True story #1:
I have a friend who is a dedicated patron of the small shops in a nearby village with a thriving art community. When I go out with her, she requires that we stop at every blessed shop and strike up a conversation with every single shopkeeper. Except the glass shop. And the glass shop is beautiful — there’s always a cat sunning in the window, and its walls and shelves are adorned with lovely one-of-a-kind lamps, gazing balls, statues, stained glass windows, and blown ornaments. One might surmise my friend dislikes glass, or has had some blowup with the owner that keeps her away.
One Friday afternoon, we stopped in front of the shop. I asked her if we were going to go in. “You go in first,” she said, “and make sure that cat is shut away.”
True story #2 (thanks to Ananonva.com):
“A pair of flamingo chicks at London Zoo have been left ‘terrified’ of the colour pink.
The birds, named Little and Large, developed the phobia after being fed using a pink sock puppet.
Zoo staff are now hoping they get over their aversion before developing their distinctive colour, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Keeper Alison Brown, 30, said: ‘To try to encourage Little to feed by himself we’ve been wearing a hand puppet which imitates adult flamingos, but unfortunately he was really terrified of the socks.’
Young flamingos take up to a year to turn pink, after they shed their grey downing feathers, so Little and Large are not afraid of themselves or each other – so far.
Ms Brown added: ‘We’ll just have to hope they get used to the colour pink, but I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Once Little gets his own pink colour he’ll be fine.’”
I wonder if it occurred to the zoo staff to find out if is really the color pink that terrifies the chicks. Maybe what the chicks are afraid of are the zoo staff. Or sock puppets. (Come to think of it, who isn’t afraid of sock puppets?)
Moral:
When we observe behavior, whether it’s the behavior of buyers or the behavior of birds, we tend draw conclusions based on our own preconceptions. The truth might be right in front of your face, but you won’t see it if you’re looking for something else.
Lesson:
Market researcher Katie Harris of Zebra Bites asked recently, “Are you measuring what you think you’re measuring?“ A related question is, “Are you seeing what you think you’re seeing?”
Let’s say you operate a retail establishment that sells, among other things, pink flamingo sock puppets, targeted to flamingo children. If these youngsters are terrified of your store, the last thing you want to do is toss out all the pink items if what they’re afraid of is sock puppets.
If you’ve been in business for any period of time, you’ve figured out that what people say and what people do are often two differenct things. (See my earlier post, Omission Detection.) What people do will give you greater insights into their values than what they say, but be careful about mind reading when you are trying to figure out why people do what they do. Connect the dots. Ask people why. And then watch their behavior to help you figure out whether they are being truthful with you (and themselves) about why they do what they do.
Only then will you know what decisions you need to make to turn your business into one that your target customer — be they flamingos or families or ailurophobes — want to patronize.
