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At the core of this book is a process called ZMET that uses patented research techniques to identify deep metaphors people apply to daily situations. Focusing On The Wrong Elements Of StudyHe also makes a persuasive case for 1:1 interviews instead of focus groups, and I agree with him here. I've had the good fortune to help redesign customer experience using ZMET research, and the technique is simple and powerful.The book itself is academic and wanders around more than a bit, but there are pleasant surprises at every turn. Mistaking Descriptions for Insight2.
While people report on their inner worlds with words, Zaltman argues that too often marketers take these words at face value, which is a mistake, for there is a low correlation between what people say they'll do and what they actually do. In-depth interviews are my preferred research method for most situations. Zaltman also presses the case that 95% of our thoughts are unconscious, and that marketers rely too heavily on people's purported understanding of themselves (i.e., the 5% of conscious thought). More often than not, he believes customers use unconscious mental models to sort the stimulus that comes their way.Ultimately, this book is about unearthing the unconscious metaphors that lead to conscious behavior, and then finding the right types of stimuli to influence that behavior. He argues that people are driven by an inner world of images, stories, metaphors, and ultimately, emotions. For example, thoughts about working-out could revolve around "anticipation, companionship, and self-esteem." This trio of concepts can then guide product development and marketing communications.
He supports this 1:1 method with research indicating that the outside limit for effective small group communication is three people. If anything, this book will help marketers become more perceptive in discovering how customers think. For example, Zaltman outlines three primary research errors:1. Confusing Data With Understanding3.
Overall I found the book to be eye-opening, thorough, and useful. If a picture tells 1,000 words, and the average person uses 5-6 metaphors per minute, then typical market research is just hitting the tip of the iceberg in accessing the 5,000+ wpm that customers process internally. For a quick read on driving progress of customer programs I also recommend this book with step-by-step tips: Metrics You Can Manage For Success and Customer Experience Improvement Momentum. in fact, essential for superior brand/product positioning and customer experience improvement. Zaltman shows how to tap into the subconscious and nonverbal elements by using metaphor-based research methods. The 1st part of the book contains a lot of neat facts although it is written in a rather academic style, but the middle section gives how-to and examples of metaphor-based research.
Indeed there is no testing of any ideas.The marketing examples are purely anecdotal, and often very vague - suggesting a lack of first-hand knowledge (they read as if they were mentioned by 3rd parties to the author at the end of a seminar or over a chat). What assumptions, what research, what sort of advertising program. I can't recall anything convincing about sales results, or anything public that could be externally validated, the anecdotes have to be taken on trust. But this example comes from page 258 - this sort of feeble anecdote is about as good as it gets as far as evidence that this book has any real-world application value.As other reviewers have noted it's also an overly long rather abstract book, with somewhat indulgent structure, for example the third part is about management thinking not "how customers think". Daniel Schacter) then what's left of this book for you is largely an advertisement for Zaltman's commercial and patented (.). Disappointing. If you have read some bestsellers touching on with recent findings in neuroscience (e.g. But that doesn't mean we need to resort to Zaltman's consultancy which bears a strong resemblance to some of the excesses of 1960s motivational research.
And so such facts aren't used as a check against Gerry's ideas. All we readers get is:"Specifically, the company created more meaning (sic) and effective advertising by understanding the reconstructive nature of memory and the various factors affecting the encoding and retrieval of memory".It would perhaps be acceptable if that sort of anecdote came at the start of the book - you'd expect more exciting, harder, detailed evidence to come later once the reader was familiar with the book's key concepts. "managers at Coca-Cola's German office found that new research on memory contradicted many of their prevailing assumptions about how memory worked and how to design effective advertising campaigns. This book talks a lot about insight but doesn't deliver much. [they] launched a successful marketing program in that country." You don't say, wow. Anyway Zaltman makes a very poor case for this logical leap, he really presents it as a fait accompli (I believe so so should you).For marketing managers the greatest weakness of this book is the lack of integration with known facts of buying behaviour. By applying several key findings about memory. Antonio Damasio) and memory (e.g.
Even so, surprisingly, they tend to make very weak vague claims:e.g. So there are no facts in this book about how consumers actually buy, or consume media. market research technique called 'Zaltman's metaphor elicitation'.Yes there are good reasons to doubt focus groups (more reasons than Zaltman discusses), as well as management intuition, and market research that asks consumers why they bought what they bought. The discoveries of even 20th Century marketing science are ignored.
automotive examples in the book is truly dispiriting since last time I checked, the market share loss was continuing unabated in spite of all of these allegedly successful studies. There are far better topic specific books on the market about brand, product development and service experience development. This is a disjointed, rambling and under-edited compendium of topics from market research. His section on focus group usefulness is far too negative. Buy those. The author swings from brand development to product development to service experience as if they were fundamentally about the same thing. The number of U.S.
Marketing can alter perception. He uses many examples of optical illusion and how perception in some cases is more important than reality in the mind of the customer. We cannot be everything to everybody.
Clearly no business is successful without customers.One challenge my company, SYNNEX, has is addressing needs of many different customers, many of which have different needs. And the opposite is true. This book is a great cross between a psychology book and a marketing book.I was interested in this book because it talks a lot about understanding how and why customers buy.
Where I see dissatisfied customers, they normally do not fit the specific ideal customer type. And measuring perception can be very difficult. What might be seen as essential for one customer is not even valued by another.
I believe all companies are best for specific types of customer and the more within the target range a customer fits, the happier they are.
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