Make Things People Want
We don't ask our customers and users what they want often enough. We ask about their goals, tasks, needs, preferences, values, beliefs, and habits. We ask about things they recall, prefer, consider, approve, find important, value, like, respect, trust, and are likely to recommend. But wanting is taboo. Asking "what do you want?" is considered rude. We rarely ask people what they crave, lust after, obsess and daydream about. We almost never ask why.
The road to product hell is paved with good intentions of companies that tried to sell stuff to people who wanted none of it. "Failed to find a product-market fit" is how they write it on the tombstones.
My research helps companies make and market products people want. I collect data using a mix of methods, from projective interviews to social data mining and online experiments. Then, I run the data through a proprietary analytical framework that combines key principles of cognitive, motivational, and evolutionary psychology.
You will understand what drives people to shop, what triggers their interest, what implicit and explicit outcomes they have in mind, how they evaluate the alternatives available to them, which option they are likely to choose, and you can stack the odds in your favor through the mix of features, positioning, and messaging that resonates with what people want.
In the factory, we make cosmetics. In the store, we sell hope.
Charles Revson, founder of Revlon