I remember it was 2016; at my new job, I had to move a dead inventory from an amazon warehouse that was not selling for one year. I was a creative marketer back then, so I thought something viral could make the product move. I tried so many variations of ads, keywords, and tests but still no results. I had one more month before having to look for another job.
After going through google analytics, Adspresso tests, active campaign email funnels, amazon listing optimizations, new product photography, giveaways, you name it, I tried everything.
Then it hit me, and I asked myself whom I was trying to impress? Who bought the product??Who believed enough in a product nobody else was buying? I downloaded all sales data and dived into the rabbit hole of pricing variations, holiday promos, returns, competitors, reviews, and in the sea of raw unstructured data, I found an address.
The address led me to a neighborhood that introduced me to a culture that encapsulated an audience with specific buying behaviors. So, the whole user persona was wrong, produced in an echo chamber of a time where everything had to be apple-like, minimal, clean high-class products while the real customer was far from that.?The customer had social issues, cultural needs, and language preferences.
After reworking all the marketing campaigns and, taking the real users as the base for a persona, the whole inventory sold in 4 months, and 5-star reviews started filling the amazon listing.
That day, I knew data was not the path to more sales but empathy, emotion, creativity, and finally, people. Data connects us to people.
