[Ads-l] Adage: No one wants a drill. What they want is the hole

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

A correspondent asked me to explore the adage in the subject line
which was popularized by Harvard business professors Clayton M.
Christensen and Theodore Levitt. Here is another version:

People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!

After finding citations in 1946 and 1947 I discovered that Barry Popik
had previously tackled this topic. Barry found citations beginning in
1974.
Here is a link to the QI article:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/03/23/drill/

Citations before 1946 probably exist. Feedback welcome. Flourishing
research areas in the sciences and social sciences contain research
colleagues who complement/compliment one another and build on one
another's findings by adding new knowledge, I think.

[Begin excerpt]
Great thanks to Doug Garnett whose comments and inquiry led QI to
formulate this question and perform this exploration. Garnett noted
that the general public today would use the term “drill bit” instead
of “drill” in phrases such as “quarter-inch drills”. Thanks to Barry
Popik who explored this topic and found citations beginning in 1974
with a book by Theodore Levitt crediting Leo McGivena. Also, thanks to
the volunteer Wikiquote editors who found a 2016 work by Clayton M.
Christensen crediting Theodore Levitt.
[End excerpt]

Garson O'Toole

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org