I’m torn.
Businesses buy utility. So do consumers. But consumers also buy “cool.”
Economists say there is no difference between wants and needs — everything is a want. So B2C companies build something cool (that people want), then graduate us into thinking we need it, solving utility.
This is Twitter and Facebook and Foursquare. I need to blast my subconscious to followers. I need to stalk my friends. I need to brag about the cool bars I frequent.
It’s easy to fail consumers because “cool” is hard. Cool is fleeting. Cool is scary as hell. But when B2C wins, it wins big.