Two things happened to me this week to do with need (in relation to a product).

I have had Sky TV for about seven years. Then Sky Plus came out and let’s face it, it’s a great product. In fact, the only issue I had with it was the ongoing cost, which for me was up to £45 a month.

The problem was, I thought I needed it, so I never got rid of it. Then a couple of weeks ago my Sky Plus box broke (the second one) and before I knew it I realised I didn’t actually need it at all, especially when it was costing me £540 per year.

On Thursday I missed a TV programme because I was out and have no way to record programmes anymore, but hey, BBC iPlayer allowed me to sit and watch it this morning.

Secondly this week, I did a client a favour. I had mentioned in a meeting that I didn’t understand what their product (telephone headsets) did exactly and why I would ever need one. So they sent me a GN9350 to write about and to be honest, I love it.

This sounds like a contradiction because in reality I don’t need a headset. But, the cost isn’t prohibitive compared to the value.

This raises two further questions for me from a business marketing perspective.

Buy-in

Getting initial buy-in to your product or service has barriers. How can you break them down? What if, for instance, you had qualifying statements, video, instructions, case studies, peer-to-peer communication to allow people to understand why they need your product in the first place?

I think we have done that really well recently for a company call Magic Mitre. They sell a unique mitre box DIY product. But people need to know they need it in the first place, when they are investigating their problem. They may not be looking for the product, they may just want to fit coving, or skirting board, etc. We achieved this well with Top Tips and a You Tube Video channel, which is drawing traffic.

Choice

Any business or industry faces fresh challenges. I think very few of us are immune. Sky used to have a monopoly, but how long for with things like iPlayer and video streaming on the web? It’s one thing getting people to buy in long-term but what if the price doesn’t continue to offer perceived value and a new kid on the block turns up?

Route to market and choice could make a lot of middle industries (the deliverers) redundant.