We can find
examples of telling
over listening in the
marketing rhetoric
of “educating the
customer,” commonly

product, Wal-Mart continues to pressure a marketplace that has already indicated its objections. Do we need (re)educating, or just a better bulb? The problems with the current product are well-documented; the pathway to consumer acceptance has been lit from within. It would be nice (and ultimately more effective) if they worked on the bulb, not on changing the meaning of the bulb. As we know, the bulb has to really want to change.

PR people are masters at making telling sound like listening. Sound bites that supposedly come from CEOs typically feature hollow customer-centric phrases that serve to validate any business decision (a new product, a new feature, a change in a previous way of doing business, the removal of a feature, etc.). “Our customers tell us that food packaging is extremely important to them and can determine what they buy,” and “We’ve done research, and research shows us that our customers like . . . movies.” Maybe these companies are listening to their customers and maybe they aren’t; they’re so busy telling us how hard they are listening that it’s difficult to sort out what’s real.

The retro chic of AMC’s “Mad Men” has reminded us in a rather quaint way of the role of advertising to persuade (some may say “manipulate”). And it’s in advertising that we see the biggest disconnect between the

story that is being told by the producer and the story that is being told by the consumer. It’s in their interest not to listen. Oil companies care about the environment, and McDonald’s loves to see us smile? Do we still believe that Target is a champion for good design when we go into a store and see huddled masses yearning to shop cheaply?

These businesses tell a good story (we call that “innovative” advertising), but they fail to deliver the promised experience. We measure advertising by the attention it can grab, but who measures coherence? The Cluetrain folks told us this was supposed to be a conversation, but it’s hard to consider it a dialog if it’s one-way.

Listening can bring value to all parts of the organization and the product development process. Indeed, to reach the stage of conversation, we need to better utilize the listening tools we have at our disposal, even as we find more effective and impactful ways to tell.

used when companies
realize that the
public isn’t doing
what they want them
to be doing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steve is the founder of Portigal Consulting, a boutique agency that helps companies discover and act on new insights about themselves and their customers. He is an accomplished instructor and public speaker, and an avid photographer who curates a Museum of Foreign Grocery Products in his home. Steve blogs regularly for All This ChittahChattah, at www.portigal.com/blog.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without the fee, provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage, and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on services or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. © ACM 1072-5220/08/0300 $5.00