The three most important words in marketing are “pent up demand.”  Not “supply and demand.”  Pent up demand comes about when there is not enough supply — so the two concepts are linked. When there’s great demand for a product or service, it’s easy to sell. When there is over-supply, not so much. In the case of an over-supply situation, good marketers will find a feature or quality of the product that is under supplied and use it as a differentiation. Advertising alone is not a differentiator. Good ads help in a commodity business but real differentiation makes for better sales.

Marketing in a commodity world is the toughest form. It requires lots of research, data and anthropological study. When you find a feature for which there is pent-up demand, pound it. These features are typically found in the brand strategy under the headings “care abouts” and good-ats.”

Peace.