How In Tune Are You With Your Customers?
April 8, 2017 by Paul Lopushinsky
Did you see the recent Pepsi Max ad that got flack from all corners?
Watching it, my jaw was on the floor. I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t satire. It was so out of touch, awful, and completely missed the mark that it was absolutely fascinating to watch. To think that 100s of people worked on this commercial, and higher-ups gave it the go just boggles my mind.
If you haven’t seen the commercial, no description can give it justice. You have to experience it. The ad has been pulled, so by the time you read this, the video below may not be there.
Don’t worry, the internet will make sure it is preserved.
Talk about missing the mark.
Granted, Pepsi has been around for a very long time and has an international customer base. According to Wikipedia, 264 000 work for Pepsi. Watching the ad above brought this popular internet image to mind:
I’m always fascinated when companies, especially large, international companies, completely miss the mark when it comes to products and listening to customers.
Let’s look at another large company fiasco: The Microsoft Xbox One DRM clusterfuck from 2013.
It’s hard to fully explain exactly what happened, because there was so much backlash and back-pedalling on Microsoft’s part. For a few weeks, it seemed like everyday there was a correction on the communication. Would the system always need to be connected online, or just once every 24 hours? Wait, was the Kinect required for use, or was that now optional?
Here’s an article prior to the Xbox One launch in late 2013 that helps break it down:
I’m having trouble keeping track of all the Xbox One u-turns. First the DRM, used-game restrictions and always-online requirement disappeared, then it turned out it’ll come with a headset after all, and now new Kinect — that last unpopular stipulation to Xbox One ownership — has apparently been demoted to an optional accessory that doesn’t need to be plugged in at all times after all. The Xbox One at this moment pretty much a totally different console to the one Microsoft announced in May. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if they changed the name next.
I’d recommend checking out the article to get a better idea of just how much Microsoft back-peddled on previous decisions, and at the time, there was just so much confusion 0f what was going to be in the Xbox One and what it wasn’t going to be. There was a change in leadership in the Xbox team during the whole episode. Releasing around the same time, the Xbox One’s direct competitor, the Sony Playstation 4, simply let Microsoft dig themselves a hole and stayed their own course. In regards to sales, Sony has managed to stay ahead of Microsoft since.
Video Game Website Giant Bomb did a great little retrospective in late 2015 about the Xbox One initial plans launch on their podcast.
Ok Paul…that’s great, but these are giant, multi-billion dollar companies with thousands of employees with millions or billions of customers all around the world.
We’re a small company! You can fit us all in one room, or one office! We know everyone’s name at the company! We know our customers!
And yes, of course when you’re at a smaller size, scope, and scale, it’s easy to keep in touch with reality.
However, I’m sure you’re aware of the biggest reasons why startups fail:
CB Insights recently parsed 101 post-mortem essays by startup founders to pinpoint the reasons they believe their company failed. On Thursday the company crunched the numbers to reveal that the number-one reason for failure, cited by 42% of polled startups, is the lack of a market need for their product.
Is there any bigger way than not being in touch with customers than starting a company that fails because of no market need?
Now, I can hear some of these failed companies now:
- Our product was simply ahead of its time! If only the rest of the world would catch up with us!
- People didn’t understand how to use our product!
- We had customers! We just didn’t have enough.
- We scaled too fast!
Yes, these are all valid cases. There have been a number of products ahead of their time, and a few years down the road another company got it right (or, in rare cases, the same company).
That said, if the product was a failure, or there was no market need, your product was simply out of touch with what you thought were your customers, and the world around you.
So, how do you avoid this happening? How do you stay in tune with your customers?
Well, as I’ve talked about in the past, you need to constantly be in contact with your customers and observing what they’re doing.
This means real conversations and observations. No judgement, just listening. Being a fly on the wall when needed.
Don’t be like Hooli.
Test before launching.
The MVP. The RAT. Whatever you want to call it. Did your company even bother reaching out to others, or observing of what you were building was needed? Yes, this is incredibly obvious, but I wonder of all those companies that failed to because of lack of market need actually did so.
It’s easy to assume that you are in tune with your customers.
Whether that is past success with your company and products, or what your research shows, it’s easy to think that you’re in tune with your customers.
As a result, this overconfidence can lead you to coming across as the uncle who is trying to be cool with the kids these days.
Don’t be that kind of uncle.
Originally published at www.pmpaul.com on April 8, 2017.
