Do you actually know why people buy from you?
Stick with me, we're revisiting a familiar theme again this week. A few months ago I wrote about why businesses assume they know what customers want. Turns out, even when they ask, they still get it wrong.
This week on our podcast, John cut straight to the chase.
Even when businesses do go and ask their customers their reasons for purchasing, they often come away with the wrong answer. You can do all the right research and still come away with the wrong answer. People just aren't wired to accurately explain their own decisions.
If you ask John, people aren't honest about why they buy things. Ask someone why they bought a pair of shoes and they'll come up with a random justification. The real answer, almost every time, is they just wanted them.
So when you build a brand strategy around what customers tell you they value, you might be building on sand without realising it. The story you tell yourself starts to feel like fact. But really, the actual reason people are choosing you is sitting somewhere else entirely.
The gap between what you think people value and what actually drives their decisions is where most brand strategies quietly fall apart.
The good news is there are ways to get closer to the truth. It just requires asking differently, not more.
We run through this idea, including why most businesses only do half the research job, in this week's episode of The better everyday podcast.
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This is taken from the weekly email written by one of our directors, Roberto Boi. Every Thursday he shares observations, ideas and perspectives from the work we’re doing day to day at Dilate. If you’d like to get it delivered straight to your inbox, you can sign up here.
