Dear friends of entrepreneurial future, of the digitally intelligent world, of virus-free communication,
One of the mantras of marketing, even in these corona days, is to think in terms of the customer. What the customer wants. What he desires. What he dreams of. What he longs for. New Customer Touchpoint Managers are appointed, replacing the Customer Centricity Managers, who seem to have not proven themselves. The customer journey is being ridden without knowing exactly where the customer is located in the thicket between online and offline. Even after neuroscience could not decipher the inner nerve pathways of the customer, my own inner brake nerve is now stirring. Whenever too many people say the same thing, I begin to doubt whether what they are saying and thinking is correct.
Now, the phrase "to think in terms of the customer" seems as self-evident as the phrase that a person must breathe to survive. Above all, it is beneficial because it helps break the self-love of many companies and product managers who have not realized that the time for their product has long passed and that something new must be devised - in terms of the product, design, marketing, and sales. And yet, it seems to be the other way around: Fixating on what the customer wants does not unleash innovations. Because as sad as it is: The customer usually only wants what he has and can currently get. The customer is a not very creative being. The customer does not think ahead to the future. No one sat in front of their typewriter years ago and complained about how nice it would be to have a computer with simpler keys. No one longed for the internet, no one for the self-driving car. No one for a 3D printer, no one for the mobile phone, no one for Netflix, no one for drones or a delivery service at REWE or EDEKA. It's only when it was there that we said: Oh yes, quite nice. Why didn't we think of this earlier?
Marketing strategists always hit a wall with me. When asked what I want in the future, I have no answer. I can't say. I can't imagine the future. I need someone to think ahead for me - and I will decide when I see the new thing in front of me. Therefore, I do not wish for companies to psychologically dissect my current state but rather companies that think ahead to the future for me. They do not want to know what I want TODAY, but offer me what I might want tomorrow. Apparently, focusing on current customer needs leads to a rather static perspective because it only reflects what is currently there. The current state can tolerate minor adjustments to the product, marketing, and sales - but today's static view does not open doors to thorough innovation, inventions, moonshots, or significantly new ideas. These only succeed when I think far beyond the statistically collected customer desires.
For companies, this means a fundamentally different understanding of their role in society: Their core task is not to read every wish of the customer's eyes, because - as mentioned - these wishes are quite static, their imagination and creativity are extremely limited. Companies themselves must become the true creators of the future. I expect from them the disruptive ideas, I expect what I would have never thought I might need. The melting pot of desires is not in my customer's brain but in the offices and thinking spaces of every company. The customer's wish should not be sacred to a company. On the contrary. We will only succeed in the future if we have the courage to admit that the customer's wish does not matter much. What matters is our entrepreneurial imagination. An imagination that builds an amusement park for the customer with attractions he has never seen before. A cabinet of truly new things. That contributes to his eleven basic needs (which I will address in the next newsletter). Only then will companies achieve what they always hope for: enthusiasm, loyalty, innovation, and loyalty. What a beautiful new world.
In any case, I wish you a healthy, sensible, and courage-driven thinking.
Yours sincerely, Dr. Klaus-Ulrich Moeller
