Selling The Dream Part 1 Is your product satisfying your customers' dreams? Here are three top criteria to test it against to see if it checks out.

Connecting with your customers' imaginations has become anobligatory path to business success. They're no longer contentjust satisfying their needs-they want to fulfill their dreams aswell.

When attempting to create a product that you hope will fulfillyour customers' dreams, keep the following points in mind:

• Interpret the spirit of the time to understand which dreamswill capture the customer. Dreams are shaped by culture. Byintegrating their intuition into an organization, a company canbetter tune into the times. Just as artists search endlessly andrandomly for inspiration, a company should constantly exploreunrelated fields and approach business eclectically in order tocreate dreams. It's hardly surprising that the companies withthe most eclectic approach to business are ground-breakers when itcomes to initiating trends and tastes.
• Create products and services designed and engineered toconvey intense emotions. Companies cannot survive merely bysatisfying consumer needs. Today, most companies can providezero-defect products that perfectly perform their function. This isno longer a differentiating quality that, on its own, can sway thecustomer. Companies that rely strictly on marketing and discountsto promote otherwise common products will never win any emotionalhold on their customers' minds. To achieve the type ofcommercial success that establishes a brand for years to come, acompany has to infuse its products and services with emotionalqualities that connect with their customers' strongestdesires.
• Practice "dreamketing." No matter howfantastic a product is, it cannot stand alone to represent a dream.A dream is not a product, it is an experience. Reaching the marketis no longer enough: You have to touch (in an emotional sense) yourcustomers' imagination. The first concern of the"dreamketer" should be to create an evocative andseductive brand, one that can spark desire and set thecustomer's mood. Since customers should never be awakened fromtheir dreams, the dreamketer should ensure that the company'scommunication, distribution, special events and any type ofcustomer relations consistently support the brand's mission tobuild that dream in customers' minds.