1. “Kenna’s Dilemma…” by Gladwell
2. “Turn Customer Input into Innovation” by Ulwick
3. “Metaphorically Speaking” by Zaltman
I found all 3 articles to be quite eye-opening and am so excited about the things I’m learning. I’m not sure if it was because I was hungry while reading the articles or because I had Indian food the night before – but while reading them I kept thinking about examples that related to food!
As mentioned in my previous blog, my ethnic background is Indian. My parents are from the state of Andhra in India, but I grew up my entire life in Oregon. Despite having never lived in India, Indian culture was still very influential in my life especially when it came to Indian food. My mom cooked Indian food almost every day and as I grew older I added Indian food to my repertoire of cooking skills. Although Indian food varies by each state in India, it is traditionally sectioned off as “South” (my parents’ region) or “North” Indian. Because of my interest in cooking and close friends who are from both regions, I would consider myself well versed in both types of Indian food.
In the article “Kenna’s Dilemma”, I found some very important tidbits in marketing and understanding consumer opinion. First, I learned that first impressions of experts are very different from others because they are able to reason out their actions. A non-expert may find it difficult to make sense of something unfamiliar or new, like the Herman Miller Aeron chair when it was first released, so their first opinion may be a misrepresentation of their feelings later on. When thinking of the first example, I’m immediately reminded of the time I took a group on non-Indian friends to a well known restaurant in Maryland called “Minerva”. The menu changes on a weekly basis depending on what is in season and it is also serves authentic Andhra food. I absolutely love it and can compare every taste and texture of each dish to my mom’s home cooking. My friends, who are used to typical “North Indian” food, didn’t like it at all! I was quite surprised, but now I realize that Andhra food was just unfamiliar to them and unlike any other Indian food they had tried before.
I had a similar experience when I first tried Indian desserts. My first impression of Gulab Jamun (a typical Indian dessert that is drenched in sugar syrup) was “yuck this is way too sweet. How can more than 1 billion people in India like this thing?” Well I gave it another chance and later ended up loving it...
The second article stressed the fact that when you ask consumers what they want, they will just give you a solution but not a ground-breaking idea. To create an innovative new product, as a marketer, you need to understand the desired outcome of a consumer and then make sense of it. The methodology given made a lot of sense and I could already see multiple applications for it in my past job at Intel. One of my roles was to start a relationship marketing program for smaller design house engineering companies. I interviewed many customers to learn what they would like to see in a new program and then launched one based on their feedback. Now I realize that their feedback was only based on their current experience and what our competitors had. Had I used the methodology described in this article, I probably could’ve come up with something completely new and never attempted before.But back to Indian food… the methodology used in this article reminded me of Chicken Tikka Masala. During the 2.5 years I lived in the UK, this dish was everywhere! It’s considered the “favorite national dish” and there is a long-standing claim that it was also invented there. My guess is that one day a chef at a local pub pieced customer feedback together: “they like the chicken”, “they like the spice”, “they like yogurt”...mmm… and as they say in England “Bob’s your uncle, I’m going to make Chicken Tikka Masala!”
The last article I read, “Metaphorically speaking”, was fascinating but a little difficult to grasp. The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) is all about understanding the deep thoughts and associations someone might have towards a topic. Consumers are asked to collect a minimum of 12 images representing their thoughts and feelings about a topic and then market researchers ask a variety of questions before mapping the results. I was a bit skeptical of the idea at the beginning but as I kept reading it started to make sense. All three articles used different methods, but they each seem to have their place in marketing.
I thought about ZMET and how it relates to a recent purchase I made: “Mother’s Recipe Mango Pickle – South Indian Style”. Immediately I had a mental image in my mind of Andhra pickle just like my grandmother used to make, fresh mangos, relaxing under a palm tree in India, family gatherings, and eating this pickle with dahl. I can also think of nonverbal cues and metaphors in relation to my thoughts about this pickle, but you get the message…
I think I’ve written a little too much about food…. I’m feeling hungry again so I think I’m going to go find something to eat!
