Marketing Myth: The Customer is Always Right

Step aside, old myth! It’s time to debunk the notion that the customer is always right. While customer satisfaction is crucial, it’s equally important to strike a balance with your business goals, budget, and ethics. Let’s dive into the truth bomb of customer orientation and discover how it can shape successful marketing strategies.

Customer Orientation: The Foundation of Marketing

Customer Orientation stands tall as the cornerstone of marketing. It revolves around understanding your clients, their needs, and desires. By placing customers at the heart of your marketing efforts, you can customize your offerings to meet their requirements and provide exceptional experiences. But here’s the catch—it’s not always about saying “yes” to every demand.

The Pillars of Customer Orientation

Customer Understanding: Get to know your customers through market research, surveys, and meaningful conversations. Grasp their needs, preferences, and pain points to tailor your approach accordingly.
Customer Segmentation: Categorize your target audience based on demographics, psychographics, buying behavior, and preferences. Create personas that become an integral part of your company’s fabric.
Customer Value Proposition: Highlight the unique value and benefits you provide to address their needs and solve their problems effectively.
Customer Lifetime Value: While acquiring new customers is important, nurturing long-term relationships is equally vital. Encourage repeat purchases, referrals, and customer advocacy to maximize their lifetime value.

Navigating the Balance

Remember, customer orientation doesn’t mean surrendering to every demand. Accommodate reasonable requests, but be cautious of detrimental decisions. Not all customers are the right fit for your business. Satisfaction doesn’t guarantee loyalty, and it’s better to let go of clients who aren’t a good match. Your best customers will understand and appreciate the value you offer.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

If a customer request aligns with your capabilities and won’t compromise your business, go for it! It demonstrates your commitment and partnership. Allow me to share a personal experience from my time leading the digital learning division of our company. We received a client request that initially seemed overwhelming, but by collaborating closely with the client and finding innovative solutions, we not only met their needs but also generated significant revenue for our firm. Because of our willingness to listen to them, they became a multi-year client, and even better, the product we created for them became a staple of our portfolio for other clients for more than a decade.

“The Client Doesn’t Know What They Want Until They See It”

My teenage children run a successful Etsy store catering to busy moms who need custom signs for events. They understand their customers’ time constraints and limited budgets. When feasible, they fulfill personalized requests, resulting in a catalog of positive reviews and more than 4,000 satisfied customers. They know the power of being customer-oriented and adapting to their clients’ needs.

Wrap Up

The myth of “The Customer is Always Right” crumbles in the face of customer orientation. Strive to understand your customers, offer tailored solutions when feasible, and maintain a healthy balance with your business goals. By embracing customer orientation, you can create lasting relationships, foster growth, and unlock the true potential of your marketing endeavors.

THINK: It’s important to focus on your customers’ needs, but should you always cater to them without question?

THOUGHT: “The customer is not always right … but they are always the customer.” -Don Gallegos

Overcoming Marketing Challenges

There is a story about Xerxes I, the King of Kings in Persia, who was trying to cross into Greece at Hellespont but a storm destroyed their bridge. Xerxes ordered that the water be punished by lashing it and burning it. He also beheaded all of the engineers.

What does this have to do with marketing, you ask? Well, marketing is all about overcoming obstacles and achieving goals. Like Xerxes, marketers face challenges every day that seem insurmountable. It could be a tight budget, a competitive market, or changing consumer behavior. But just like Xerxes, marketers must be determined and find ways to overcome these challenges.

If your marketing isn’t pulling the results you need, don’t punish the water. You need to lean in and address the three “R”s.

Reevaluate your goals. Maybe they are unrealistic and totally unachievable. Perhaps you bit off more than you can chew?
Reassess your strategies. Are they lining up with your key objectives? If not, adjust them.
Resist the unimportant. Your time is valuable—focus your energy on the things that matter most!

Xerxes’ attempt to beat the ocean may seem like a foolish and futile act, but it serves as a metaphor for all marketers to stay in the moment and work for results.

THINK: Are you on track to hit your goals?

THOUGHT: To achieve goals you’ve never achieved before, you need to start doing things you’ve never done before. -Stephen R. Covey

Marketing to the end of the row.

I grew up next to a large apple orchard. I never bothered to count all of the trees, suffice it to say there were a lot and—like all living things—they needed water.

To accomplish this my dad would hook the plow up to the tractor and systematically carve straight and deep furrows down each row next to the trees.

Then came my favorite part.

Every couple of weeks we’d get to drop in the headgate which would create a dam in the creek and divert the mountain stream around our property in a series of smaller channels or ditches. When the water got to the orchard it would spill through openings in the embankment and spread down the hundreds of smaller furrows that dad had plowed. However, there were always the furrows that I had tromped down while playing in the orchard which prevented the water from getting to the end of the row. I didn’t know this was a problem until my dad taught me a core principle—to succeed in my job I needed to eliminate obstructions in order for the water to flow down a clear path to the trees. It was simple. No water, no trees. No trees, no apples.

As a kid learning how to irrigate an orchard required a shovel to dig out the dirt I’d kicked into the furrow. As a marketer learning how to attract customers requires the right message and the right channels for that message to reach the right audience.

THINK: Do you need to clean out any marketing furrows? Can you simplify the path to communicate with your prospect? Are there any rocks or weeds you need to clear away?

THOUGHT: “We have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist.” – Wendell Berry

Yet.

Your clients are waiting for you. They just don’t know it. They haven’t heard the reasons why. They haven’t been told the stories of your product or service. Their friends haven’t referred them to you. They don’t know that they need what you have to solve a problem they don’t realize they have.

What will you do to open their eyes to the real possibility that there is something better than the status quo? Something that will take them further than the “tried and true” of current vendors, solutions, and DIY home remedies.

What will it take to break their minds and turn their heads so they see you—finally. And understand the power of a different choice.

Switching costs are real and this requires change and change is hard. But the market we’re talking about doesn’t even know about the costs of change you want to impose on them because they don’t know who you are. And they don’t think they have a problem because there’s no pain. And people buy mostly on pain, not the future promise of gain. Once they understand they have a problem and see the effects of the problem on their mission or their goals or their strategy or something even closer to them—their wallet—then their senses begin to kick in. They start to see the problem and eventually it will become so vivid that they can’t unsee it.

One day my daughter introduced me to an interesting experiment. She said the next time you’re driving look at the other cars and you’re guaranteed to see a green Kia Soul. Then, every day from that time forward you will see a green Kia Soul. Try it. It’s true. The Green Kia Soul phenomenon is at the core of moving people toward your solution. They just haven’t been told to look for it. Yet.

Regardless of your role, shine.

Running from a meeting in Stockholm, trying to get to the train station, the big storm hits. Buckets of water are falling. I hail a cab. Throw my suitcase in the trunk and jump in.

The driver asks, “Where are you going?”

“The train station,” I reply.

“Then get out of my cab.”

He was serious.

Confused, I clambered out into the grey weather and hailed another cab.

“Where are you going?”

“The train station.”

“Sorry. I can’t take you there.”

Was it my American accent? My suit? The fact that I was soaked head to toe? I hailed another and jumped in. Only to be denied again!

I was very puzzled. Rejected, I started walking the two miles to the train station when another cab pulled up.

“Need a ride?” yelled the driver.

I bent into his window and said I couldn’t accept a ride because I was just going to the train station. “Get in,” he replied.

So I did, and he drove. As we approached the train station I asked him why the other cabs wouldn’t take me.

He said, “Those other men are fools. They are just looking for the big money, the big jobs. I’m a cab driver and my job is to drive people. I don’t care where people are going.”

I’m a cab driver. I’m a salesman. I’m a mom. I’m a dentist. I’m a florist. I’m a tailor. I’m a student. I’m a friend. I’m a daughter. I’m a leader. No matter your role, do it with excellence regardless the payout, big or small. Just shine regardless of your circumstance.

Oh, and the driver that saved me from drowning? I’m sure he’s still telling stories about the size of the tip he got that day.

THINK: What can you do today, right now, that will show others you care about your role?

THOUGHT: “What-E’er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part.” – Shakespeare

Image copyright Brisbane City Council. Used with permission. https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/250398580

How 20 Boys Picked the Poorest Sledding Hill

Twenty boys on a winter campout were given three sledding hill options. The camp director told them they could sled on 1. the road by the cabins, 2. the road above the cabins, 3. if they wanted to hike up the hill they could sled on… (dramatic pause) “HAMMERHEAD”. Given the three options, there was only one obvious choice for the boys.

As we marched to Hammerhead we passed the other two sledding roads. Both were much longer, fairly steep and had ample opportunities to build jumps and other challenges. “Hammerhead” was steep but short, with a narrow path so only one boy at a time could sled—in my mind, a lesser option.

If the sledding roads had names like “Annihilation Blizzard”, “Nightmare Tornado” or “Triple Avalanche” I guarantee they’d have a line of boys a mile long to ride them. Instead, they chose a lesser product.

Naming your product may seem like it’s just a creative activity. In reality there needs to be some “science” behind it, as well as a bit of good judgment.

To properly name your product or service you need to understand your buyer. A teenage boy will most likely relate to adventure, danger, and excitement. But is that what his mom wants? Nope. She want a sledding hill named, “Safety Zone”, “Slo-Mo”, or “Momma’s Boy”. Who are you targeting: the boy or the mom or both? Creating a persona will help you understand your buyer and your consumer and what they prefer. Here’s a great model I recommend from UXPressia.com.

Once you understand your target audience everything you do will be better, not just naming your product, but creating your value proposition, packaging, messaging and all other components of your marketing. It’s not an easy task yet if you put in the time you will find immense benefits that will last a lot longer than a ride down Hammerhead.

Think: Talk with two friends about products they use and what they think of the name.

Thought: “Your parents name you, but they haven’t a clue who you are. Your friends nickname you because they know exactly who you are. You can be born Elvis Presley. But Reg Dwight is not going to make it unless he has this ritual where he becomes Elton John.” —Sting (aka Gordon Sumner)

(NOTE: I’ve discussed naming issues before in this blog as they relate to how NOAA names hurricanes.)

Why did she buy the shower cleaner? The reason may surprise you.

Recently, when conducting research on why people purchased a specific brand of shower cleaner I was shocked at one of the responses from a member of the focus group.

Did she buy it because of the brand name? Did she buy it because the label said “Heavy Duty”? Did she buy it because a friend recommended it?

No, no and no.

She bought it because of something a marketer probably didn’t think of—she wanted a product to use while she’s standing in the shower taking a shower. When I pressed on this question she said, “I’m a busy mom, and my time is precious. If those scrubbing bubbles will clean the shower while I’m washing my hair, I’ll do it.”

I recently read a book by Harvard Business Professor, Clayton Christensen, entitled, Competing Against Luck, The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. (Buy it and devour it because it will forever change the way to think about marketing.) FranklinCovey has taken it one step further and created a workshop based on Clayton Christensen’s theories called, Find Out Why. One of the core premises of the book is that your product development team may be creating products that don’t match the need of the consumer. As a result, your marketing team is promoting the product incorrectly. To find the real reason people like and use your product, you need to interview them and dive deep into why they chose your product over another solution.

The woman from the focus group could’ve used any number of solutions to solve her circumstance of, “I’m a busy mom and need to clean my shower,” including hiring a cleaning service. But her financial situation may not allow her the luxury to do that. Instead, she improvised on something that met her need.

With this information in hand, should someone create a shower cleaner that is designed for this specific purpose? Perhaps create a non-toxic version of the product and market it as such? (I have to admit that I was concerned about the toxicity of the product when I heard her talking.) Regardless, there’s a market for this solution. Don’t believe me? Check these out these posts:

Exhibit A: “Cleaning the shower while taking a shower.”

Exhibit B: “Cleaning the shower while in it and naked.”

Exhibit C: “What is the easiest way to clean a shower?”

Think: What problem do your clients have and what “work-around” have they discovered? How can you build and market a solution to meet these needs?

Thought: “Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation.”—Dean Kamen

Will lemon juice make you invisible?

In 1995 a very mistaken man named McArthur Wheeler thought that if he wiped lemon juice on his face it would make him invisible, after all it is considered invisible ink, right? And logic would suggest that invisible ink would make anything invisible, right?

Wrong. Very, very wrong.

With his lemon juice mask he robbed two banks in Pittsburgh, was quickly identified on security cameras, tracked down, and booked into jail.

The stupidity of this can be explained by something called the Dunning-Kruger effect where people judge themselves as knowing more or being better than they really are.

This became very obvious last weekend while skiing with my 14-year old son. I’ve always had a perception that I was a pretty good skier until he said we should try a double-black diamond that I’d never attempted. (For those of you unfamiliar with how ski runs are ranked, “Green Circle” for easiest, “Blue Square” for intermediate, “Black Diamond” for advanced, and “Double-black Diamond” for expert only. I quickly learned that I was a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect as I slid, fell, and struggled on the hill as my son, and many others, swooshed on by.

The problem is that many of us are blind to our own deficiencies and it’s nearly impossible to know when we’re experiencing this effect, until you’ve already experienced it.

Think: What have you done while developing your marketing strategies that falls into the Dunning-Kruger effect? What will you do to prevent it next time?

Thought: “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” —Confucius

They added live music

I have a favorite restaurant near my house called Even Stevens. They have great food (I like the Turkey Day sandwich with a side of chips, which they pepper) but they also have a great atmosphere and a social cause (they give one sandwich to a local group in need for every one you buy). Each of their restaurants is designed with some sort of theme from the local community. The one near me is decorated with old dirt bikes hanging on the walls and videos of 1970’s dirt bike races — paying homage to something call the “Widow Maker Hill Climb” which was a thing back in the 70’s. I don’t think anyone was ever made a widow, but the dudes on their bikes were fun to watch.

I took two of my kids there today to reward them for their hard work in our yard, and when we walked in we could hear someone singing and playing the guitar.

The person taking my order told me they were trying something new by having musicians play at lunch. Now, instead of just eating my food and leaving, I found myself captured listening to the music and absorbing one more element to their brand. All of the songs were from the 60’s and 70’s which fit what they were aiming for, and it worked.

Challenge: think about something you could add to your product/service that can be a brand additive — something that makes people think you care about them and that builds you up in their minds. It will only help cement your positive vibe.

Marketing Mashup

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