I think the hardest aspects of a business are deciding whether to answer a need, such as food, shelter and clothing, or creating a want for something people don’t necessarily need bottled water (if you already have clean, filtered tap water), gym membership, nail salons and the like. Now, people will say the gym and nail salon have some beneficial qualitites that could improve someone’s life, but they are not necessities.
Our needs are rather basic. Food, shelter, clothes, companionship (with or without sex) and mental / physical stimulation. We need friction to survive. Life without stress is worse than one with a wee bit too much stress. Extremes are not good for us.
Most of today’s businesses look to create a want to drive an increase in sales. We are bombarded with ads that will show us humor or humiliation for not selecting their product. A company has to look for enough resources to drive the demand for their product be it TV, radio, Internet social media, and print media.
I believe companies that make a dent into Internet social media, when they launch a successful campaign, have several things going for them: media connections (TV exposure), money, much much money, and reporters eager to pretend that their “news story” is not a PR campaign. For an individual to pierce this wall they have to be incredibly savvy in exposing their material, have lots of energy, patience, and an ability to follow through with their initial message or offering.
Follow-up is key.
I think the second most important aspect of a business in getting this message across to generate a want, which may fulfill a need, is to have the infrastructure in place to answer the demand. If people want your product or service, there better be the means to answer this demand.