Something rather fascinating happened 112 years ago today. Wilbur and Orville Wright first flew a self-propelled glider – or we would call it an airplane – at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Rolling down a monorail line, the biplane piloted by Orville Wright left the ground for 12 seconds and flew 120 feet. The brothers then took turns flying their biplane four times that day. They were able to get it to stay aloft for just under a minute and travel 852 feet.

So how did two brothers who built bicycles for a living get an idea to invent an airplane? It was driven by a strong curiosity and a tenacious desire to succeed. First, they were fascinated by what other people had tried. A German engineer named Otto Lilienthal had built and successfully flown gliders. The Wright brothers took Lilienthal’s ideas and built their own glider. It was a failure! They went back to the drawing board and built a second glider. This time, they were successful in flying the glider, making hundreds of flights. But flying a glider that is launched by pushing it off a cliff and creating an airplane that would take flight under its own power was quite another thing. Many people had tried and failed. The Wright brothers built a wind tunnel and began to test aerodynamics on hundreds of wing shapes. They experimented for two years, creating a double winged glider with a crude steering mechanism that allowed them to control the direction it would fly. Next, they worked with a machinist to build a 12-horse power gasoline engine to turn dual propellers. They sent their flyer to Kitty Hawk for its maiden voyage. However, on December 14, 1903, the engine malfunctioned on the first attempt at flight and the plane was damaged. Undeterred, the brothers repaired the damage and tried again three days later. This time, they made history.

The Wright brothers had overcome great engineering challenges and created a self-propelled airplane. But it was 1903. Very few people were driving an automobile in 1903 - the Model T Ford was five years away from production - let alone thinking of traveling by air! From where they were sitting, the Wright brothers had just invented a very expensive and worthless piece of machinery. This is where marketing comes into play.

The Wright brothers needed a market for their airplane. They realized that as word got out, others would begin to produce airplanes, just as they had built a glider from Lilienthal’s ideas. They had to move quickly before this happened. They thought they could create a market in the military. They formed the Wright Company in Dayton, Ohio, and began to pursue government contracts. At first, this effort fell flat. There was little interest in an airplane for military surveillance when there were balloons that would do the same thing – and were much safer. The Wright brothers had to do two things that would convince the market to buy from them. First, they had to prove that airplane flight was far superior to balloon travel. They built more complex planes and demonstrated that they were limitless in where they could travel in the air. Balloons were totally dependent upon the direction and speed of the wind. Secondly, they pitted one nation against the other to be first to get their military in the air. While Wilbur was in France demonstrating a plane in flight, Orville was doing the same thing for the U.S. Army. When they flew circles and figure eights in public demonstrations, those in charge of the military realized they had to have an airplane to keep up with competing nations. A market was born.

New ideas come about all the time. Some of them fly. Many of them crash. The difference between the successes and the failures is the ability to effectively create a market of people who will buy your product. That requires you to give them a compelling reason to purchase from you. We call this your unique selling proposition. Why is your product better than what is currently leading the market? What do you need to do to show its effectiveness? However, even though you have made your market aware of your product, what will get them to actually buy it? In most situations, that involves convincing the market that your product is necessary and doing without it will make their life harder – or on the flip side, buying your product will make them feel much better. In the case of the Wright brothers, they exploited the need for one country to keep up with its peers. If the U.S. had an airplane and France did not, France felt the pain of being behind another nation in military technology. It worked, and pretty soon every developed nation in the world was purchasing airplanes from the Wright Company.

What’s working for you? If you find yourself with a market that is aware of your product, but unsure they want to purchase it, you need to find out where your market is feeling pain or desiring pleasure. If you can convince them your product is the answer to these problems, you will be able to sell them. Otherwise, you will find yourself with an idea that may be innovative, but is unsellable.