everyone says to build a good business you have to find customers pain points and solve that, i agree but when i look at brands like coca cola, products like games, movies, all these dropshipping stores, expensive brands who outsource manufacturing and use the word luxury to price it way higher than market value of that product and still people buy it, what are they solving?
Coca cola - problem - water is boring. bubbly Suger is yum.
games/ movies - life sucks i need an escape.
dropshipping stores - i want something, these guys sell it, i no longer need to go serach anymore (or deal with sourcing directly from china)
expensive brands - i wanna look rich and be admired and show off
I’d say more or less the same problem ice cream is solving.
Well the original had cocaine in it. Sugar satisfies dopamine receptors in the brain so its basically satisfying an addiction.
Needless to say, Coke and other soda companies also spend enormous sums on advertising for the exact purpose of creating the cravings they intend to satisfy. It’s a bit like that Homer Simpson quote about alcohol being "the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”
Diet Coke cures my depression.
dafuq?
THIRST
There are 3 types of products-
Painkillers: an immediate solution to a pressing problem.
Vitamins: not solving a pressing problem but something that can enhance your overall quality of life.
Candy: something that doesn’t solve a pressing problem, or enhance your overall quality of life, but is still enjoyable nonetheless.
The fastest line to success would be to sell a painkiller. But there are also vitamins and candy that always have a place in the market.
Love this analogy, you come up with it?
I read it somewhere a while back can’t remember where but it definitely helped me understand the whole “solve a problem” mantra.
Every business solves a problem but there are different degrees of problems so it’s great that anybody can do entrepreneurship and tackle the problems they are best suited for/inclined towards/knowledgeable about.
Wasted years not starting because I was looking for a painful problem to solve. Now focused on vitamins and candy as it’s a better fit for me.
Are you Kevin Fong?
If you’re aiming for a fast-growing startup, and you want to be innovative and disruptive, you should aim for painkillers. Fast-growth requires a lot of people to make big commitments to your product, which means they have to see a lot of benefit to it.
Vitamins and candy tend to be lifestyle businesses. You innovate a little bit on a known good formula, make a slightly better product than everyone else, and slowly grow your market share. That’s a perfectly viable path, people just don’t tend to talk about it very much because it’s not very exciting. The painkiller startups get a lot more attention.
There’s also something to be said for having enough startup cash to be able to shut down or outlast everyone else selling painkillers, vitamins and candy. Or going to the painkiller tree in someone else’s backyard and chopping it down.
Coca Cola actually started as a painkiller - it was originally medicine.
Our brains are wired to avoid discomfort and this how Spa’s earn $. It’s so easy to sell on the grounds of fun and pleasure cuz no one consciously wants to say “no” to them. No one NEEDS a Ferrari but it’s fun and sexy.
I look at this as though all products and services exist to provide happiness. Whether that happiness is derived through junk food or heart surgery, each product is either making you feel good or feel less bad.
Three good categories, I’d throw in the jtbd ( jobs-to-be-done) framework of a customer hiring for functional / emotional / social jobs!
My mom taught me there are two radio stations people listen to WIFM ( Whats in it for me) & MMFGAM ( make me feel good about myself), so thats another way to look at it, maybe layer it with…
I’ll buy something which makes my life easier that… Save’s me time Save me money Makes me look good ( status)
To me it’s all about hiring ( buying) products & services that align with what we feel looks and feels like a progress pathway to our next best version of ourselves ( through hundreds of NBA - Next Best Actions we take which we are either following a blueprint ( taught to us by parents / family… Nurture) or societal Norms or role models / false idols… When reality “life itself” ( great movie BTW) is an unreliable narrator and we are simply fumbling our way thru learning how to live life! ( our daily 1440 min / 1% of our day is 14 min - apply this to creating new habits / n’ stacking)
Trust me I’m still learning and buying products I envision helping to build a happier index version of myself! ( constant iteration)
Introducing Vitamin PainCandy, the first product that supports optimal health while helping to dull central nervous system pain receptors with a delightful flavour burst.
I threw in the weasel words to make it more real.
Or a vitamin infused candy painkiller
There are 3 types of products-
Nice
Basic necessities solve themselves. There will always be a market for food, beverages and other personal hygiene commodities (toothpaste, tp, tampons etc.) and medicine. If air could be marketed I’m sure it would be too (it sort of has in the flavoured air department). In order to really break into these markets it takes enormous amounts of effort and struggle, since there are big players already dominating and have been for hundreds of years. Coke cola (in its current form) has the luxury of being 120+ years old, the people running it now weren’t even alive for its conception. This is an extreme generationally engrained brand that has immortalized itself in the beverage market, for better or for worse, with it being the most popular drink in over 100 countries.
Coke and other drinks solve the problem of thirst (in a hot day, after long day of work, etc) or the problem of needing to drink something with food. Try eating your meals without a drink, that’s a legit problem. They just got really good at being the solution in many people’s eyes
They got in early on branding so when you feel thirsty or need something to drink with a meal, a lot of people automatically associate it with needing coke. They are then the perceived solution.
The luxury items = status, they’re solving the problem of insecurity.
Try eating your meals without a drink, that’s a legit problem.
Lol what?!
Coke and other drinks solve the problem of thirst
That’s the thing bro, they don’t.
Coke dehydrates you more, all soda does lol.
What Coke sells is temporary refreshment.
This isn’t actually true.
Caffeine is a diuretic, but you’d need over 500mg to feel that effect beyond the normal “I drank a ton of water and I need to pee”
There is something to be said for the fact that people who drink a lot of soda will be less likely to drink a regular glass of water, but all sodas, no matter how much caffeine they contain, are mostly water and will still hydrate you.
Eating without a drink, the Tom Brady approach
An amazing cure for a serious sugar addiction.
They also have a lot of water brands. Ready for the future of climate change.
This. Problem: customer doesn’t “feel good”. This could mean sadness, stress, boredom. Solution: drink coca cola, you’ll feel better! Obviously it’s a very short lived solution and will hurt them in the long run. Pretty typical with most drugs.
When it comes to candy and vitamin products, short lived is perfect.
These types of product typically command lower amounts of money. Example: a $200 vr headset is cheap. A $20 small chocolate bar is very expensive.
As such, these products need repeatable sales volume from the existing customer base, for which “short-lived” is a good thing, and they need mass market scalability in order for them to be financially viable/successful.
It not a cure though. Coca cola is selling drug
Everyone says to build a good business you have to find customers pain points and solve that
Like with anything, there are exceptions. Who knows how hard it would be to get something like Coke to succeed today? It’s not to say it doesn’t solve problems too, but that’s not why people buy it at this point. It’s a part of the culture and passed down generations. Any product in Coke’s shoes would be a smashing success unless it was going extinct, like fax machines.
The advice you mentioned is mainly so when starting a new business, you’re not having to convince people in a way that won’t really get them taking their wallet out to buy what you’re selling, but instead looking for people with a problem and some urgency to solve it, and solve it for them with your product/service. Because if you’ve got that, you don’t necessarily have to be good at two of the hardest things to master in business, sales and marketing.
They also add sodium so you still feel thirsty after you are done drinking it!
Yes it creates and solves an addiction. Sugar caffeine etc I hate drinking it because it is addictive but gives me a short happy buzz.
It solves a feeling customers are missing.
The secret ingredient is marketing. They push themselves in front of your face constantly.
It meets a number of needs from what I can see:
Comfort paired with consistency (people recognise the name and know the flavour)… Addiction (caffeine hit)… Comfort again (the fizz can help with digestion if you have an upset stomach)… Sugar cravings (it looks like sugar is actually a highly addictive substance)… Safety (for example if you are traveling people will often only drink from a known safe container to avoid bad water)…