Module 9 - Put yourself in the audience's shoes

Why does putting yourself in your customer's shoes matter so much?

Because we are all guilty of judging people within seconds. We think we know what people are like very quickly, and that is a dangerous, dangerous game in life and in marketing.

This is my absolute favourite bit of what I do. I am not going to share anything on the screen here. I am actually just going to wave a few things in front of you and tell you a little story about understanding why it is important to put yourself in your customer's shoes. There is the download attached to this that was in the earlier module, the customer profiling section. It is worth having that open, looking at it, and probably watching this video again and really working on it, because it is a wonderful way of understanding what people are like.

What do a pile of shoes prove about assumptions?

That the shoes tell you almost nothing about the person, because every pair I am holding up belongs to one of four people in my own family.

This is a big Caterpillar boot, so you probably think that is a certain type of person who would wear that. A little flat footed sneaker kind of thing, so you probably think skateboarder, where you thought builder for the previous one. Sandals, and without meaning any offence, and I have got a lot of good friends who are very strong Christians, you think Jesus lover. We all say these things, and it is where we are guilty in marketing.

All of those belong to me. They are different things that I wear for different reasons.

Here is another one, a Doc Marten boot, and a very glitzy pair of high heels. Totally different, and they both belong to my daughter, who shops in charity shops and wears old jumpers like my uncle Gerald used to wear, bless him. Very different styles of shoes, but the same person. A dirty old trainer and a beach flip flop, very different, and they belong to my wife. Nice smart shoes and sliders, completely different, and they belong to my son.

What happened when I ran this exercise with students?

They confidently labelled thirty odd pairs of shoes as different kinds of people, and every single pair belonged to me and my wife.

Many years ago I used to do a lot of teaching and education. I have always been responsible for young people coming into the agencies and training them up, and I did a session with a group of students at a college called putting yourself in your customer's shoes. I put out on a table thirty odd pairs of shoes and said I want you to write a little piece about who you think these people are.

They came up with phrases like builder, banker, God botherer, their term and not mine, and for the high heels, power dresser. All kinds of stuff. I said, so you think this is what people are like. It might seem like a bit of a basic thing, but there is an important lesson that comes out of it. I said no, they belong to me and my wife. Every single pair belongs to me and my wife. And they were like, ah.

What did the Saga Holidays brief teach them?

That they had fundamentally misunderstood the customer because they had not dug deep enough, and it was laziness.

From that, I set them a brief for Saga Holidays. For those of you who do not know who Saga Holidays are, they are a holiday company in the UK aimed at the over sixties, well, the over fifties, for people who want interesting holidays but have not quite got the ability to go mountain climbing like they used to. They have lots of different types of holidays. It is a bit more sedentary, that is what people think.

I set the brief to do some posters, 48 sheet posters, the big ones you get on the high streets and all over the world and probably call something different in different territories. I said I want a series of posters promoting Saga Holidays to 55 plus, and there were a couple of propositions written in there about going off and having adventurous holidays.

I said, bearing in mind what I have just done with putting yourself into the customer's shoes, you now need to think what it is like to be Mary who is 55 and her husband Brian who might be 62, wanting to go away on holiday. They are UK based, they are European based, they are global, they can go lots of different places. I showed them the website and the brochures, so they got a good understanding of the types of holidays they could do and a good understanding of the kind of customers they were targeting.

I always set briefs very quickly. I do not give people weeks and weeks, because it is not real. I wanted them to learn to be prolific at coming up with quick ideas.

What did they get wrong, and why?

They came back with ads full of old people on coach holidays, sat in deck chairs having a cup of tea and an ice cream, and I said that is absolute garbage.

I knew what was going to happen. They came back the following day, and I will use these phrases, and again I am not being derogatory, with a load of ads full of old people doing coach holidays, sat on deck chairs, which are like beach chairs in the UK, having a cup of tea and an ice cream. I said you have not put yourselves in the customer's shoes. They said no, no, they are old people, they do not want to go on exciting holidays. I said, well, they do.

So I asked them a question: how old are these people, and what era did these people grow up in as late teens and twenty year olds? They started doing the maths and said they grew up in the sixties. And I went, okay then. These people who grew up in the sixties, probably the most revolutionary time that has ever existed, wearing super short skirts, sex, drugs and rock and roll and having a really good time, you think those people actually just want to sit and have an ice cream?

Maybe some of them do. But the very same people who went to Woodstock, the great big concert event that happened, and who listened to The Beatles, are interesting people. They might be a bit older, but they actually still want to do interesting things. So yes, Saga Holidays might have some sedentary holidays, but the vast majority of those people still want to have a damn good time and do interesting things.

It is there in the brochures. Eighty per cent of the holidays that Saga Holidays do are actually quite interesting. I would want to do one when I am a bit older, in fact I would probably do one now if I could, because they are better than some of the normal holiday companies. They do kayaking, they do mountain climbing, they do all sorts of stuff and go to really nice places.

What the students had done was fundamentally think the consumer is like this, I know best, they are like this. They had not dug deep enough, they had not done the hard work, they had not done the graft, and it was laziness. I got them to go away and redo the work for the following day, and they came back with some fantastic work that was much more on brief and much more suitable to the product. The truth of the product was that it was interesting holidays for people who wanted to still do interesting things, and they had missed it.

What does this mean for your video ads?

If you want to stand out from the crowd and truly engage with your customers, you have to act and think like them. You have to put yourself in their shoes.

Whilst I joke about what these people are really like, it is a bit more complicated. Do not assume that because she looks grungy that is all she is, because she still wears the other things occasionally. People are complicated. We are not one-dimensional. We have hopes, we have fears, we have dreams, we have aspirations, we have all of those things going on in our lives, and various products and services help solve some of those, or make us feel good, or make us feel something more emotionally.

I am really passionate about this because it is the thing that is missed most often. I have sat in front of CEOs, billionaire people, very successful brand owners and very successful marketing directors, and the number of times I have heard them say I do not like that. And I say why? Because I do not like it. And I say you are not the damn customer. You are not buying the product, mate, they are. I do not really care if you do not like it, because it is not designed for you.

I have had those debates, and it is not me being arsey or difficult. If the punter does not like it, and the punter does not understand what you are doing, and it has not got that empathy, they are not going to buy your product or service and it will fail.

Again, I do get really passionate about this. Just put yourself in their shoes as best you can. Think what it is like to be Mary who is 67. Think what it is like to be Steve who is 52. Think what it is like to be a seventeen year old.

Really think what it is like, and talk to these people if you get the opportunity. Ask them what their life is like, what they are scared of, what their fears are, what they dream of doing. They are all going to be different, and you will find common threads with your target market.

So again, please, please, please put yourself in the customer's shoes, and always focus on what the customer's needs are and on how to build empathy and emotion with those customers. Then they will be successful.