Marketing
The more you know your customers, the less you will fail
Marc Ritson wrote, “The key success point for Dockers was — no surprise — give customers what they want rather than what you think they need.”
Business owners and marketers think that they know their customers better than themselves. It leads to predicting wants and creating products, hoping to create the want. Levi’s found it the hard way.
Levi’s launched a low paced tailored suit. Its executive thought that they could change the market. They thought that once customers saw the suit, they would change their mind. They didn’t. The product failed. The same executives learnt from the mistake and launched Dockers. It earned them millions.
User researcher Sarak Killing highlighted the product fallacy of knowing more than the customers. She shares methods of gathering insights from the customers, current and future: A day in the life, current product feedback and new product designs and concepts.