Benoît Heilbrunn, ESCP Business School – The brilliant marketing trick: using desire with desire – Strategies & Management

Marketing makes us believe in miracles by pretending to put the customer at the center of his concerns. An attractive idea because it helps to justify the idea that it makes people happier. By starting from the customer’s needs, we could satisfy them and, therefore, guarantee their satisfaction and why not their eternal loyalty. A tune that could not be more cheerful and harmonious than it seems. But if you look closely, this perfect melody hides a big taboo: customer dissatisfaction is what allows markets to be created and grow.

To start, let’s remember the obvious: most people don’t know what they want. Market research is nothing but opinion-based oracles often dictated by social norms and confirmation bias. Opinion polls do not reveal deep desires as much as what people think is expected of them. In other words, most studies do not confirm prior mergers alone. They do not generate real innovations, but products that conform to current norms.

Then, marketing has this amazing ability to create problems where none existed. Do we need the new anti-wrinkle cream or anti-dandruff shampoo? Probably not, until marketing catches it and creates micro-drama. These small concerns turn into mountains, justifying the fact that there are products that, apparently, save lives. So marketing most of the time doesn’t solve problems; it will make them appear as deceivers.

To think that the main goal of marketing is to satisfy the customer is naive. The real goal for us is to buy, again and again. Dissatisfaction is the cornerstone of the market. The dominance of marketing has replaced need, which is satisfied, with desire, which is inevitable by nature. This unfulfilled desire pushes you on an eternal quest, and this is where the Machiavellian genius of marketing lies: keeping the consumer in a state of permanent lack. It is also the main fuel of capitalism.

And then there is the big illusion of the visual brand. Marketing seems to be customer oriented, but the brand often features a charismatic leader. Do you think Elon Musk is getting lost in market research to find out if the Chinese want a new car or if the Americans are ready to go to Mars? No, the leader imposes his vision and converts followers. While the marketer, full of data and criteria, imitating his competitors, is drowning in an ocean of recycled ideas.

So, who should we trust in brand management? Certainly not for marketers, prisoners of data and bias. Leave that to the visionaries who are able to transform conventions into a true spirit and a project that truly contributes.