Out of focus

[supergee]

Myth: People can tell you what they want

Thanx to andrewducker

Comments

[arlie]

My reaction is to call "bullshit".

First of all, it conflates "what customers [say they] want" with "what will influence them to do what you want" (i.e. buy more of your product). They aren't the same.

Second of all, I've experienced the results of A/B testing by web sites - some users get treatment A, others get treatment B, and the one that produces the better metric (time spent on the site, in this case) then gets applied to everyone. The change generated some impassioned complaints, which were countered by the A/B testing explanation. Yes, the new site was harder to use, making everything take longer. Users had 2 choices - stay longer, or find a new source for the same purpose. I took the second option, and haven't been back since. That decision was probably masked by new users, for a while at least - but once all prospective users have heard about this site, and all its competitors, the results may be different.

And then there's things like the increasing amount of sugar in American foods, especially those not prepared by the consumer - and the increasing amount of type 2 diabetes in the American population. The sweet foods taste good. The non-reflective will select them, and doubly so when the ingredients aren't listed (restaurants, my office cafeteria, etc.). But no one but a marketer wants this trend, and many of us are being forced into doing our own cooking to avoid it. (Pre-prepared foods at the grocery store have similar ingredients, so that's not an option.)

In general, the goal of marketting is not to give customers what they want. It's to get customers to buy your product. I'd be overjoyed to buy from a company that had a business model of "supply what customers really want, and thereby earn an income". I'd also be happier working for such a company, than for a normal American business. But I'm not holding my breath waiting to find such a paragon.