Slip into their shoes

If you are a marketer, selling goods, services or self, you often come up with some great marketing ideas, create a communication on those lines, assured of a great response and wham! It tanks with the consumer or the audience. And you are left disappointed, wondering where you went wrong.

Years ago, I recall being approached by an Automobile Company to pitch a new middle segment car they were launching in India.

Keeping the price point in mind, I figured it could be positioned either as a 1st purchase or as a replacement for the old one. All marketing communications planned, revolved around these two thoughts.

I wracked my mind round the clock and prepared what I thought was a perfect pitch. And before I could submit it to the company, something made me hold back. I realized I had prepared something ‘on my own’, keeping only my perspectives and backed by some, ‘on line’ research. I stalled.

I took time off and spent a couple of days speaking to people from different incomes, backgrounds, age, culture, status and was pleasantly surprised at the end of the period, at the kind of responses I had collected. I could never imagine somebody would want to buy a car to prove to his ‘Dad’, that he was not the useless son, he was made out to be, but one, who was earning enough to afford a car on his own. Owning a car seemed a validation for him.

The research gave birth to insights into varied thoughts that go behind a purchase.

The crux being, to be a good marketer you must, ‘Slip into their shoes’. And truly, this applies to every area of life if you wish to make a mark.

Even if you are preparing for a talk, your target audience should decide, your language, your attire, your interactive activities and your anecdotes, even if the topic remains the same.

In today’s times, what is sorely missing, is ‘on the field’, research. Most people these days, rush to ‘online research’, for statistical data and content, quite forgetting, the ‘human element’ behind the purchase, the ‘human’ whose perspectives can change from time to time. Collected statistics can run their course with time, and lose their relevance in present times.

20 years ago, you may have bought a ‘fairness’ cream to lighten your skin on order to look beautiful, but today it won’t for the same reasons. Perspectives have changed. Beauty has no bearing on fairness among the current generation. However, if consumers feel a radiant skin makes them feel good about themselves, the product wins!

Understanding that a consumer is the ’king’ is not simply about ‘after sales’ service or going backwards to make a sale. It begins much earlier when you reach out to understand what drives the purchase. This helps in crafting the messages, the way the consumer understands it, appreciates it and buys it.

The entire experience of COVID-19 world over would have altered so many perspectives for different people. It would be interesting for any marketer to study it and alter the communication to a changed audience.

In days to come, compelling economic imperatives will change the mindset of consumers and hence marketers have to come up with an appropriate message to revive consumer demand.

The ‘consumer field’, is an interesting arena to judge what works and what doesn’t in the most authentic manner. The human mind is and will always be, the best research area.

‘In their shoes’, feeling their comfort and pinch points, go a long in getting it right!