WHY PEOPLE BUY "THINGS"

I was flying back home a few weeks ago and flipping through the Sky Mall catalog - as I'm prone to doing since I consulted for them years ago. Page after page of "things". Some cool things, some weird things - lots of things that nobody really needs.

Or do they?

Sky Mall sells some $150M per year in stuff it seems nobody really needs.

And that perception is a major mistake that many small retailers make - they don't understand that EVERY purchase is made from a point of need.

So what need is being filled when someone purchases a "Chilled Shot Machine", or a $200 "Fold-Out Basketball Game"? Why does anyone need to buy a Ferrari?

That depends on who buys it, but every purchase is made to fill one of these needs - and understanding the prevailing needs that lead to purchase of your products will help you sell more of them.

• Physical Need - the tip-top of Maslow's Hierarchy. Food, water, shelter - the basics you've got to have to survive. Duh, moving on.

• Personal Safety Or Security - the reason a consumer buys a can of pepper spray for their purse, or a home security system, or the latest top-ranked car seat for their child.
  

• Need to be Liked or Recognized - the same set of reasons American consumers go overboard and spend themselves into dizzying debt every Christmas. Got to give little Joey the very best new bicycle so he can have the best one on the block and he'll love mom and dad even more...
  

• Need to Escape - the need behind the success of the X-Box, Playstation, Nintendo Wii, the staggering sales of the movie industry, and the vacation travel industry.

• Need to be Right or in Control - the reason your IT guy bought the greatest new router that let's him monitor *every* last packet of data that leaves your corporate network, and locked down access to Hotmail from your office, even though your company's productivity is kicking ass.

Care to guess which need the Ferrari driver filled? Maybe he's compensating for something. Surely his circle of friends wouldn't like or respect him if they knew he wasn't anatomically correct...

If you can tailor your site and merchandising - from design, all the way down to your product descriptions to fit the prevailing needs that consumers will most often buy your products to fill - you'll sell a lot more of them.