In the realm of marketing, customers usually get lumped and categorized and generalized. We throw this customer in the 32-40 year old group. This one gets put in the 75-100K income bracket. This group spends X amount eating out every week and will travel X miles for entertainment. And so on and so forth until our customer becomes a meaningless pile of data.

Well, it’s not totally meaningless. I don’t want you to toss out all that customer data. It can be useful, just realize that it’s only half the story. It can help us define our customer, but it can’t help us to get to know our customer.

When we lose sight of the person on the other end, our marketing efforts stall. And as a result, our business stagnates. The next time you feel like you don’t know your customer, I want you to stop.

Drop.

And give me 20.

Take 20 minutes to consider the part of the customer that data isn’t revealing. Remind yourself that they’re not some cold statistic. They’re grandmothers, sons and daughters. They have passions, fears and hopes. They’re your best friend from college, the family that lives down the street, your boss or your coworker. They remember their first concert, their first crush, and the last time they saw a really great movie.

And they’ll remember a really great brand if you give them a reason to.

It doesn’t matter what kind of marketing you’re doing — B2B, B2C, B2Whatever — in the end you’re talking to a person. Don’t ever forget that. At its core, that’s what marketing is all about.

Question is, though, what do you want to say?

Maybe I should back up a little. The HOW Design Conference is THE conference for our industry, in my opinion. It’s a place were creatives don’t have to explain what it is they do for a living. Where a guy can talk about PMS and women can discuss face trimming and no one thinks it’s out of place. Believe it or not, I had an intense conversation about the use of the color red with about a dozen designers all the way into the wee hours of the morning. I know, I know, geeks! But, there may have been some drinking involved.

This year the Conference had a special message that really spoke to me. It was something I have always tried to strive for, but only because I felt it was the right thing to do. As designers we have the ability to give social issues and organizations a face and a strong message for everyone to rally around. We have the gift to see things before anyone else and use this for positive results. With this unique ability we can change the world. OK, that’s kind of a stretch, but not by much. It only takes the action of one person to start the ball rolling. It just takes one designer to give a voice to a cause.

Social responsibility and making use of we do for a living to help others were some of the main messages from this year’s conference. There were a few presenters that I felt were talking directly to me. One in particular was Michael Osborne of Michael Osborne Design and his non-profit design studio Joey’s Corner. Please check out his work and Joey’s Corner. It’s truly inspirational. This is a perfect example of one person starting the ball rolling, getting the people around on the team and well, changing the world.

Mopdog has always done its fair share of pro-bono work. It’s kind of our thing. Maybe because I have a hard time saying no or more likely the way I was brought up. My parents, my wife and even my first art teacher are all people who inspire me to do what I can to help others, even if they don’t have the means.

So looking forward, I want to start the ball rolling, inspire people around me and do what we can to change the world, even if it just one small spot. Interested?

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi