Giving People What They Want Before They Know They Want It

Abstract

When advertising is able to capitalize on products or services that give people what they want just before they know they want it, it makes for an extremely powerful marketing tool. More often than not, advertising is unable to generate significant awareness or motivation to motivate a potential customer to purchase the advertised product. Yet there is a body of work, limited as it may be, that more often that not has been able to accomplish this. All advertising works to some degree, but the kind that promises people a benefit even before they realize that it is something that they truly want, works better than the other kind. This is particularly powerful when the product being advertised gives people something they want before they even know it. There are obstacles to developing advertising that is fundamentally new and fresh and with which people are not familiar, but the rewards are worth the effort to overcome them. Reviewing some of the most successful marketing accomplishments reveals the use of advertising that has these elements. © 2011 Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.