Having sat through countless focus groups and 'customer insights' meetings when I worked in the corporate world, I have a lot of sympathy with Henry Ford's famous line "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said 'a faster horse'".
Although it can be interpreted as meaning that customers have no vision, are passive and needing to be led, at least there's an honesty about this statement. I much prefer it to the often-used platitude "we're just giving people what they want" so beloved by companies as a way of shutting down any arguments about their product or service offering.
So I was interested to read in New Media Age that in a survey of 400 'global executives', 75% believe customers are a critical source of innovative ideas. Really? If so, I look forward to announcements about all those cutting-edge innovations and the loyal customers who came up with them.
Interestingly, in the same issue of NMA was the story that Asics have opted out of engaging with customers via social media, their Digital Communiations Manager stating that "I haven't seen any examples of it (social media) being used interestingly or had an interesting impact on a business."
Instead, Asics are inviting people to write reviews and give product ratings, and discuss the brand amongst themselves, without taking part. For me, this misses the point of social media as a way of customers getting closer to a brand and vice versa – it's the equivalent of sitting behind the one-way mirror observing the focus group 'subjects'. Asics admits it hasn't really worked out what to do with all these customer insights it's hoping to gather. But somehow I can't see it leading to any kind of innovation. Or am I being too cynical here?
