JEREMYCWILSON.COM

You are not Normal

In business school we learn a lot about targeting. We think about our target customers: where they live, what they like, and what they want. And we consider ways we can get them to buy our product. We also think a lot about things like positioning statements, primary demand, and demand stimulation to optimize our launch strategy. Only one problem. After all this analysis, how do we know that our product will be adopted by customers in the market?

At Kellogg, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to sell our products in the market. That is to say, how to sell the right PRODUCT, in the right PLACE, at the right TIME. So we do a lot of research, analyze the people, run numbers on market size, and think a lot about what it is they want. Deep down at the core.

But there’s one fundamental problem with this. Especially when you’re looking at developing counties. The problem is that more often than not, we have no idea what the customer wants. We don’t know what type of detergent a mother might want in Brazil. We don’t know what type of clothing they might want in Bali. In fact, we don’t even know what types of television shows people prefer to watch in the US.

The problem is that there is a big disconnect between the people that make these marketing decisions and the consumers. Because MBAs and law students are NOT the average person. In large part our lives are different, we have the great privilege of going to schools like Northwestern and living in developed cities like Chicago.

Think about it. While MBAs from top schools might watch 1 hour of tv per day at most, the average person leaves the TV on for more than 8 hours.  While I have not eaten fast food in over 5 years, the average person eats it almost every day. And while job prospects out of our schools are in the six figure range, the average income for an entire family is under $50K in the US, and much lower all around the world.

The best thing I’ve ever learned in business school, comes from my Marketing Professor Julie Hennessy.  She told us over and over:  “You are not normal.” You don’t know what the customer wants.  Your job as a business person is to figure it out.