Monday, September 29, 2014

Thinking like a customer

I experienced a good demonstration of marketers who still think in company terms rather than customer journeys.  I was at a Fair Trade Fair at a stall selling chocolate.  I love really high cacao chocolates, especially dark 95% cacao bars (I've never found 100!). So my first question was what the % cacao  levels of their bars were. 

The user (me) experience thought process: What is important to me?  Cacao level, taste, price, fair trade . . . Since I was at a fair trade fair, I could assume that one.  So really, all I needed to know where the other attributes.

The vendor thought process:  How do I (his company) differentiate our bars from the competition?  We are fair trade.  We certainly don't compete on price.  Most companies offer a variety of cacao levels.  So when I am staffing a booth, I should focus on the fair trade attribute.

See how these two things are in direct conflict?  If it was a dark chocolate fair, perhaps I would be sold by a fair trade argument.  But in customer journey, it makes no sense.