How good a listener are you?
What’s the most important feature of any brand? Its brain. What? Sure.
And the brain is connected to the ears, which are meant to take in data from the environment and the target audience in order to craft educated guesses (hypotheses) about what the consumer will want next.
Two quick stories. You’ve probably heard them before.
First, Malcolm Gladwell relates that Herman Miller’s focus group told them the Aeron chair was the ugliest piece of furniture they’d ever laid eyes on. But HM bet that function would win over form and that a new aesthetic might be created. HM did a good job of listening to what consumers were really SAYING, not just the words that were coming out of their mouths.
Second, think about heated seats and back-up cameras in upscale cars. Author Harry Beckwith calls these the “possible service” or products. These were not the result of throngs of people pounding on the doors to Toyota headquarters. The company anticipated a need before it completely manifested itself in the market.
What’s the secret? We’ll give you a hint. You probably will need to change the way you think. Think string cheese. Think yogurt in a tube. Think cholesterol-reducing cheese and spread. Then you’ll be close.
Now think about delivering fresh, frozen ice cream to purchase decision-makers to illustrate the speed of a client’s product. Or award-winning, effective advertising to increase participation in family dinner day.
Our goal is to be the partner of choice for more food companies who want to read between the lines of the market reports and consumer focus group transcripts to anticipate the next big thing before anyone else even has an inkling.
Have a profitable day, think well, and drop us a line.
Tags: anticipating needs, consumer hypothesis, consumer targeting, educated guess, food marketing, food marketing blog, market hypothesis
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