can the distance of this rod be shortened.