Like Me

Brands worry a lot about whether the consumer likes them. How many brands worry about whether or not they like their consumers?

Last week I was working on a project to define the target audience for an accessories brand. One of the influencer interviews I conducted was with a menswear designer who quietly listened to me pose the same question six different ways: “Who do you think this brand’s consumer is today?” Finally he answered in a huff: “They need to stop trying to define an artificial group and just go out and start selling to people they like.”

A lot of the brands I work with come to me to help them figure out who their consumer is. They’ve lost touch. Like college roommates who after a few years of inseparable good times, move to different cities, pursue different paths, and make choices that render them unable to understand each other, they feel irreparably estranged. Financially compelled to repair these relationships or build new ones, brands seek research.

When they come to me, the question they’re asking is “Who is my consumer?” But my conversation with the designer made me think there’s a bigger question that if answered completely might render this question obsolete: “Do I like my consumer?” And I mean really like them?”

‘Like’ is bigger than ‘know’ out of the gate. In order to like someone, you must know them. I am surprised by how little brands know about the people who buy their products. They might know household income, race, age, gender and education level, but beyond that, things get fuzzy. I don’t know about you, but the income, race, age, gender and education level of my friends has little to nothing to do with the quality of our bond. In fact, I’d be insulted if someone tried to befriend me based on these qualities alone. Can you imagine the friend request? “Hi. I noticed that you are a 35 year-old, married, dual-income, white, professional female college grad making between $100–$250K per year. Cool. Want to be my friend?”

In their single-minded focus on finding the bull’s eye, brands discard valuable information that might actually give dimension to the people who buy their products. You can’t really know a person without the details that make them special.

You also can’t sell a product to people you don’t like. I have done ethnographies with fascinating people only to be grilled later by a brand manager who felt we didn’t ask enough questions about which television shows they prefer and which magazines they take. I have run consumer workshops where the insights of a particular participant are discarded outright because of what he or she is wearing. I once pressed a client to explain her displeasure with a successful interview in Toronto. The content had been fresh and the delivery articulate and thoughtful. In the end, she admitted it was the fact that his hair was dyed a leopard pattern. These brands don’t see it, but they don’t like their consumer.

Patagonia is a brand that likes its consumer. Whole Foods likes theirs. I get the sense that Jet Blue and Wal-Mart get a real kick out of the people who walk through their doors. These brands have an extremely diverse audience, and that’s hard to track, but when you like the people you sell to, and every action is designed to please or appease them, it doesn’t much matter who they are.

Maybe research should spend less time helping brands understand who their consumer is and more time helping them get to know the qualities that make them human and therefore, likeable. This process would be less one-sided. I am just starting to think about the implications, but it seems that this approach would involve:

-    More match-making: Determining what qualities and values the brand and consumer share
-    More tactical information: Understanding how the consumer chooses to spend their time with an eye to places and activities that would also suit the brand
-    More ‘fringe-analysis’: Rather than searching for one profile that can act as a generic surrogate for all the brand’s consumers, let’s look at what makes some of the consumers truly unique

-    More personal investment: Make sure representatives of the brand are face-to-face with the consumer. No one should be behind a mirror.

I plan to incorporate more of this thinking into my delivery of research. I believe it is my role to deliver the brand information in a format that is digestible, relatable and actionable. It’s my role to help the brand not only identify their consumer, but identify with their consumer.

When I started Skyelab I had a simple desire. I wanted to work for brands I believe in and with people I like. I have managed to accomplish that and it has made my day-to-day more fulfilling and my purpose clear even the busiest times.  I am grateful for the reminder that this is a smart way for all of us to think about the way we do business. As yourself: How would my business be different if I actually liked my consumer?