This is article five of six in a series of lessons for small business marketers from Malcolm Gladwell. To blink.
Wow, what a great chapter for marketers Chapter Five on To blink is. This quote on p. 160 summarizes the ideas of a great marketer (Louis Cheskin) on packaging: “Cheskin was convinced that when people give an assessment of something that they could buy in a supermarket or in a department store, without realizing it, they transmit feelings or impressions that have”. about product packaging to the product itself. To put it another way, Cheskin believed that most of us do not make a distinction, on an unconscious level, between the package and the product. The product is the bundle and the combined product.”
A key concept in this chapter is that experts are often more reliable in identifying what will (or won’t) work in the marketplace than market research based on consumer surveys. So for small business marketers, this chapter is a must read. You know very well that you rarely have the money for consumer surveys.
Gladwell explores the New Coke debacle and the incompleteness of the market research that led to it. Although this is a well-known marketing error, Gladwell provides his typical behind-the-scenes news story, giving us clues as to why the marketing information Coca-Cola marketers used to base his decision on was faulty to begin with.
Even more fascinating is his exploration of a musician named Kenna, a person who music experts say should be a hit, but can’t make the top 40 on radio because market research can’t capture the same information as experts see in the blink of an eye.
Why? Because as Gladwell points out, the “…first impressions of the experts are different…more esoteric and complex.” (p. 179). Kenna’s music is different and it’s hard to put a specific label on it, so music market research can’t adequately measure it.
Gladwell also recounts the story of the Aeron chair, a completely innovative-looking new product that even the experts said would fail. But with this chair, which looked so different, people didn’t know how they felt about it; Gladwell says that consumers “misinterpreted their own feelings” (p. 173). Market research indicated that the chair would fail, but it didn’t, because it was a great product.
What does this chapter mean for a small business owner? Two lessons.
For one, we need to understand the limits of market research. This method is not foolproof nor will it guarantee market success or prevent market failure.
Second, a small business owner must learn to recognize in which areas she is an expert and in which she is not. In areas where you know you’re an expert, where your years of experience have taught you well and you can now figure out something in the blink of an eye about your industry or your industry in relation to your customers, well, in those themes is a safe bet. that you really are an expert.
However, a key pitfall is thinking that you are an expert in all areas of your business. You are not, and even your customers are not. They’re very savvy shoppers, but they’re also not always aware of why they do what they do…so where possible, study what they do and then figure out ways to alter that behavior to your advantage.
Remember: Brand (who you are) + Package (your Customer Face) + People (customers and employees) = Marketing Success.
© 2006 Marketing Hawks