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How Well Do You Know Your Customers?
Posted by Becky Carroll on March 27, 2007
I love Stan Lee’s blog Brand DNA. He posted earlier this month on something that really made me stop and think. The post called Kids of Today shares a pithy quote from a 19-year old college student (found by Stan at Leo B Toronto’s blog):
“Sometimes a prof will ask you to watch a program for school and it’s not something you’d be able to track down on YouTube.”
So, you think you know what your customers are doing with your product? Think again.
What’s the best way to find out? Talk to them! I posted on how to listen to your customers earlier in March. It is so critical to interact with your customers in order to learn from them. You can’t get some of this information from a market research report. There is just no substitute for meeting customers face to face and really understanding what they do and how they do it.
So, what are you waiting for? Get out and get to know your customers today!
(Photo uploaded by redbaron)
Customers Rock! 
Gavin Heaton said
I am a big fan of Stan’s blog too … he used to teach at a university (or perhaps still does a bit) so has a lot of interaction with students. The way they consume media and engage with technology is fundamentally different from the way that many marketers are positioning their brands and their customer experiences.
If we don’t start listening whole markets will shift to those that do.
Lewis Green said
Great post! Market research should include getting out and mingling with our customers (and our clients’ customers) as one of the tactics.
Becky Carroll said
Gavin,
Thanks for sharing about Stan’s background; that helps explain things! You are right about understanding the differing needs of students and their media consumption patterns. If we reach out to our existing base of youth customers, we can probably learn quite a bit if we really listen!
Lewis, thanks for the compliment! Market research that doesn’t “mix and mingle” is missing a big part of understanding ours (and our clients’) customers. Great to see you stop by.
Becky