Fred Abaroa

I love this line. My Market Research days were full of studies to measure what the customer understood. I was amused at times when a marketing piece would mean the opposite of its intent. It always shocked me when the client would blame the message recipient rather than the message. So what is the solution?

1. Be Humble & Open. I list this one first because if you are not the rest of my advice will not work.
2. Know your customer. I used to believe everyone was my customer because everyone eats. While this may be true, a little research showed my niche was sales guy on the road, local office workers, and at-home moms.
3. Build upon common beliefs or interest. I look at web sites dealing with Moms, Sales guys and try to keep up with the local going ons. I can then take those things I have learned and spin them into masterful messages my audience stands can relate to.
4. Get feedback. DUH! But how many of us really ask our customer if they understood. I test my message customers I know will be very blunt. I can choose to be humble (teachable) and learn from this experience.
5. Be consistent. Not repetitive but consistent! I had a customer complain the other day who saw the person in line in front of them receive a coupon for the wait and they did not. What the customer heard and saw was "I'm not as valuable as the person in front of me."

So remember, It's not what you say, it's what people hear and see that count.