How to Create Demand for a Need That Doesn’t Exist?

For a business idea to succeed, 

1. It should already have demand or 

2. The entrepreneur has to create demand.

This is about how you can create new demand for a business idea that doesn’t have demand at present. 🌞

TL;DR

📊 Strategies to create new demand in the market

🤔 Who has done it successfully before?

🌞 How I created new demand for a business idea + steps  

🫶 How we helped school children with financial difficulties via this business

📊 Strategies to create new demand in the market

1️⃣ Let me tell you a simple example many sales agents use. 

Many sales agents who sell milk powder, medicine/ drugs and property agents do this often. 

If the shop owner is refusing to take a new product due to not having demand, the sales agents hire a few people or get some of their friends to visit that shop and ask for the exact same Milk powder brand. They do this for around 2 weeks with 5-10 people coming and asking for it. 

Then the sales rep goes to the shop on the 3rd week and the shop owner gets the products without hesitation and puts them on an easily visible shelf as well. Because in his mind, he remembers that many people already came and asked for it. 

That's how they create demand for products which was never a need before.

🤔 Who has created new demand successfully before?

🌞 How I created new demand for a business idea

2️⃣ I did it using a different strategy for one of my social entrepreneurial projects, "Earth Fashionist" which we won 2nd place at the Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition in Germany. 

Here's how we created demand for a need which was not a need before/ how to become a 1st mover in the market creating new demand. 👇

1. What was the “New Need”?

Earth Fashionist was a startup that sold 2nd hand clothing. 

Though this is very popular in countries like the USA, UK and Europe, this is very difficult in Asian countries. 

So, we had to change this perception which was very difficult. Changing people’s attitudes is never easy, because they are bound with their society norms and beliefs.

2. Steps to create the new demand in the market

i) We firstly figured out the customer segment that we should target. 

How?

(Refer to “How to Use Maslow’s Hierarchy to Find Your Niche”).

ii) Then we found the social media platform which our ideal customer often uses. 

How? 

iii) We started creating awareness 

Yes, we started creating awareness on how fashion is polluting the planet. 

We collected all the stats about; 

• How fast fashion is polluting the Earth,

• How much water is used to produce 1 shirt,

• How much clothes are being disposed every year,

• Images of how fashion has polluted rivers, oceans and land,

• Proofs to show that people are consuming plastic daily via salt and fish due to fast fashion,

• Why we should move to sustainable and 2nd hand fashion etc. 

Then, we showed people the harm that fast fashion is doing to our planet using the above. 

💡Remember, 
The best way to get customers is by educating them. 

We also got the support of social media influencers who match with our exact customer segment. 

It took a long time, around 1 year, but it was effective. 

🫶 How we helped school children with financial difficulties in Sri Lanka using part proceedings of Earth Fashionist.

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