“The customer is always right” is a mantra I picture a Karen from Brighton type saying as she requests to speak to the manager. Since the customers buy your products loads of business treat their words as gospel, but I don’t believe customers are the greatest indication of whether a product will sell or not. Crazy right? Let me explain.
As human beings our predictions for the future are based on our past experiences meaning that we cannot simply tell what is going to happen from a true place of objectivity. So, when asked what you want from a product or brand there’s no way to truly tell if your being told a genuine insight or well absolute bull.
A wonderful example of this is Apple a brand notoriously known for not listening to their customers. If they did their phones would have headphone jacks, the phones would be cheaper, harder to break, last longer… The list goes on. The customer isn’t right otherwise Apple would have failed years ago generally speaking they need to be shown what they want.
Creating desire for brands is the role of marketer and understanding when, where, how and why they are listening to customers is the trick. If every brand listened to the customer entirely and based their marketing, branding and products on this we would live in a very boring world. For two simple reasons.
Let’s face it the customer doesn’t want our marketing, products or branding in their lives outside of when they need or desire it.
- Creativity would die
If every company went off the exact same insights then every product, service, brand or piece of marketing would answer the same exact needs. We wouldn’t need to be creative we would just need to look like everyone else.
So, should you listen to your customers? Well, the answer is yes and no. You need to choose what is valuable information and filter out then rest. Your brand, values, mission and employees all come first the customer comes second.
THE NO-BULL BRANDER 