A lesson from Science Fiction
I remember when I first heard the idea from a sales manager that people were like sheep and you had to lead them where you want them to go. My first response was to be offended at the idea of people being equated with sheep. After a period of time though, I found out it was true. People do want to be led by others; we simply need to do it in the right way.
That brings us to an interesting article on the Sci Fi site io9.com, which talks about Doctor Who producer Russell T. Davies, who recently caused a minor disturbance in the force when he said he had no interest in listening to what fans said. He added that American science fiction gives far too much credence to what fans think.
On another blog, Steve Jobs of Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) is cited for his idea that he interacts with people the same way, because they have no idea what they want. So what he does is give them what he wants them to have. You know the results he gets.
Anyone who has experience in marketing knows the responses of people in polls and focus groups can only be taken with a grain of salt, as most are influenced by the questions themselves, and answer many times with what they think the questioners want to hear, rather than what they really think. Results through the years show most the time they aren't a good way to measure consumer sentiment.
Now the problem that Russell T. Davies had is he stupidly communicated this fact to fans of the show, and he had a lot of negative feedback as a result. It's one thing to understand the methodology and psychology of marketing and creativity as it relates to people, it's another thing to say it to them outright.
This flies in the face of a lot of people who write about marketing, but obviously have never done it, as veterans know that we can't allow consumers to tell us what they want. The reason why is what they say is usually not close to what the reality is.
The reason why isn't because people are necessarily lying, it's that the many times repeat the mantra of someone else or something they've heard somewhere, without having really thought out what it is they actually think or action they would truly take.
We need to lead them to the actions we want them to take through the products and services we create, and the marketing campaigns we build around them. They're the sheep and we're the shepherds. If that's not the case, you'll struggle to be successful in any online marketing you do. You'll naively listen to what people say, thinking they actually mean and believe what they say. Most don't!
All of this doesn't mean there aren't trends we need to get out in front of. But a trend is a proven entity that comes about from the real actions of people, not from wishful or hopefull thinking.
With Steve Jobs for example, he's taken advantage of known trends in the music and mobile phone industries, and got out in front of them with his own unique offerings which catered to a number of people he knew would want them. He's become a big player in the industry because he didn't ask people what they wanted, he basically told them what they wanted. He didn't do it through convincing them through talking and persuasion, but through the creations of products he knew he would like to use. The rest, as they say, is history.
The bottom line is don't ask people what they want, show them what the want.
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