Behind the same purchase

The deeper I go into customer research, the more aware I become of something I already sensed from marketing: a segment is hardly ever a uniform group. Within the same age bracket, income level or sector, small worlds live side by side, microsegments or nano-niches, each with its own motivations, codes and expectations. And behind the very same decision there can be reasons that have nothing in common.

For years I have worked with the intuition that comes with experience, and I still value it. A trained eye is a good starting point for building hypotheses. But I am learning not to confuse a hypothesis with evidence. A hunch tells us where to start looking. Research tells us whether what we think we see is real.

That is why qualitative research interests me more and more. Surveys help us know how many, and interviews help us understand why. In a conversation, what doesn’t fit in a checkbox comes to light: the context, the nuances, the contradictions and everything said between the words. And I keep discovering that, very often, the most revealing thing is not what someone says, but how and when they say it.

Understanding each audience this way is what makes it possible to build an emotional bridge with them. A connection in which each segment feels recognised, identifies with what we share and can project itself into it at the speed of light. When someone thinks “this is about me”, the conversation starts on its own.

I keep exploring, asking and learning to listen better. But it is becoming clearer to me that trying to speak to everyone is usually the fastest way to speak to no one.