Functional goods sold en masse earn a good return but breakthrough profits come from satisfying emotional needs.

The starting point is to create a qualitative understanding of market drivers. You need to get into the head of the consumer and be able to tell her story. It is both art and science. The purpose of the market map is to define dissatisfactions, hopes, dreams and fears. Winning solutions respond to the distinct and specific needs of a group of consumers.

Completely understand the customer by seeking an intense, complete and empathetic understanding.

I like to take CEOs into consumers' homes to see the "real world." CEOs have privileged lives with big incomes, lots of help, access to just about anything they wish. The average consumer lives on $53,000 a year and has daily tradeoffs and compromises that must be made. I took a CEO into a trailer park so he could observe first-hand - and understand - how consumers use his product.

All companies have many opportunities. Strategy is about allocation of resources and priorities.

Consumers are time constrained, budget restricted and less loved than they would like. Give them a wonderful experience and they will share it. Capture their soul and win big time.

A curious mind does not jump to conclusions but tests carefully and thoroughly. A curious mind will draw on all of life's experience to get to the big "uh huh." The curious cut the data by quintile, by segment, and by user.