I found this on Digg a few weeks ago and thought it’s a great example of what I’m referring to. Recently Dominos started aggressive marketing campaigns for a new product of theirs called the Dominos Pasta Bread Bowl (on a side note, I’m a bit of a health nut and looking at this things makes me feel uneasy, but that’s beside the point). I’m sure you have all seen commercials or ads for this new bread bowl, if not, let me remind you what this so called food item looks like…according to Dominos.
mmmm delicious right?
So this product looks great after it’s been photoshoped, air-brushed, and perfected to bits. But, what does this thing actually look like when you order it?
Well here’s what a Dominos customer received when he ordered his “bread bowl”
Remember that movie “the blob?” that’s all I’m going to say…
Does every Dominos bread bowl look like this? I sure as heck hope not.
So what’s the point of all of this?
Oftentimes when we create a product or service we look at it through color corrected and perfected eyes, aka the eyes of the company. What we see and experience and what a customers sees and experiences can be two very different things. This is a problem for obvious reasons. Whether you’re a consultant or work for a fortune 100 company you have to remember to look at things from the point of view of the customer. The problem you THINK you are solving or the service you THINK you are providing may not actually be the same one that the customer sees.
Applying this directly to social media, this means asking your customers what they want and where they exist before you begin creating a social media campaign. If you start joining twitter and facebook just so that you can send out discount offers to your product then you might think you’re giving your customers something great, but guess what, from the customers point of view, you’re giving them a whole lot of nothing.
Have any other examples? What are your thoughts on this?
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