"In each of us there is a little of all of us."
Georg C. Lichtenberg
18th century German scientist
18th century German scientist
Ok, I see that, but what one does with this is critical, particularly for marketers.
There is danger in thinking we know what others believe and want based on knowing what we believe and want. The image in the mirror does not always reflect reality.
The ability to objectively assess the needs of others is critical for those charged with marketing.
There is danger in thinking we know what others believe and want based on knowing what we believe and want. The image in the mirror does not always reflect reality.
The ability to objectively assess the needs of others is critical for those charged with marketing.
Certainly but when it comes to my company's product, I'm a good judge of what people want and am paid well to be so.
ReplyDeleteAnd I haven't found market research to be all that useful.
Actually that is something every business personnel knows, moreover if we have the lack of understanding it the relationship between customers and the employees will just bring a total disadvantage to the business itself. For further learning might as well have a business transformation services help.
ReplyDeleteWell Audrina, I think understanding the customer is something that everyone in business should agree is critical but I wonder if that is so. And even if it is, comments like that from Ken suggest that how we understand them can be quite different.
ReplyDeleteCertainly I see examples where one or a few individuals, do an excellent job of interpreting the customer's needs, Apple being a current good example. But there are far more where things don't turn out so well.
The automobile industry has tried many times to come up with a successful "world car"; i.e. one that meets customer needs in many countries rather than just one. Most failed. We have many models because there are important differences in consumers based on culture, ethnicity, age, location, driving conditions, income, etc.
How can any one or few individuals understand what all that means without outside input?
Just out of curiosity Ken, do you market world-wide, or to a confined geography?
given your background in market research bill, i was wondering how you were going to respond to ken's comment :-)
ReplyDeletei have no reason to doubt the validity of ken's statement and if he's able to judge what people want, god bless him. but if we all had the ability to do that CONSISTENTLY, more of us would be billionaires.
apple is certainly a company who's products are resonating big time with consumes at the moment but even if you look at their history, that wasn't always the case.
"i have no reason to doubt the validity of ken's statement and if he's able to judge what people want, god bless him."
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly why I didn't challenge Ken's views directly. Since you know my research background, you can likely guess where I stand on this. Well done research, which much is not, is extremely important in decision making. But it is not a cure-all and is certainly no substitute for management interpretation, without which, the research is useless.
However, based just on observation, I have to say I believe most decision making is gut, seat-of-the-pants and is the major contributor to many of the problems confronting business today.