Admit it: you don't know what your customer wants!

But apparently most CEO's know it. At least, according to the IBM study I mentioned in my previous post. WHen asked for ther prediction of what customers want, 82% of them think they want organizations to better understand their needs to large/very large extent. This morning I had a meeting for a European project of a global and to my surprise they suddenly admitted that untill today they had always been very confident about their customer knowledge. That is, they had always been so condifent that they've always known what customers want without ever asking them or doing whatever piece of research. Untill today.

It's a small figure in the report but a huge mental step for brands and companies. Because indeed, most companies have lost their connection woth their customers and see them as an object in stead of a subject with a changing opinion, changing moods and changing needs. Untill the relevance and meaning crisis hit them.

So, if you think you know you know your customer, ask yourself the question what the 'deal' is that your brand makes with your customer. If you don't have an immediate answer, you're in trouble; your give-and-take dynamics between your offer and the customer aren't clear. Chances are high that your offer doesn't have too much meaning for your target. Time to learn about your customer...