It's never been easier to make something.
Software that once required a team of engineers can now be built by a single person in days. Products can be designed, manufactured, and distributed with relatively little infrastructure. The cost of turning an idea into something tangible keeps falling.
But the ease of making things has created a different problem. More products are competing for the same limited attention and spending. Just because something can be built doesn't mean anyone wants it.
In other words, supply is getting easier to create while demand isn't.
I've been thinking about what actually makes people buy things. Not why someone chooses Nike over Adidas, but why they decide to part with their money in the first place. What are they really buying? And what has to be true for that transaction to happen?
I suspect most purchases can be traced back to a relatively small set of motivations.
What people actually buy
We usually describe products by what they do. For example, a car provides transportation, a mattress provides somewhere comfortable to sleep, and software performs a defined task.
But those descriptions don't tell us much about why someone actually wants them.
A person buying a Porsche might value the driving experience, the status, or the satisfaction of owning something beautifully made. Someone buying accounting software might want to save money, avoid tedious work, or feel more in control of their business.
The same product can satisfy entirely different desires.
I think most of these motivations fall into three broad categories:
- Circumstances. Improving our practical position in the world. More money, time, freedom, capability, or security.
- Experience. Changing how we feel. Pleasure, comfort, excitement, confidence, or relief from something unpleasant.
- Identity. Shaping how we see ourselves or how others see us. Status, belonging, recognition, achievement, or self-expression.
There's also a difference between pursuing something we want and escaping something we don't.
Put those together and you get a fairly simple map:
| Pursuing a gain | Avoiding a loss | |
|---|---|---|
| Circumstances | More money, time, capability, freedom | Less expense, effort, exposure |
| Experience | Pleasure, comfort, excitement | Less stress, fear, frustration |
| Identity | Status, belonging, achievement | Avoid embarrassment, exclusion, loss of standing |
Most purchases satisfy several motivations at once.
A gym membership might improve your health, make you feel better, and reinforce your identity as someone who takes fitness seriously. An expensive watch might do relatively little for your practical circumstances while providing considerable personal satisfaction.
The point isn't to classify every purchase into a neat box; rather, it's to understand what someone hopes will change by making it. Customers aren't necessarily interested in the product itself. They're interested in what having it might do for them.
Valuable doesn't mean compelling
If selling were simply a matter of creating something useful, business would be a lot easier.
People acknowledge problems they never pay to solve. They express enthusiasm for products they never purchase. Companies tolerate obvious inefficiencies for years.
A product can be valuable without being compelling. And it can be compelling without being purchased.
Consider software that eliminates hours of manual administrative work each week. The benefit seems obvious (less wasted time, fewer headaches, potentially lower costs). Yet the company might have no interest in buying it.
Maybe the problem isn't painful enough. Maybe the person approving the purchase doesn't experience it. Maybe the current process works well enough, or replacing it feels like more trouble than it's worth.
The product could work exactly as advertised and still not sell. That's because recognizing an improvement and deciding to pay for it are separate things.
What makes someone buy?
I think the actual decision comes down to three questions.
Does the improvement matter enough?
How much does the buyer care about the change? Saving someone five hours a week might be transformative or barely worth thinking about. The value depends on the person, their circumstances, and what else is competing for their attention.
Do they believe they'll get it?
A promise isn't worth much if the buyer doesn't trust it. They need to believe the product will deliver, and that it's preferable to the alternatives. Often the strongest competitor is simply doing nothing.
Is it worth the tradeoff?
Price is only part of the cost. There's also the time, effort, risk, and uncertainty that come with making a change. Even a desirable improvement might not justify those costs, particularly when other priorities are more pressing.
These questions help explain why good products fail to sell, and why different failures call for different responses. If the improvement doesn't matter, better marketing probably won't fix it. If the buyer doesn't believe the promise, they may need evidence. If adoption seems painful, adding more features could actually make the product harder to sell.
And sometimes there simply isn't enough demand to support a business.
The scarce part of creation
I think all of this matters more as building gets easier. For a long time, the ability to create something was itself a significant advantage. Production required capital, specialized knowledge, infrastructure, and coordination. Many of those barriers are falling, particularly in software.
But understanding what people value, what they'll pay to change, and what might finally convince them to act hasn't become nearly as easy. A technically superior product might solve a problem nobody cares much about. A simpler alternative might address one frustration that people desperately want to eliminate. The difference can have very little to do with the sophistication of what's been built.
As the cost of creation falls, the ability to recognize and capture demand may become increasingly valuable.
It's worth remembering that the existence of a product doesn't create a market. The existence of a problem doesn't guarantee someone will pay to solve it.
Making something is one thing. Giving someone a reason to buy it is another.