Chapter 2: Successful Marketing Plans Often Solve Consumer Problems

Overview

Many successful marketing plans are based on solutions to consumer problems. In evaluating the marketing plans for your product or service, it can be helpful to find out whether your offering solves perceived problems for potential customers. If potential customers really see your product or service as the solution to their problems, this is a good indication that they might become buyers . If your product or service provides the only solution to a major problem, the chances of consumers buying it is even better. Make sure, however, that this is really their perception and not just an assumption on your part. Jumbo-Koter is an example of success based on a new product that offers the solution to an irritating customer problem.

One of the objectives in painting a wall is to get the paint spread evenly where the ceiling and the wall come together and in the corners where one wall meets the other. Many painters use a roller to paint most of the wall because a roller is much faster than a brush for applying large amounts of paint. They then typically use a brush to apply paint in the corners because a traditional roller is too big to do that job. The problem with using a roller on the wall and a brush in the corners is that the paint sometimes looks different in the corners and around the edge of the wall. To solve this problem, painters often use mini-rollers because these rollers can get closer than a traditional roller. A mini-roller is less than half the size of a traditional roller, which makes it easier to control.

Here is where the consumer problem comes in. Many painters have problems with their mini-rollers. Because these rollers are smaller than traditional rollers, they are great for getting paint into tight places and corners. On the other hand, the small size of the roller sometimes causes it to stick after a certain number of uses. Painters often become frustrated when they have to drag a stuck mini-roller down a wall. This consumer problem led to a whole new product line called the Jumbo-Koter, and to a marketing plan that effectively leveraged the strengths of the Wooster Brush Company.