Human Insights Matter More Than Ever
· A recurrent theme in 2016 was that small cultural nuances make a huge difference for brands and retailers the world over.
· This is true for Brazilian retailers serving a growing middle class, grocers winning by tailoring offerings to Chinese tastes, and global brands needing to contend with the ‘buy local’ movement.
In The Year Ahead:
· The ability to understand consumers as ‘people’ and therefore connect with them will remain a huge source of competitive advantage.
· I recently read an article suggesting that the true power of AI-powered bots (yes, those again) will be realized when the technology moves from developers – who imagine what people want and build it – to marketers, who work from a deep understanding of consumer needs.
· This aligns with a broader trend, as the formerly ‘useless’ liberal arts degree has become tech’s top ticket in recent years. The co-founder of hot-tech-ticket Slack credits his philosophy degree to his success. And, non-tech majors with degrees in fields like English, history, communications are slowly infiltrating the ranks of hallways in Silicon Valley, Austin and beyond – making companies stronger with their humanist lens.
· In the year of ‘big data’ that lies ahead, I predict we will continue to see an interest in people-first thinking. The ability to conquer the retail world will start with the ability to understand a single customer through a human lens.
· In 2017, the resolution to “be more kind” overtook goals related to fitness or health for the first time. I can’t help but see a connectivity between these two points. After all, kindness springs from the simple ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. In the year ahead, let us all be more empathetic, in our personal and professional lives, as we seek growth on both fronts.
Entrepreneur, Investor, Founder, & Mentor.
8 年Can AI successfully predict choice? Achieve the ability to mirror the human free will component then AI will truly be something.
Customer Engagement | Google Cloud
8 年Ram - In your second bullet point under the year ahead regarding AI-powered bots, you share that the power of the technology won't be truly recognized until we get a deep understanding of consumer needs. My company Nuance Communications is working with marketers live yourself for many leading global brands to unlock the potential of these chat bots for the Enterprise. I'd like to speak with you and share how we're doing this today - would you be open to a further conversation?
Author of the best-selling book Marketing to Mindstates, 2x CEO, and Behavioral AI Market Research Expert.
8 年And to build... with human understanding comes the ability to use Behavioral Design to architect shopper choice at shelf.
Bringing authentic quality samosas to the UK high street
8 年Thanks for sharing. The old world of broadcast media is rapidly changing to a world of listening and "sitting in each individual's shoes". Not easy for a CPG brand like Pepsico to do this. First step we believe is giving consumers an ongoing reason to connect and communicate with the brand. Packaging has a role to play in this. Packaging has to become unique so that consumers connect with it regularly. A pack has to drive a consumer reaction, make a consumer read an engaging message, respond to the pack by opting in digitally online to accept an ongoing dialogue with the brand. If the brand collects behavioural data on an individual basis they are in a position to sit in the consumers shoes, listen, empathise and truly engage on the consumers terms... Exciting world for CPG brands who embrace this
Region Vice President - Frito-Lay at PepsiCo
8 年Empathy & mindfulness ... the new EQ. My favorite subject to teach is reminding our teams we are all human. Neither perfect nor filled with malice. Just human.