Nobody Aspires To The Lifestyle They Currently Lead!

Whatever your lifestyle, no matter how much you earn or what your circumstances are, there is something you dream about. Something you want to improve, according to whatever definition you personally apply to improvement. You might yearn for a simpler life. You might want to be wealthier. You might want to learn something. You might want to teach something. You might want to get more serious. You might want to have more fun.

Whatever it is, you aspire to something.

Part of the nature of human beings is a form of embedded dissatisfaction that drives us to dream, to reach and to strive to improve. As we climb up through the layers of Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’, survival, simple needs and basic nourishment are taken for granted.

In the mature western world, needs are covered.

The ‘what next’ is wants.

This is the territory for specialty retail. A territory that provides insatiable opportunity for those with entrepreneurial flair. ‘Nobody aspires to the lifestyle they currently lead.’ A never-ending source of customer motivation that compels retail customers to shop for the ‘what next’. Sounds simple enough. But of course the art is in uncovering and exploiting aspiration that customers don’t even know they want – yet.

Customers can’t articulate it. Most often they don’t even know they are looking for it. But when they see it, they ‘feel it’ and they have to have it.

As a retailer you can take the lazy way out and wait for a competitor to find it and exploit it. Then you can copy them. You’ll become known for ripping them off of course. But if you put a twist to it that the customer sees value in, you might get away with it. The better way is to discover an opportunity yourself and make it your own.

Be inquisitive and look around you. Media is a rich source of trend that leads to retail opportunity. Look at what the editors are passionate about right now. Look at what media is being consumed the most. Look at who the customers are listening to and what those people are saying. Then think through how you could use that subject matter in your retail business. Inspiring product. Inspiring service. Inspiring environment.

By uncovering aspirational opportunity and being early to bring it to market, you gain the greatest chance to profit from it both in financial and reputation terms. To improve your business and your customer experience.

After all, nobody aspires to the lifestyle they currently lead. Including you.