When Consumer Corner first launched on June 1, 2020, our inaugural Welcome Letter flatly stated for the first of many times in one form or another, “Consumers…They’re Fickle, They’re Demanding, They’re (Seemingly) Uninformed — They’re You!”
Also on June 1, 2020, I tossed three conversation starters out and incorrectly called them useless:
- The consumer doesn’t know what they want.
- The consumer doesn’t understand our business.
- The consumer doesn’t know they need this product yet, but they do.
In June of 2021, we revisited with You Demanding, Fickle and (at Least Somewhat) Uninformed Consumer, You and admitted I was patently wrong — these are not useless statements; they are problematic statements that seem to persist.
- The consumer doesn’t know what they want.
What do you want? See, you don’t know either.
- The consumer doesn’t understand our business.
Still definitely not anyone else’s job to understand your business.
- The consumer doesn’t know they need this product yet, but they do.
Still really dangerous. It’s also subtly, but importantly, still different than telling someone else what is good for them or what they need.
In our recent Consumer Corner Micro-Course, Consumer-Driven Changes in Ag Market Channels, I had a chance to expand a bit on these three infuriating statements around which we seem to be forever circling in Consumer Corner…
ConsumerCorner.2022.Letter.36
