You Don't Know Jack(ie).

Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I get the feeling a lot of you out there don’t really know your customers.  As. In. Don’t. Have. A. Clue.

Every marketing plan you’ve concocted and piece of advertising copy you’ve agonized over seem to be based on one of two perspectives – yours, in which case it’s usually about what’s on sale this week, or your customer’s.  But it’s not the real customer, only a fantasy of who you believe her to be.  You assume the two-dimensional character that visits your place of business represents everything you need to know.

Isn’t that a little like claiming you’re an expert on gazelles when in fact you’ve only observed them munching grass at the zoo?

Wildly profitable businesses don’t just count on the unique product or service they offer – they understand their customer up, down and sideways.  So how do you really get to know her?  Look to the wisdom of the great anthropologists – study her behavior in her own environment. 

Cultural anthropology is the study of humanity and its many dimensions, such as social behavior, family, language, ideology and patterns of consumption – all are important for truly understanding who your customer is.  What tools do you use?  A good start is holding casual conversation group sessions with three or four of your customers, where you can talk about their life, needs and thoughts.  But the most powerful tool is fieldwork – spending extended periods of time with a customer on her home turf. 

You need to free float in her universe for a change – closely observe what she does from hour to hour, how she interacts with others and what her priorities are.  The answers are evident in everything from the way she loads the dishwasher, to how she surfs the Internet, to the objects on her desk.  You’ll get a sense of her schedule, connections with friends and family and what’s important to her inner self.

Watch how she not only uses your product but also how she doesn’t… is she unaware of an advantage your product offers but you keep forgetting to tell her about?  Or is there something you need to change?  Proctor & Gamble is having a great success with an ongoing series of “immersion” studies.  They've gotten important feedback from surveys, but it was only when they had a group of mothers wear headgear cameras throughout the day (giving them a bird’s eye view of what the mother sees) that they discovered new ways of packaging diapers and baby wipes that made them easier to use.  Information like this is the reason P&G profits are on a steady incline.

As Margaret Mead said,  “Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.”  Why not experiment with a little anthropological expedition of your own?  Venture out into new territory – and prepare to be astonished.

Comments

[Holly Buchanan]

Right on as usual Michele.

in order to truly understand her, you have to look at her whole life. Asking her questions, you can determine her surface needs. But observing her and seeing how she uses your product in the context of her real world - that will give you much deeper and richer insights.

You may even discover needs she didn't even realize she had. Providing solutions before she even has to ask for them - that's a company I'd like to do business with.

Holly