Sometimes trends change and people want something different. As Steve Jobs says bluntly the problem is “people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” The truth is people have a hard time telling you what they want because they have a limited imagination of what is possible. As a company, your number one purpose in marketing would be a lot easier if you recognize and establish what that purpose is.

I can help you figure it out: your purpose is to make money. That may only be a part of your purpose, but it is still the overarching purpose. The only way you will get sales is if potential customers know about you and your products. The most common form of internet marketing is indirect marketing, sometimes referred to as pull marketing. For example, let’s say that 250 million people read stories, see advertisements, commercials, watch videos, or see news bulletins stating that Apple has a new iPad coming. That does not mean that there will be 250 million new sales. But if no one hears that Apple has a new iPad coming out then there will be no new iPads sold.

Clearly, a person has to know about a product/service/company in order to become a customer. Online PR is great because it is the fastest and cheapest medium to get your product/service/company in front of potential customers.

If you are taking a unique product to market, Steve Jobs’ quote is even more important–the key word is show.

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” I talked about other lessons learned from Steve Jobs here.

PR campaigns are great tools to show people what they want. PR campaigns involve more than a press release, it is an integrated approach that includes posts on industry blogs, social media, contests, self promotion, and creating stories so that everyone and their dog knows about you.

Many companies put a lot of effort into shooting a television commercial or a radio ad but put no effort into online marketing. Remembering to have an online marketing strategy that is every bit as thought out as a TV commercial or radio ad will make for a robust and more effective product release.

What types of products have you seen that have showed you what you wanted verse told you what you wanted?

About the author

Brad Smith

Brad's obsession to make everything neat and orderly didn't manifest itself until he left his childhood home and ventured into a house full of miscreants who couldn't cook, clean or keep mushrooms from growing on the side of the bathtub. Since that day he has spent over nine years with companies helping them improve their processes, work more efficiently and return better results to customers. To date Brad's tally for increased revenue totals over 3 million dollars. Brad's work experience includes Fortune 500 companies such as Morgan Stanley, Discover Card and Aflac. Besides saving the world one client at a time, Brad teaches his wife and four month old son how to play baseball. One of his proudest moments was when someone asked about a baseball rule and his wife knew the answer. Score.