It is said of Horatio Nelson, that great British Admiral, that, in order to avoid the clear visual evidence of massing enemy vessels, he raised his telescope to his blind eye and announced, "I see no ships."
Nelson was then free to make his decisions based on judgment rather than data.
How often do CMOs raise the telescope to the blind eye, or look down the wrong end, or somehow work with the wrong view? There are many temptations, red herrings and blind alleys (to mix several metaphors).
The most common -- and most dangerous -- obstructed view is the Consumer View. We all talk earnestly about the consumer-centered organization, about consumer service, and consumer satisfaction. But in many cases, we can't see the consumer (or hear them) or we turn a blind eye.
Even in traditional packaged goods companies, where marketers pride themselves on a marketing process that starts with consumer understanding, our eyes are not fully open. Packaged goods marketers often say that their number one goal is brand share. That betrays a product view -- the product's share of its category. Looking at share delivers a very one-dimensional view, and it's not of the consumer.
Packaged goods categories tend to develop marketing silos -- the channels silos, the online versus offline silos, the product silos -- and lose the consumer viewpoint. Consumers expect a great and consistent brand experience whether they encounter it at 7-11 or Wal*Mart, in large size or small, online or offline, at Staples or Staples.com. If marketers can only see the consumer through the limited view of the product lens, then their vaunted consumer understanding is an empty boast.
If marketers can only see the consumer through the limited view of the product lens, then their vaunted consumer understanding is an empty boast.
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Services businesses suffer from an even more obstructed view. This is counter-intuitive since the front line (the teller, the call center employee, the service delivery driver) has one-to-one contact with consumers every day. However, it is data that gets in the way.
While the data originates as a consumer encounter, it arrives on the marketer's desk as data about transactions, or about products. Banking encounters one of the greatest challenges here. No field offers the marketer more potential -- a category rife with potential for marketing based on emotional understanding and emotional benefits (it's their money!), a category based on frequent consumer interaction, and a category with tremendous data, both internal to the bank and external (car ownership, purchase data, census data etc).
Yet consumer banking misses the great emotional sweep of the consumer's hopes and dreams, ambitions for their families, adventures in education or travel or home ownership. Banking sells products -- credit cards, loans, mortgages and the like and their product marketing looks just like anyone else's.
And product companies (consumer electronics, consumer technology) have the most rigid product view. One CMO was heard to remark that product managers are a plague on the company (true--I just can't attribute it!). Why? Because they focus tightly on their launch window, their features and their costs -- not on the consumer. Product companies may have some consumer data but they rarely have a culture that truly understands consumers and their feelings and emotions -- the statements they want to make, the design environment they are seeking to construct, the "female" values of design versus the "male" values of function.
The most removed view is probably the engineering view. "Engineer it and they will come" is often the mentality in technology companies where the product development process is determinedly backwards, with consumers' input received in terms of whether they bought the product or not. It's impossible to see they consumer through this lens.
"Engineer it and they will come" is often the mentality in technology companies, where the product development process is determinedly backwards.
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There are other views that are misleading. The trade view -- or channel view -- is certainly one. Marketers forget that the channel is simply a conduit to the consumer. Yes, it's important to optimize channel management, but consumer demand solves all channel problems and a strong consumer relationship crosses channels.
Ask yourself this: can your organization "see" the consumer (which is a lot different from seeing consumer transaction data or encountering the consumer at the call center every day)? Can your organization construct a cogent consumer view based on a comprehensive analysis of behavioral, survey and research data? Does your organization's marketing thought process start from consumer understanding? Are you enhancing this understanding to the point that you have consumer insights that constitute a competitive advantage?
If your answer is, "I see no consumers," then put your telescope to the other eye.
Hunter Hastings is managing partner of EMM Consulting Group, which advises companies on how to implement Enterprise Marketing Management, a multi-faceted system for global brand management combining marketing knowledge, best practice processes and training with collaborative software, marketing tools and infrastructure. He can be reached at HunterHastings@EMMConsulting.net
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