Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Article on better understanding consumer's needs



Just read an article on Adage.com by Erich Joachimstahler and Agathe Blanchon-Ersham - Understand the Ecosystem of Consumer Demand . It's a nice followup to an article I posted about earlier on understanding consumer rituals. The basic premise is that marketers should avoid the mistake of basing consumer research in the context of their products or services. Instead research should focus on consumer's larger needs. They cited Axe body spray as an example of a company that gets it right. Unilever understood that the promise they were trying to deliver on was not a superior personal scent - it was "help men get the girl".

I don't know how that mind-set factors into their product development process - but its spectacularly evident in their advertising.

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