Tapping into the Pain

The printer industry is a racket.  They give you a sweet printer with all the bells and whistles for $79 to $159 (or more) then they kill you with the cost of the ink.  We all know that’s their business model but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating when you drop $60 on ink cartridges every few months.  One of my printers has been on the blink so I’ve been thinking about buying a new one.  So when I caught a piece of a Lexmark commercial that talked about “the most affordable ink” I stopped in my tracks.  They promoted a $4.99 black ink cartridge.  Are you kidding me?  That’s great.  I’ve been paying at least 5x that amount. 

I rarely make a significant purchase without doing at least a little research.  Not on this one.  I went directly to the store the next day.  Walked in and picked up a Lexmark printer, paid and walked out.  The guy was like “do you want to look at any of the other options we have”?  “Nope”, I said.  And, I've never purchased any products from Lexmark.

Usually when you buy a printer there are many other factors to consider.  The primary buying criteria is usually print quality…especially when you’re buying a color printer.  Another key buying criteria is pages per minute (since you don’t want to wait forever when you have to print a lot of pages).  But those buying criteria and every other potential buying criterion went out the window for me this time.  Why?

Because Lexmark’s advertisement tapped into my #1 pain related to printers: the cost of ink cartridges.  I have no idea whether any of their claims about lower ink cost are true.  But it doesn’t matter.  They said what I wanted to hear so I went for it.

The lesson for business strategists and sales folks: find your customers’ #1 pain and deliver a focused, compelling message about how your solution will eliminate it.  Don’t dilute your message talking about all the other pains you can alleviate.  Sometimes it’s best to just pound them over the head with one crisp, clear message. 

To do this, you must truly “know thy customer”…the starting point of any great business.