Practice does not solve the problem, nor does it create business or cost reduction, but it can improve our ability to look at the right point of view and act in the right way.
An old friend of mine recently asked me, “what do you think is the way of marketing?” I have to think well of this question. The best answer I can give is that marketing is a capability to see problems through a customer perspective.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to see problems from the perspective of customers. If we want to see what our customers see, we must achieve that: we do not understand what they do not understand. And this is impossible. We always know more about our company and products than our customers. We can’t turn what we really know into something that we don’t understand.
Luckily, marketing is a bit like golf. Even tiger Woods could never score 18 shots in one shot. But we don’t have to get a full mark to win. We only need to get a better score than our competitors. Then, from the perspective of the customer, how can we improve our score?
What we need to do is to keep learning and practicing repeatedly like tiger Woods. Here are six exercises I described in the book “detail marketing: everything you do not know in marketing” (TheMarketingYouNeverKnew). These exercises do not solve the problem, nor can we start business, or cut costs, but it can improve our ability to look at the right point of view and act in the right way.
Live all the time in reality
Recently, I gave a marketing research report to a fast consumer company boss. Sitting in his office, I saw that the company’s products were placed in a beautiful glass display cabinet. The lights and mirrors in the cabinet were extremely hazy, creating a wonderful effect. I pointed out to him that every time he passed through the beautiful glass cabinet with his eyes, he was deceiving himself. Because consumers actually see a variety of products every day, and his company’s products only occupy 15% of the space on the shelves. Moreover, some competitors’ products look similar to those of him. I propose that he accept my suggestion, replace this beautiful glass cabinet with a common common shelf in a supermarket, and put all the competitors’ products on the shelf besides placing their own products. He really listened to my advice. Now, whenever he looks up, what he sees is real reality. I think this will greatly change his judgment of the problem. Of course, if his salesman knows that the boss is a person who is willing to understand the real situation and grasp the actual situation, there will be nothing wrong with it.
Talk to old customers
Listen carefully to their conversation and find out the real reasons why these old customers leave you. These old customers are not satisfied with you, so you can’t expect them to make pleasant words to make you comfortable and warm. But it’s just that they can tell you a lot of things. Like journalists, they should talk to a politician’s ex-wife rather than his current wife. For example, credit card companies MBNA asked its senior manager to call former customers and ask them to come back and continue to receive MBNA services. There is no doubt that this method can make people learn more about business than the research reports painted by market research companies.
Hire important personnel from customers
Many companies have already done this. In fact, IBM hired a former major client, Gerstner, to become LouGerstner’s CEO before saving herself. At that time, almost everyone in IBM company, virtually everyone in the computer industry, thought that IBM needed immediate separation to find a way to survive. Gerstner knows little about computers, or he doesn’t know anything about computers. However, he used to be a IBM customer, so he knew – not to know that the main problem of IBM was the lack of collaboration between the regional divisions and the products, which could not be solved by split. On the contrary, it needs to strengthen the integration and collaboration of all parts of the company. Why does no one in IBM think about this? Because of course, when you are not a client, it is hard for you to think from a customer’s point of view.
Let your clients manage to help you
Maybe you should ask your potential customers to review your new advertisements and let them approve or reject your advertising ideas. Or when you have meetings with marketing personnel and advertising companies, ask these customers to attend meetings and express their opinions. The brand manager of a famous European company who produced laundry detergent once told me: “we always ask customers’ opinions and reactions before advertising.” But the question is why do we need to get customers’ opinions to be screened through your mind? You know, you are likely to be ignorant.
Imagine if advertising agencies knew in advance that housewives would like or dislike their advertisements, would this affect their advertising production? Yes, I think it is。 They try to make advertisements that attract housewives instead of attracting marketing managers, because the former is the one who buys detergent, and the latter is only the person who buys advertising.
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