Consumers are people, too!

The way some marketers talk about “consumers” you’d think they were talking about a different breed altogether from human beings.

My partner and I had a phone call recently with a brand manager at a major consumer goods company. We’re planning to do some in-home research interviews for this company and we were on the phone explaining to her our process.

At one point we could tell we’d lost her. She was quiet in a way that suggested she was chewing on something we’d said earlier. Figuring it was a question related to the deliverable or the process, we paused for a check-in.

Her major concern? Where ever will you find these people?

At first we didn’t understand the question. Then we realized that the gulf between her understanding of the “consumer” and the idea of real people moving through their daily activities was so enormous it was stopping her in her tracks. She was looking at the data in front of her and listening to our description of the activities we planned to engage in with these people and the result was: does not compute. She couldn’t fathom where we might find a human being who could accurately embody the combination of numbers, pie charts, and graphs, she had come to know so intimately. Was it possible that the “Early Riser” might actually have a face, expressions, emotions? Might she be able to sit and have a conversation with a “Tired, But Still Fighting?” Or see with her own eyes the handwriting of the “List Checker?”

I wanted to shake her awake. I wanted to give the human being inside of the corporate android CPR. I wanted to yell, “Lady, these are not exotic creatures we’re talking about! This is not a zoo or a Petri dish! You are not so far removed from these beings you seek! There are at least two women on my block who fit your profile. They probably buy your products, and you know what? They’d be happy to talk to us about their lives. These people go to your grocery store. They sit next to you at the DMV. You play tennis with them. They are my neighbors and they are your neighbors. They’re human beings. Get up from behind that desk, walk outside, and take a look. You’ll find lots of them.”

Instead we calmly explained the mystery of how we find actual consumers–by phone, online, by asking around, by walking up to them on the street. I am not sure she was satisfied with the response, but we were able to move on. I left the call wondering how corporate culture can be so dehumanizing and then confused about why they have so much trouble reaching “the consumer.”