Why still talk to customers in the tech era?

The core of marketing is about People

The effectiveness of the marketing function lies in the strategic ability of business to generate the greatest possible profit by best satisfying people's needs, wants and desires

Almost every marketing course begins with a quote from Peter Drucker: "Marketing encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the customer's point of view“

In a recent interview, Les Binet once again reminded marketers of the fundamentals of their profession:

- Has the theory of how marketing works changed forever?

- No. Because the core of marketing is about people. This is a big bugbear of mine is that we spend too much time thinking as marketers and talking like marketers. And we forget that we are talking to people. Not consumers, not customers, not prospects, but people. And we need to put ourselves in other people's shoes, see through other people's eyes, and think like the people we're talking to

Being people-centric, marketing must maintain constant contact with them

In order 'to put ourselves in other people shoes, see through other people's eyes and think like the people we're talking to', we as marketing professionals have to, at least from time to time, be among these people. This helps us understand how different the ‘bubbles’ we all live in are, how many different little worlds exist besides our business and marketing ‘echo chamber’

The question is: how can marketers spend time with the crucial people for business as effectively as possible?

The closer the conversation with people, the more effective it is

The closer the dialogue we have with these hardly predictable human beings, the more likely we are to come at least a little closer to understanding and feeling their needs, pains, joys, intentions, cause-and-effect relationships behind their decisions, ultimately enabling more effective business outcomes

Marketing has a vast array of tools to collect and analyze an unprecedented variety of data. However, research data by itself is just a collection of facts, figures or transcribed words. Data only becomes valuable when it is understood in light of the complex, emotional and often contradictory human nature and the reality it represents

In essence, data is a soulless body without deep human understanding. As marketers we should not just collect and torture data, but bring the real human story behind that data to life, enabling truly insightful and impactful decisions

Among all research tools available, old-school qual brings business closest to people

The good old-school qual is a storehouse of practical knowledge and skills on how to observe people, talk to them and analyze things we see, hear and feel about them

In pursuit of new approaches (the remote and artificial alternatives to old-school F2F qual), we are losing this invaluable experience, which becomes increasingly obvious when looking at many of the marketing decisions made, hearing the response of consumers about them and hearing about business outcomes they bring

Old-school qual is a new luxury in the tech-era

In a world obsessed with speed & automation, face-to-face, deep human qual is the ultimate premium

It takes long. But consider time as an opportunity

Investing dedicated time across meticulous preparation, immersive fieldwork and thoughtful analysis allows us to truly experience and deeply reflect, delivering profound insights often lost in our frantic modern pace

It costs more. But consider this cost as a strategic investment

Direct human interaction & immersive context provide invaluable, unreplicable nuance beyond automated data collection, resulting in exclusive, proprietary findings unique to your business

It requires active client involvement. But this involvement paves the way for true partnership

By uniting a researcher's human understanding with a client's business expertise, working hand-in-hand, we unlock profoundly deeper insights and much more compelling conclusions

It requires the presence of a moderator, respondents and clients in one location during the fieldwork stage. And oh, how we miss that in our digital reality! 

Remember those fieldwork days? Hugging each other after not seeing for a while, sharing good coffee and some wine, chatting about everything, not just the project. We weren't just a client and an agency. We truly became friends for life. And it's not about entertainment; it's about the opportunity to deeply understand and feel each other, fostering genuine openness and trust that cannot be built remotely

To sum up:

In an era of unprecedented data, marketers chase metrics and algorithms, forgetting that marketing is first and foremost about people

Genuine insights are found in the messy, beautiful, often unpredictable depths of human experience

Despite the emergence of new, fast, convenient and cheap alternatives, old-school f2f qual remains a necessary investment. It encourages dedicated time for live interaction among all involved parties, uncovering genuine, deep, exclusive insights for the business and helping to build long-lasting trust and partnerships

No matter how technology evolves, true success in marketing will invariably stem from the ability to understand people and feel the human soul