Many new friends sent me letters asking for help, saying that their bosses or clients said that the plans, scripts, and designs they made were not very good, and they didn’t even say what was wrong, but just three words: no feeling.

In fact, when I watch a lot of advertisements, I also find many cases where I don’t understand why I, as a consumer, should buy your products.

All this shows that these advertisements and creative ideas do not capture the users’ pain points! 

01. What are the user’s pain points?

Let’s first listen to the story of Boss Coffee.

As far back as 1991, there was a coffee brand called "West" in Japan that sold very poorly. Why? Is it because it has too few ads ? Data surveys at the time showed that its advertising volume ranked second among canned coffee, but its market share was somewhat dismal. So, is it because its sales channels are not good? In the same year, there were 2.55 million vending machines across Japan, and 70% of canned coffee was sold from vending machines, among which West Coffee ranked second in terms of the number of machines installed. Is there something wrong with the marketing strategy?

The advertisement at that time used popular celebrities to endorse the product, and its main target audience was young men around 20 years old, who were the main consumers of canned coffee.

Later it was discovered that among coffee consumers, there is a group of heavy users, who only account for 20% of the total but account for 60% of the total consumption, and each of them drinks at least 5 cans of coffee a day. This group of heavy users are slightly older sales staff, drivers, workers, etc. who need to travel frequently for business. After several rounds of detailed investigation, it was found that they prefer to drink small cans of coffee; like sweeter tastes; are heavy smokers; when feeling tired, coffee is like a reliable and trustworthy person who can relieve fatigue... Thus, the "BOSS" coffee was born, which has the image of a person holding a pipe, is only 190ml, and is slightly sweet. The advertisement also featured a middle-aged Japanese singer, who played the role of an ordinary salesperson in the film, which resonated widely.

Since then, BOSS Coffee’s popularity and sales have skyrocketed.

The so-called pain points are the problems, entanglements and complaints that users encounter in their daily lives. If these problems are not solved, they will feel uncomfortable and miserable. And this problem is the pain point. Jack Ma often says: Wherever there are complaints, there are opportunities. Therefore, discovering users’ pain points is creating marketing opportunities for products and brands .

There are also itch points and selling points.

If pain points are problems that users must solve, that is, rigid demands, then itch points are more of users' potential demands, which are mostly emotional demands. This "itch" is actually the "desire" in the hearts of consumers. By satisfying their itch points, users gain more pleasure. For example, the Double 11 promotion takes advantage of this tickling feeling, making people think "Yes! I WANT IT~" and constantly adding various products to the shopping cart.

The selling point, to be very straightforward, is the differences and characteristics of the product itself. As long as you tell users about this feature, you can impress them directly and make them spend money on it. For example, if a mobile phone can realize payment through facial recognition and users are attracted by it at first sight, it means that the product itself has created a successful marketing foothold.

02. How to find the user’s pain points?

▎First, you need to accurately find the target user group.

The example of BOSS Coffee above has clearly pointed out that if there is a deviation in the initial target user group, then the subsequent user pain points, marketing strategies, delivery channels, etc. will be biased accordingly, and ultimately the brand's budget will be wasted.

▎Then, it is necessary to understand the entire process or steps when users use a product or service.

This is to carefully explore every link where problems may arise. This is what we often call the MECE principle (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive), no overlap, no omission. Not only can you grasp the core issues efficiently, but you can also ensure that no details are missed. After all, details are often the key to success or failure.

▎Next, we need to know ourselves and our opponents, and investigate the factors that influence user behavior at every stage.

The usual practice is to collect data and interview users, which can provide the most intuitive understanding of users' actual thoughts and needs. In addition, because we ourselves are consumers, we are potential or actual users of many products. Combining our own consumption and usage experience can also provide many valuable insights.

▏ Tips :

When collecting information, it is usually easy to summarize the common "complaints" of some users from the discussion of negative reviews of a product or service, which is what we mentioned above. These common complaints are likely to be the pain points of most users, which is the breakthrough for solving the problem.

Many inexperienced specialists often don't know where to start when doing research. You can check it one by one from the following five aspects: demand, price, efficiency, experience, and emotion.

Finally, after collecting all possible problems, the biggest one is the pain point that users most urgently need to be solved at this stage.

03. Is it real pain or imaginary pain?

As mentioned above, interviews and surveys are very important methods. However, users may not necessarily give the most accurate answer. Often they will be led astray by their own imaginations and end up answering “I thought I should be like this.” Naturally, failing to identify user pain points is like scratching an itch through a shoe and failing to solve the problem.

▍Determine the real pain point:

▏Whether the pain points found can be often felt/encountered by users in life.

For example, some brands that sell maternity and baby products use their advertisements to talk about how painful it is for a mother to give birth, using the word maternal love to urge consumers to buy their products, but the fact is that giving birth is not a normal part of life. After giving birth, the body rebounds and the skin becomes bad. It is normal for the child to be raised and go to work with a weak body. This is the real problem that new mothers need to solve.

▏Whether there is a direct causal relationship with the user.

Let's talk about smoking. We can see a lot of visually shocking advertisements, with images showing that smoking can cause lung disease and even death. However, this is something that is very far away from the actual experience and feelings of users. People think that smoking a lot of cigarettes will lead to illness or death. However, if the problems caused by smoking are some immediate problems, for girls, if smoking can cause problems such as dark skin and yellow teeth, will they not care?

04. Conclusion

Product marketing must pay attention to user pain points, which will make consumers feel that your product or service truly helps them solve urgent problems. Pain points are also the basis of all products. Otherwise, there will be a lot of incomprehensible advertisements and even products that are unclear and incomprehensible.

Ask clear questions, accurately hit the user's pain points, and let the product or service turn "pain" into "pleasure", and sales can naturally be achieved smoothly.

The author of this article @Dalson was compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games