The Reality of Reality
Since college, I’ve had the opportunity to live in two amazing cities: New York and San Francisco. Both are great places to live and to visit, but the experience of life there isn’t even close to being representative of the rest of the country—and importantly, of the people most marketers want to buy and use their brand.
The Facts
Let’s start with some facts—the reality of which continues to shock and awe many marketers:
The average household income in the U.S. is $53,657
The median age for first marriage is 27.9 among women, 29.3 for men
The average age for women to have their first baby is 26.3
62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings account
One of my most compelling moments of reality was as an account executive at an ad agency in NYC. The president of the client’s division—company not to be named, but the product was canned pasta—decided that their “new and improved” product should sell for 50¢ more than the current product, and we should explore how to talk to consumers about the increase in quality and price. We were in Charlotte, doing research with their target audience—lower-income families. A woman whose profile stated that her family of 5 lived on an income of $15,000-$19,999 looked the moderator in the eye and said (I’m paraphrasing here, as the conversation happened in the late 90s): “you tell that rich, big-city president of your company that I’m just trying to feed my family. And just because your price goes up 50¢ doesn’t mean I get another 50¢ in my grocery budget. It just means I will have to buy less food.”
A serious Dose of Reality
I had a similar reality experience as a moderator, just a few years ago, doing focus groups with people who use pre-paid debit cards, focusing on single mothers who make less than $25,000 per year. We sometimes do a “lottery” where respondents who get to the facility ten minutes before the group’s start time have a chance to win another $50 on top of their incentive. Toward the end of the group, one woman asked “do you know who won the lottery?” and I said I’d find out. When I came back in, I casually mentioned that oh yeah, Jacquie had won the lottery. Jacquie, a single-mom working at Wal-Mart, began to cry—and the other women in the room hugged and congratulated her for the win.
And finally, not long ago, working on a project for a TV network, there was absolute silence in the room when listening to the tape of an ethno where a 42 year-old mom from outside Atlanta talked about being ready for her youngest to go off to college. That was a serious dose of reality—because everyone in the room was either waiting to have kids or had kids in diapers or kindergarten.
Diving into Reality
These are the moments that can define you as a brand strategist, marketer or researcher. Do you really understand and empathize with your audience—their challenges, joys, stresses? Do you know how they use their money, their time, what they value? Can you have compassion for their difficult realities? It really is so easy to think about the world through a very fortunate (and often hard earned), but less relevant, lens. Here’s how to ensure you are diving into, and not ignoring, reality.
Be armed with the facts—not big sweeping numbers that belittle reality;
Talk to your consumers—lots of them—in their real life environments, as often as you can;
Do research outside your comfort zone—instead of LA and NY, consider Sacramento, Baltimore or Memphis (and keep in mind, Chicago does not represent the entire middle of the country);
Never make a decision based on what you, your family or your friends might like (unless the category/product skews to people of your socio-economic level);
Ensure that the senior decision makers are engaged with #1-4.
At the end of the day, for most brands, the “real people” who live outside of the major business centers can make or break your business. Dive into reality and help your team make decisions that make sense.