Stop Making Things So Complicated

Marketers are notorious for inventing needs, and then pushing the products that supposedly meet those needs. While I won't entirely discount the idea that nuance and product benefits play an essential and important role in sales, the fact remains that sometimes less truly is more.

Take wine glasses. Thomas Pellechia recently described his own disbelief that one really needs to match a specific wine glass to each varietal in order to enjoy it:

"Perhaps glass manufacturer executives read the same wine industry trade magazines that I read. If so, it’s likely that one of those articles about consumer acceptance of unfamiliar wine varietals gave an idea to a suit in the office of a high-end glass producer somewhere in Europe, and perhaps it was a prescription for perpetual success in wine glasses."

The wine glass industry is not the only culprit of inventing consumer needs only to invent an invention to fulfill said needs. Prescription drugs have been flying off the shelves as pharmaceutical companies point out that you, too, might suffer from brand-spanking new syndromes like Intermittent Explosive Disorder (um, anger issues, anyone?).

A company should, of course, be innovative. But the needs your products fill should be needs your target customers really have. And if you're not sure what those needs are, consider asking them instead of just inventing what you think they should need.