Welcome to Questions and Insights! I look forward to having you join the conversation.
Like most of us, I’ve spent the last two weeks thinking about the world-changing, industry-revolutionizing innovations that Steve Jobs left as his legacy: those insanely great products that changed how we interact with everything from our music and friends to the world-at-large.
Hundreds of writers have honored his memory far better than I can, but I agree that he was, indeed, a modern-day Henry Ford or Thomas Edison. Like those pioneers, Jobs possessed an uncanny intuition that knew what consumers desired. In the many essays memorializing his career, I was struck that nearly all of them made the point that Jobs eschewed research, focus groups and other insight-gathering methods we routinely use to understand consumer audiences. Instead, he relied on his own instincts.
Now, this may seem a contradictory point for a blog devoted to consumer insight, but I propose that it proves the point. Jobs was that rare, exotic being: a business visionary with intuitive powers that went straight to the heart of the next great thing that consumers would love — and he knew what they wanted way before they did. His intuition was hard-wired into his own inspiration and he knew how to use his inspiration to fire up Apple teams. That, in turn, led to powerful and imaginative innovations for consumers.
Jobs was a 1 in 100-year phenomenon. Most of us have to rely on a combination of intuition and insights to guide our thinking. In my career, I’ve only met one colleague with similar powers of intuition: one of my earliest mentors, Carol Cone. In the earliest days of establishing her firm, Cone Inc., she intuitively saw that the then nascent trend of fitness walking could bring long-term health benefits to millions of people. In partnership with our client, the walking shoe brand Rockport, she and the rest of us at Cone Inc., created the fitness walking movement.
Fast forward to 2011. Carol is now widely regarded as the “mother of cause branding”. But back then, when she was moving her firm towards a specialty in cause and social marketing, she knew that her intuition was not enough. She realized, as she began to create such iconic cause campaigns as those that her agency developed for Avon, Reebok, Con Agra and many others, that deep insights around consumer needs and concerns was essential in aligning brands to causes — such as breast cancer research funding, international human rights and feeding America’s hungry — that would resonate honestly with consumers and address pressing social issues.
My point: for most of us, intuition can’t stand alone. It does propel us down the path, often the right path. Intuition, however, is not always reliable. In those instances when you absolutely positively know your thinking is on the money, go with it! But, for those other times, listen to the consumer and trust a disciplined approach to gleaning insights to guide your strategy.
See you next time.
Questions and Insights 