I had a craving the other day for an ice cream cone. I don’t mean packaged ice cream from the freezer section of the local grocery store, I’m talking about hand-dipped ice cream in a freshly-made waffle cone from a confectionery. There are several such stores near where I live, but the problem is, it is February – in the middle of winter – and all of them are closed for the season. My hankering will have to wait until the weather warms up and the local ice cream shops open for the season, or I will have to travel to much warmer climates to satiate my yearning.

My ice cream clock is a bit out of sync. Ice cream sales go up in the summer when people are enjoying outdoor events and activities. It is not like something is stopping them from going out right now, but there is a lot more discomfort associated with winter outdoor activities. Eating something cold - especially eating it outside - when you are trying to avoid the cold is something to be shunned, which illustrates why ice cream shops are closed right now. People avoid pain. That is a very basic concept that most people would understand, but there is an elementary truth here that is associated with good marketing: we promote pleasure or relief of pain. When we boil down the basics of attracting customers and selling them products and services, these two concepts work best.

Here is where many businesses mess up when they are marketing their brand: they believe their customers want to hear a list of all the features, advantages and benefits of their product or service. Their websites are full of text that no one ever reads. While being transparent and showing the details of what you do has its place, the real key to successful marketing is to find a point of pain in your customers’ lives and fix it with your brand. That is what you should promote with your marketing. While I have great respect for all the minute details of how something is made, I just want to know that it will alleviate my pain and make my life better. That’s it!

What would make me feel good right now? How about a vacation to some warm, tropical island where I could get out in the sunshine and, maybe, find an ice cream shop that was open in February? If someone would offer me a ticket to go to such a place right now, they would have my attention. They would not have to give me the details of where I would be staying or how I would get there – at least not to get my attention. It is the job of marketing to get the attention of consumers. It is the job of sales to work out the details. If you want to increase your reach in marketing, appeal to the consumers’ pain and pleasure.