It’s The Consumer, Stupid!

by garyasanchez

“No one cares about you.” ~ Seth Godin If I could give any business owner or executive only one piece of advice, it would be to continually strive to solve the problems of your customers and to be of service to them. By engaging with, listening to and deeply understanding them, you will be able to develop consumer insights that help you create products and services that provide them benefits. And benefits (along with the associated emotions created from receiving them) are what customers pay for. If you were to make it your single-minded mission for your company, I bet you would create focus on the right activities that lead you to success. Zappos.com built a $1 billion revenue company that was just acquired by Amazon.com for $850 million in 10 years based on “Building a Customer-Focused Culture.” This is in selling shoes, a product line that early investors denounced using the rationale that consumers wouldn’t buy shoes on the internet if they couldn’t try them on first. In 1992, Bill Clinton’s campaign team created a list of three items that were intended to keep the campaign on message, arguably the most important of which was “The economy stupid” as a way to increase focus and communicate solutions around the single most important issue on the minds of consumers (e.g., voters). And it worked to help elect Clinton over incumbent George H. W. Bush. Is there a rally cry you can create for your business or brand that focuses your limited resources better against delivering consumer benefits?