We underestimate the power of seeing things for ourselves. It’s true for office culture, but also to learn about customer behaviors. Target understood this when they were trying to identify their ideal customer. Instead of just conducting focus groups, executives visited customers at their residence and learned by seeing for themselves about buying preferences and how customers lived. “We asked [consumers] about their brands and where they shopped. I’ve sat through conversations going through a makeup bag for four hours, talking about makeup and beauty,” Rick Gomez, Target’s chief marketing officer reported.
One of the biggest disadvantages around work-from-home is the inability to pick up on the nuances in office dynamics. By being there, you are able to see behaviors and patterns that you miss remotely, and you lose your subconscious radar that connects overheard conversations and visual cues.
As the weather in many places warms and vaccines become more available, use your growing ability to be in-person wisely. Have that one-on-one meeting in a park instead of via Zoom. Observe your target audience in action if possible. Pay attention to shoppers’ behavior in stores (without stalking, of course!). There is so much you can learn that doesn’t show up in pixels.
Source: The Target Story by Bill Chastain, 2020
