The Value of Gut Instinct in Marketing

Conventional marketing research – polls, surveys and number crunches about what’s sold in the past and how and where it sold and to whom and by whom – can tell you what, among all the stuff that’s already out there, people are likely to buy again.

It can’t really tell you much about that product no one knows they want yet. I’m not necessarily talking about a new invention or anything radical. In the early 90s, whoever thought fruity-colored computers would sell?

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If you’d polled people about Steven Jobs’ desperate bid to save what was then a flailing Apple company, I suspect they’d have laughed in your face. Computers in “strawberry” and “lime.” What self-respecting person would buy such a thing?

But look what happened.

For that matter, if you’d asked people in 2005 whether having a PDA and cellphone rolled into one made any sense, I bet most wouldn’t have thought so. You needed the PDA to jot down notes while you were on the phone, so how you use it as a PDA while talking on it?

It turns out that minor issue was easily overcome by all the other features of smartphones. And now not only tech lovers and people with mobile jobs have them – they’re the primary way most people connect with the world outside their neighborhood.

There are so many examples of revolutionary products – and books, and movies, and TV shows and other media – that were destined to flop, according to conventional marketing research. But they didn’t. They tapped into what the audience didn’t know they wanted yet, and delivered it. What magical power is this?

Following your instincts

Sometimes conventional marketing research is wrong. That’s all there is to it. You can carefully research your keywords, read everything about which way Google’s swinging on domain keywords and site links and running ads and so on, and even get a marketing research firm to put together an expensive report for you – only to still get it all wrong.

But surely just building a site you enjoy isn’t the way to get at what the audience wants, right? Especially if you’re not a particularly typical audience member, as so many of us entrepreneurial types are not?

It depends how you go about it. I think there’s a formula for following your instincts the right way, and it has worked for me:

Find an empty spot

In most niches, there’s something that really needs doing and hasn’t been done yet, or hasn’t been done as well as it could. For example, let’s say there are lots of informative websites about Subject A, but not really any funny ones, even though Subject A is something in which funny things happen.

Maybe loads of people are just waiting for a forum where they can submit their funny Subject A experiences. Or maybe you alone can provide loads of funny Subject A stories because you used to work in Subject A with the world’s most obnoxious boss and two of the stupidest co-workers ever.

Develop a unique voice

Even if your site is mainly a shop, a blog with posts in a unique and enjoyable voice can’t hurt. I don’t mean that self-promoting tone where you talk about your own life as if you think everyone finds you fascinating.

I mean a point of view. If you’re a thinker, chances are you’ll have a spin on some topic that isn’t commonly covered by other websites. Opinions can be valuable online.

Don’t let site visitors push you

When you’re aiming for something the audience doesn’t know they want yet, you can expect resistance at first. Sometimes you flop at the beginning, but in time the audience grows to love what you’re offering.

Stick to your guns when you’re offering something new – people don’t always react well to change at first, but after a little while, the frighteningly new becomes intriguingly new.

I’m not saying conventional marketing research is worthless – it has its place. But it will never be good at identifying what the audience wants, but don’t know they want yet. The only way to discover that that is, is to examine your own desires from a website, and build it, and see if they come.