Recently an entrepreneur planning to launch a new product was discussing it with a group of businessmen. During the discussion, Jayaram Krishnan of Kestone Research raised a fundamental question “Does this reduce a pain felt by the customer?”

Quite often in their zeal to make something new, entrepreneurs lose sight of a very fundamental question “Why does the customer need you?” He needs you only if you are solving some problem he has, and the customer will need you more desperately if you remove his pain which others are not able to. No wonder it is easier to sell UPS systems to households in the summers during exam time.

“Whats new?” you might ask, “After all is it not a basic tenet of marketing that you need to address a customer need?” Well yes, but there is a big difference between the words ‘need’ and ‘pain’. After shopping in the sweltering sun for three hours, one’s dry throat will be aching for water, plain simple water will do. If free cool drinking water is available one might first have that and then perhaps one might still have a cool drink to satisfy other desires.

At the very core of new product development we need to remember which pain we are trying to remove. Other needs of the customer can come in later.

There could be an argument, which says that in that case why do we pay so much for a cool drink when water would suffice. Well we buy a cool drink, first because it satisfies a pain, that of thirst, but we pay a premium because it gives us pleasure. People buy to remove a pain but pay a premium for pleasure. You buy a soap to keep clean but you pay more for a Liril for “freshness” or Lux to look like a
movie star.

Can one sell based only on pleasure without addressing any pain? Yes, movies, theatre, five star hotels are examples of services and products where one needs to look through a microscope to figure out which pain is being addressed. However, it is easier to sell something which removes pain than something which gives pleasure. Use pleasure to increase your margins, just go ahead and do it but the road is going to be that much tougher if the new product does not address a pain.

Diagram A:

Students of marketing might say that this sounds like a rehash of Ted Levitt’s Total Product concept. (For a write up on this send a mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) \n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) "

Diagram B:

Though the sound of it rings similar, the difference is in the emphasis, on pain. If you are already providing a generic product or a service like banking, rice or cars, the way to increase margins would be to look at Ted Levitts outer rings seriously, or like Tom Peters would say, ‘you need to look at the outer most ring and reposition your product’. For instance, one might want to start a Mall where people go not for shopping but for spending time.

However, if you are into new product development, you must focus on a pain. The reason for this emphasis is because of sheer enthusiasm an entrepreneur is likely to dilute his focus by looking at the bells and whistles rather than what really matters to the customer. If the new product development team is focused on the customer pain points the final product is likely to come out that much more successful. Being aware of the customer’s pain that the product is addressing also helps in making one’s marketing material. It helps the sales team in targeting customers and making the right sales pitch. In all it provides a focus for precious start-up budgets to be spent in the right direction. n

Theauthoris the ChiefCatalystof businessgyan, his areas of interest are business strategyand innovation. For feedback and more information send mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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