Positioning: The Five Proximal Needs
Ardath Albee recently blogged on tightly mapping customer needs to actual problems for effective marketing. This is a challenge that high tech start-ups often face. Their products and services probably do a lot of things – meet a lot of needs – but they have to identify the urgent needs, those that are business or mission critical to get traction in the market. Every solution benefit must address one of five proximal needs of a business.
- Make money
- Save money
- Speed time to market
- Reduce risk
- Stave off competition
If the benefits of a solution do not address one of these proximal needs, you better go back to the drawing board or risk being lost with the other thousands of start-ups who thought their products would fly off the shelf.
Did I miss one?
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December 19th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for mentioning my blog post. I agree with the proximal needs, it’s the application of a solution to them that’s the variable. Companies can choose to answer those needs in a variety of ways, for a multitude of reasons. How effective your marketing is depends on your application of a solution matching up to their perspective. Or, in your ability to direct their consideration.
What do you think?
Thanks,
Ardath
December 19th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Ardath-
Thanks for commenting. I agree with you – even if you hit on one of the basic needs, you still need to articulate it in a way that hits the mark.
Jeff