Trade Places With Your Customer

                         
Not only is it a great 80s movie reference, but this always reminds me of the importance of putting yourself in your customer's shoes, thinking how they think. Some call it empathy, I just call it common sense.

If you treat the customer as a human, as someone with hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes, fears and ambitions rather than a statistic then you will have a greater chance of understanding what will motivate them to respond to your message rather than the other 1,345 they will be exposed to today.
 
Think about how they will be exposed to the message, their likely frame of mind when they are receiving and take this into consideration too.

For example, I have been watching/brainwashed by (delete as appropriate) Channel 5's Milkshake strand of late.  If you don't know it runs from around six in the morning and is a combination of Peppa Pig, Thomas, Noddy and all the usual suspects linked by a disgustingly perky and shiny set of presenters for that time in the morning.

I noticed over Christmas a much greater proportion of ads clearly targeted at parents in amongst those for ridiculously expensive toys and games aimed at the children themselves . Step forward the usual roster of baby products, toiletries and laundry products.

As a media planner the opportunity looks great on paper, bang on demographic, good share for the time of day, mainstream channel - but has anyone considered what the audience are doing in the breaks?

If our house is typical then the 'audience' will be looking behind sofas for dropped pieces of toast, dashing upstairs to get to the potty on time or roughly translated anything but watching the screen.

So for true customer insight, really get to know your audience, after all the relationship with our favourite brands is akin to a friendship, and friends know how each other think, and sometimes it's what we don't say that's as important as what we do say.

Now how do I get my hands on a genuine GI Joe?