Moments of Truth | The Kickoff
This is the third in Motista’s series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Moments of Truth.” We’re looking forward to your input on this cartoon and any issues related to consumer connection you’d like to see us lampoon in the future. If you post your feedback as a comment by next Tuesday, July 19, we will send you a print of this “Marketoon” signed by Tom (U.S. addresses only).
Look, we would never suggest that a marketer kicking off the annual planning process knows “diddly squat” about their consumers’ motivations. (Well, I guess the Marketoon did.) Remember, it’s just a cartoon meant for us to collectively peek into our own marketing experiences…and laugh.
Having attended dozens of these meetings for a myriad of blue chip brands, I recognize the truth embedded in this humor. Decades after marketing has entered “the age of the consumer,” it’s startling how little we do know—at any given time—about what’s truly motivating consumers to choose or advocate for brands. And it’s marketers who have to endure the pressures and pain points of this information gap.
Especially at moments like “kickoff meetings.”
Knowing Consumer Motivations
Most would agree that what truly motivates our consumers is essential knowledge for marketing. Yet I could argue that the vast majority of marketing activity compensates for the lack of that knowledge. We create offers, add new product features and run promotions to see what sticks. “Look, we moved the needle!” Brands trade against their equity to stimulate short-term sales. We affix on competitive moves. They add a feature, we match. They lower their price, we match. We add a feature; they match…and so on. The paradox here is that the more we try to one-up our competition—instead of connecting with consumer motivations—the more we commoditize our categories.
But understanding why consumers connect is hard work. It takes lots of planning, time, expertise and collaboration. You peel back the layers and unearth a gem of an insight; we learn what makes a consumer tick. Even with these rich, brilliant insights, we can fall short. Why?
The business world we operate in today requires us to have information that’s current, data-driven, accessible and actionable, now.
When it comes to knowing the consumer, there are many instances where marketers feel less than armed. The kickoff meeting is such an event. It’s day one.
On the agenda: Last year’s sales and market share numbers, competitive campaigns and products, the innovation pipeline, maybe some awareness and perception scores, opinions and views are shared. And, surely, we walk away with an action item to learn more about the consumer over the coming months.
It is day one of not really knowing what’s motivating consumers. At Motista, we believe marketers should come to the kickoff meeting on day one armed with intelligence about what is driving consumers to buy more, advocate or remain loyal—keeping consumer motivation front of mind, right where it belongs.
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My theory on why people don’t get it: their ego.
We need to let our own voices get out of the way so we can hear what the customers are saying.
True when interpreting data, as well. If we start analyzing numbers with the end in mind, we very often bias the analysis. Time to get rid of the ego, marketing folks!
Really like the fresh design. I liked this content. Thank you for your remarkable article.
Great cartoon! Such a good example of many companies who for years identified “growth” as their strategy, without any thought as to what they needed to do to achieve it. This reflects the realization that in many cases manufacturers “believed” they knew their consumer and what drove the business but in reality, they only knew “Diddly” – and that was no longer enough in today’s competitive environment.
Having been in market research for over 20 years now, it is nice to finally have someone expose the humorous side of MR. We are not just numbers and stats, we are also decks, persentations, and gummy bears (focus group food!).
Suggestions for future cartoons:
-MR not Event Planner, as many times Marketing is focusing on focus group travel and food arrangements and not the content of the groups.
- Just because Marketing doesn’t like the info from the consumer does not mean the MR sample/methodology is wrong.
- When Marketing asks to get infront of their consumer, make sure they are prepared for what they will see, as they often don’t like what their “REAL” consumer looks like.
There is so much talk always about the consumer, yet market forces, the need to meet targets. and grow businesses can often overtake the simplicity of asking what the consumer wants and executing in a simple efficient manner. The problem is organizations become large, competing interests, and the legal aspects of choices can often overshadow actual consumer needs.
I seldom see a client proudly claim ignorance about their customer’s motivations–this is often admitted with a sheepish but determined pledge to “do better.” All too often however, the admittance of ignorance leads to the launching of tired and trite research methodologies that can’t truly uncover insights…which in turn lead to tired and trite marketing initiatives.
Glad to hear someone cares about making a decision on something that’s statistically significant… or even thinking about data
Idea…
I hear people try to bull-dog their way to the pinnacle of a conversation with “input” delivered in such a way that they believe their “input” is truth with a capital T.
Data delivers Truth; especially in the ever evolving online marketplace.
As an insights manager for a CPG company, I’ve definitely seen the impact shifting budgets have on learning about our consumer. Too often, we drop that objective, viewing them as “nice to do” in favor of rearview analysis or “beauty contests” to assess specific executions / tactics. And then we wonder why the same tactics continue to yield the same results…
I think this “marketoon” cuts to the core of the modern marketer’s quandry…no matter how many new technologies are out there, or new marketing fads (hello social media!), the real holy grail is knowing as much is possible about our customers…which is hard work. But the benefits are great!
It’s ironic that sometimes, the things that have the biggest impact start out so small.
Maybe a cartoon lampooning folks who try to start big new initiatives after reading a single self-help book (and nothing else) might be nice?
This cartoon is very compelling for me. It hits home to a conversation we are having a lot these days – the need for a deeper knowledge of our customers. The usual substitute for that knowledge seems to be our “gut” and starts with “I think…” instead of let’s go find out. A great cartoon on the dueling gut instincts in decision making might be funny.
As a fan of Tom’s I was driven to your blog and to learn more about Motista (so mission accomplished on that!).
As a developer and provider of market research technologies and services we experience first-hand how research is often an afterthought, to be executed once budgets are nearly depleted and everything needs to be done urgently and on the cheap. But we are seeing more marketers start to bake research into their marketing plans on an on-going basis. Those who do are having a much more successful time or getting ahead of customer opinions and it’s helping to feed all marketing and product development decisions.
Thanks for the cartoon and for driving this important topic.
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