If you've ever read Seth Godin's work, you'll know he is a huge evangelist of doing remarkable things people like enough to tell their friends about. Launching The coIN Loft has taught me a valuable lesson-although coIN will solve a lot of problems for people, it doesn't mean people will like what we're doing. People need to find their own value in your doing.
Marketing is the perception of value people identify with your "stuff", not the solutions you tell them it will provide. In other words, your "stuff" doesn't even have to work, nor does it have to be used for the purposes it was designed to be a valuable part of people's lives.
Who remembers Power Wheels? When I was growing up, every kid on my block wanted one. Even though most of us could run to whatever destination the person was driving to three or four times before they got there, we felt just like Michael Knight we were sitting behind the wheel of our very own Trans-Am. The marketing made us think we could drive like our parents did-as fast as they did. In reality, the product actually wasted time. The battery charge would die thirty blocks from our house, which left us to use every muscle in our 80lb bodies to push the 150lb clump of plastic home...alone.
Marketing is frustrating. Marketing rarely ever makes much sense. Marketing is people. People don't want solutions, they want perceptions.
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