Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

Dear Clare,

An answer that's going to upset academics and MBA professors is that, as neatly as marketing people might want consumers to fit snugly into the boxes of the Political, the Economic, the Social, the Technological, the Legal and the Environmental, these elements as assessment factors of any market for strategic planning purposes ignore one essential element:

The needs, wants, desire, fears, doubts, and pain points of people.
Theories such as PESTLE ignore the elements of emotion and humanity, the two things that underscore relationships.

And without a relationship, you have no marketing.

Theories are fine ... in theory. But they reinforce stereotypes and they slot people into neat little holes—holes where those people don't belong.

Stereotypes don't group people—they divide people. They reinforce prejudices. They underscore everything that's bad and wrong about statistical analysis, and, sadly, everything that's wrong about marketing.

To the PESTLE group, I'm a white, liberal, middle class 40 - 50 year old married male earning an average salary.

This isn't me. It's a stereotype.

I am not a stereotype.

I'm a 45 year old, happily married Brit, living and working just outside Philadelphia. I didn't vote in the recent election because I'm not a citizen. I'm angry about the TARP issue; I'm nice to puppies and babies, I shave my head, I enjoy Italian and Chinese food, great movies, a decent Pinot noir. I spend too much money on books.

I know the world of direct response marketing out-performs traditional brand based models. I'm a copywriter, art director, designer, writer, speaker, and teacher. I've milked goats and worked on a gang laying railway track. I'm writing a book on self development and another on marketing. I enjoy a decent single malt. I'm also an Irish citizen, and it wouldn't hurt me to drop 20 pounds in weight.

I've been involved in marketing, advertising, and design for almost 24 years but I had to look PESTLE up because I didn't know what it meant.

Perhaps to certain readers of this forum this confession makes
me ignorant. I don't agree. I think it makes me human. It makes me imperfect, open, honest, and unique. Things theories seldom find time or room for.

Why? Because theories too often talk in wide generalities when the needs and idiosyncrasies of the individual are niche driven, solution focused, and orientated toward needs, fears, wants, aspirations, and dreams.

If marketers want to reach real customers and form lasting relationships, they need to put aside theories and talk to people in terms that those people understand, and in ways that that reflect the things those people need.

But if marketers and clients think it's better to reach a stereotype, then all they've got to do is to carry on sending bland, vanilla, middle of the road messages to "everyone".

I could be wrong, but I think lots of advertising and marketing people swing the club of theories and acronyms because it sounds jolly impressive and because it makes them look clever.

But perhaps what they ought to be doing is keeping their eye on the ball of the needs of the customer and user.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Hi Gary

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. It is not an answer I expected but once reading through and digesting it I can see where you are coming from and agree. It is so true that the needs of customers are ignored.

So how could this be improved in the planning process? Is it simply to pay more attention to what customers want?

Thanks
Clare