In chapter five of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, the author takes an interesting approach to gaining customer insights. In particular, he examines how difficult it can be to gather primary data because sources often cannot describe spontaneous opinions and decisions that arise out of the unconsciousness. As a result, Gladwell tries to educate the reader on the right and wrong ways to obtain insight from customers. Despite the many lessons in Gladwell’s piece, I will exam the two subsections focused on “A Second Look at First Impressions” and “The Gift of Expertise.”
First, “A Second Look at First Impressions” describes how many peoples’ initial explanations of how they feel about a product or service is not always accurate. Therefore, special care must be taken when gathering information from surveys and focus groups. An immediate example that comes to mind is America’s Guilty Pleasure-reality TV. On a pure quality standpoint, these T.V. shows are horrible, but yet they receive outstanding ratings. For instance, “Hole in the Wall” is a Fox reality show that involves contestants contorting their bodies in an attempt to fit through a massive moving wall. If this concept was given on paper, many respondents may ridicule it and find it incredibly stupid. This type of review would actually be wrong. This TV show is widely successful across many countries and recently has shown some success in America. Fox is actually still airing the show on Sunday nights.
The main point of this example is to supplement Gladwell’s point that peoples’ first impressions are not always correct. As marketers, we must consider this when creating new innovative marketing programs. If an idea is new, it may be considered weird and not receive good initial reviews. Despite these negative reviews, marketers must dig deeper to ensure that people’s first impressions are really indicative of their true feelings. Otherwise, marketers may throw aside the best marketing program in centuries only because people do not understand what they really like. As the famous Think Different Apple Quote goes, … “the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” This mindset must be maintained by marketers to ensure that the appropriate marketing programs are used even if the target population does not immediately understand it.
Since the average person cannot always identify their preferences, it’s important to take into consideration the opinions of experts. Malcolm Gladwell stresses this idea in his subsection titled “The Gift of Expertise.” Specifically, the author expands on how the average person knows how he/she feels about a certain product, but has trouble explaining these feelings. Consequently, it is important to seek the advice of experts who know how to articulate their thoughts about a product. Essentially, these experts have a better grasp of what most people act and feel unconsciously.
For example, I strongly believe there are two aspects to the world of sports. For most, sports are a simple game in which X amount of players aim to score more points than the other team. On the other hand, a sports expert, such as myself, would not describe sports that way. To an expert, sports are an escape from reality that allows individuals to unite and believe in a common cause. As this sports example shows, an expert and an average person can see the same thing in very different ways. These differences are not a result of variance in the population, but rather just an example of experts having a better understanding of their unconscious thought.
By considering the added value of expert opinion, a marketer can learn to appreciate a certain tier of a segment. Like the 80/20 Rule, marketers may want to develop a similar approach to marketing research. It may quite possible be true that most of your quality data only comes from a small section of your target population. Consequently, a marketer must learn to cultivate and indulge in the relationship he/she has with that small portion of the population considered an expert.
Overall, Malcolm Gladwell has provided a foundation to look at customer feedback in a whole new way. These unconventional thoughts will help me to probe deeper to gain new insights from customers. I really believe that this deeper examination will lead to the next brilliant marketing campaign.
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