Inspiration brought to you by the TM Planning Department

I just read Deanna’s post about research methodologies.  Linking to the article she posted, I found it worthy of a whole other topic of discussion.  I guess you can say that I loved Deanna’s post so much that I had to reply post to it!

The article she linked to is titled “Your Customers Are Not Stupid.”  I think the second paragraph sums up the way planners view customers and is a great thing to keep in mind and keep us humble:

Target consumers aren’t just ages and demographics. They’re not just quantitative surveys and focus group participants. They can’t always be summed up in data and metrics, or even in a number of Twitter followers. And most of all, they’re not stupid. I know this because I have met them.

I feel empowered by this statement!  I believe this to be a great mantra for us.

The author, Charlie Hopper, goes on to say he’s about as middle-class as it gets but has connections in high and low places.  It’s interesting to think of ourselves as chameleons.  To be able to fit into many situations and talk to every walk of life.  I consider myself pretty middle of the road and I pick up a lot on what other people are interested in.  That’s not to say I don’t have my own identity or likes and dislikes, but sometimes I do let other people share their opinions on things before I experience it for myself.  I feel it eliminates my bias.  Later, I get to experience those things – I still form my own opinions but I’m influenced and think about how others perceived it as well.

And since Deanna made a nerdy admission, I will do the same here as well!  A great example of me listening to others before I experienced it is the whole Twilight craze.  Yep, I admit it – I’ve seen all 3 movies.  Haven’t read the books but I’m becoming more and more interested in picking them up.  Now how much I was successfully able to not experience the phenomenon is up for debate as I don’t think anyone could have escaped that hysteria, but I did not see any of the movies until just a couple of weeks ago.  Since then, I caught up on Twilight and New Moon and just recently went to the theater to see Eclipse.  I knew the basic storyline, kind of know what’s up with vampires and werewolves anyway cuz I was a huge Buffy fan and am an avid TrueBlood fan, but I listened to my friends (who were in a full-on Twilight daze:  read the books, had a firm position on Team Edward versus Team Jacob, went to the theater opening night for all of the movies, and screamed their little hearts out when any of the actors took off their shirts…or let’s be honest, showed up on-screen for the first time).  I lived that experience through them first but finally closed myself up alone to watch and judge on my own.  And turns out, I’m just a vamp kind of girl and get pretty interested in that stuff!

Connecting the dots back to Deanna’s post, I think it’s not only open-mindedness to research methodologies but being open-minded in general that really helps planners take in the feelings, behaviors, hopes, and desires of any given customer group.

I guess I just wrote a rah rah speech about planners, but I think it’s always a great idea to look inward as well as outward.  Insights into ourselves may help us become better planners.