I recently came across a quote from Jonah Sachs: "Good marketers see consumers as complete human beings with all the dimensions real people have." There's no greater challenge that all marketers face in the businesses that they serve than understanding their consumers as complete human beings. Nothing will give you insight into the depth and the scope of human experience more than reading large volumes of customer's reviews and feedback, but I must warn you this exploration is not for the faint of heart or the egocentric business owner.
When developing our client's marketing strategy, we frequently have to ensure that the voice of the consumer is reflected in all our marketing efforts. There are a tremendous variety of tools that can help you in that endeavor, one of which is customer surveys, which must include an opportunity for them to express their point of view, not just rating scores. Another invaluable tool is call tracking which includes recordings of customer interactions. Today there are very sophisticated software tools which can assist a business in mining the valuable data related to what their customers (human beings) actually think and feel about their business or service.
A few years ago, I came across a book about web design which had one of the most powerful titles I can remember reading in a long time. The title was "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. I believe it is a basic part of human nature that when people are searching for businesses or services, they want to quickly understand what you do, how you do it, and how can they potentially do business with you. All of your marketing should be designed so as to readily address these fundamental concerns. Real people (human beings) rarely articulate their needs in technical terms or using industry specific jargon.
A related quote that talks to the current state of branding for businesses is "A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is- it is what the consumers tell each other it is", Scott Cook. The more you study what your customers say about you and the way they say it, the more it gives you the opportunity to influence what they will say to others about you. A positioning statement or slogan is only powerful to the extent that it connects with your potential customers in ways real people connect with each other.
The reason the name of our company is the Customer Focused Marketing Group is because it is our mission to help the businesses we work with have a clear focus on the customers as human beings. Of course this will all change when we ultimately succeed in creating artificial intelligence, but that will be a blog for another time. In the meantime, focus on your customers as real people with all the dimensions of human beings and you will see greater success and efficiency in all that you do.
