It was Harvard professor Theodore Levitt who coined the phrase: ‘People buy the hole, not the drill.’

It’s one of the simplest truths in marketing and one of the easiest to forget.

Nobody really wants a drill. What they want is the hole in the wall, the shelf securely fixed, the room improved. They’re not buying the tool; they’re buying the outcome it makes possible.

But here’s the problem: too many organisations still focus on the drill. They talk about features, specifications and then wonder why their campaigns don’t connect.

And this mistake goes deeper than product messaging. Too often, marketing is treated as a synonym for promotion the advertising, the campaigns, the content.

Don’t get me wrong, promotion is powerful but it can’t fix the cracks if the rest of the mix isn’t right.

Marketing: A tale of two eras

Think about it. If your product doesn’t solve a clear problem, if the price feels wrong, if the buying process is clunky, or if there is no proof it works, then no amount of clever promotion will carry it. People won’t buy into the story because it doesn’t match the experience.

Strong marketing is when all the elements work together. The product feels like the right fit. The price makes sense for the value delivered. It’s easy to find and easy to buy. The people behind it inspire trust.

There’s evidence to back up the claims. And the promotion, the visible piece, ties it all together in a way that makes people see the benefits instantly.

When you get that right, you’re not pushing the product, you’re showing people the benefits, the outcome, the difference it makes to them. That’s when marketing stops being noise and starts driving real decisions.

So, here’s the challenge: the next time you review your marketing, ask yourself this question:  Are we selling the product, or are we showing the benefits? Because only one of those is what people are actually paying for.