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?
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.
Coca Cola actually started as a painkiller - it was originally medicine.
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)
Are you Kevin Fong?
Or a vitamin infused candy painkiller
Nice
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.