Legend now has it that when a reporter asked Steve Jobs what market research went into the iPad, Jobs replied:
None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.
Design decisions should be shaped by managers’ intuitive understanding of technology and popular culture
Jobs’ stated philosophy created quite a stir among marketers.
The accepted paradigm is that companies should be “customer-driven” since the “customer is king”.
But, Steve Jobs – one of the greatest innovators ever — said emphatically that he wasn’t customer-driven.
What gives?
I surmise that Steve Jobs was sensitive to customer needs and wants, even though he claimed that he wasn’t customer-driven.
Let’s dive deeper.
I don’t think Jobs had a problem with the “customer” part of customer-driven. He seemed to like it when people would uh & ah over his designs. And, he sure seemed happy to be selling lots of stuff.
Note: Some folks may quibble over use of the word “customer” versus the word “consumer”, but I think that’s a distinction without much difference.
My experience suggests that most companies think “customers”. For example I often hear about the “voice of the customer”, the “customer experience”, and “customer loyalty”.
Usually when I hear the word “consumer”, it is being used to distinguish a line of business from another one that is oriented to industrial or commercial markets, e.g. Black & Decker has a Commercial & Industrial business that serves tradesmen and a Consumer business that serves folks like me and you.
Bottom line: “customer” is ok.
I think the issue that Jobs had, and some other people have with “customer-driven” is the “driven” part.
Should companies react in a Pavlovian way to everything customers indicate that they want?
Doubtful.
Should companies be sensitive to what customers say (or think) they want?
You bet.
Should managers have the leeway to judgmentally screen and augment customers’ wish lists to reflect technology constraints (or advances) and economic realities?
For sure..
Accordingly, I propose that companies move on from “customer-driven marketing” to a more nuanced mindset and methodology: Customer-Valued Marketing TM or, in short, CVM TM.
Whereas “customer-driven” evokes a sense of mechanical compliance to customers demands, Customer-Valued Marketing TM connotes an authentic, balanced, proactive approach that:
Recognizes (and calibrates) customers’ value to the company strategically and financially. Think customer lifetime value. loyalty economics and ‘customers as assets’.
Respectfully values customers needs and wants – considering needs and wants that are both salient (known) and latent (sub-conscious or unknown) — immediate or future-projected. Again, think voice-of-the-customer and Quality Function Deployment.
Allows managers leeway to “re-value” customer desires by filtering and massaging them based on technological feasibility (can we do it?) and economic desirability (do we want to do it?).
Delivers benefits that customers value and are willing to pay for. Think value creation and value capture Economic Value to Customers, value mapping.
Provides integrated measures of success centered on value and values: value to society, value to shareholders, value to customers, value to employees,
My take: While Steve Jobs may not have been customer driven, he seems to have practiced Customer-Valued Marketing TM
Stay tuned, I’ll have plenty more to say on Customer-Valued Marketing TM …
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CVM TM, Customer-Valued TM, and Customer-Valued Marketing TM are declared trade/service marks of Kenneth E. Homa
The Homa Files 