Stop calling me a ‘consumer’
Reducing people to a single act such as ‘consuming’ strips away context and will hold your brand back from truly connecting says Debbie Spence.
Too often, vocabulary in our industry refers to people in a way that’s one dimensional with no consideration for humanity.
I can recall at least eight different labels I’ve heard used in the past couple of weeks: consumers, targets, shoppers, buyers, customers, members, stakeholders, and – the most odious – recipients. I shudder when marketers reduce people to this. It’s lazy, demeaning, arrogant and contrived.
We need to see people as a whole person and not reduce them to a single act such as consuming or using. It dehumanises all of us and strips a person of their circumstances, eliminating context and the opportunity to connect on a real human level.
Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash
I’ll give you an example: I’m in the midst of building a house. Last week, a salesperson called me to arrange an appointment to measure for blinds and curtains. He literally referred to me as a ‘lead’. I told him where to go.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about being politically correct. It’s about encouraging marketers to think more deeply about the role their brand might play in the real lives of the people they’re trying to connect with.
Move beyond the artificial division created by the boardroom, focus group room or workshop space and get under the skin of the real-world context.
By thinking about people as human beings and recognising the importance of humanity in the work we do, we’ll build better brands and stronger relationships with people.
In my role as head of design research, I focus on discovering human insights and galvanising design, language and technology teams around the people we’re designing for. You can call it human centred design if you want to use the latest buzzword. At the heart of this is a fundamental interest in people.
The work we’ve been doing recently with one brand, in particular, is directed at capturing the human insight that people want to demystify superannuation and reduce the distance between them and their money. They need someone on their side, encouraging them to do what’s best when it comes to their super. A simple nuance in language reframed super funds as their ‘super savings’, a more accurate reflection, as far as people are concerned, and immediately helps them feel closer to their super.
It’s important to make sure there’s space for the human context in the encapsulation of brand strategy. Brands must always consider the context they are operating in. Brand purpose responds directly to this, wrapping up the ambition of the organisation as something meaningful for the people we’re trying to connect with. Unless we understand the human context, we won’t unlock a brand purpose, and the brand strategy won’t inspire great work that has a commercial reward.
There must always be a fundamental human truth at the hearts of our brands. Without that, we’ll continue to be distant, disconnected and arrogant in our assumption that people care about us when in reality we are very low on their priority list.
It’s also not just about what we say, but what we do that’s important. Connecting with someone on a human level requires more than lip service. Don’t tell people: “We’ll treat you as a person, not an account number” unless you intend to follow through. All the lofty aspiration written into an ‘about us’ statement on a website is irrelevant if the way people experience the brand doesn’t deliver.
Brand building today is the same as it’s always been. It’s about making genuine connections with real people. So let’s shed the outdated, dehumanising labels and think about people as fellow humans and make branding human again.
Debbie Spence is the head of design research at branding agency Principals.
Ok, we’ll stop.
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I was prosuming some cereal this morning thinking about this very topic. Good post, Deb.
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what I really look for as I walk around the supermarket, are food brands and products that understand me as a well rounded and holistic person and that have a purpose in this world that transcends their value to me as a food choice.
said no grocery buyer ever
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So let me understand what a consumer is …
Consumer
noun
a person or thing that consumes.
Economics . a person or organization that uses a commodity or service.
So I’m assuming that the logic is to NOT target a person that consumes the product. Neat trick. But it, never use it.
Put another way … balderdash resulting from being precious.
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Professional industry people get to the top precisely because they know what makes the consumer tick! In other words – their “human-ness.”!
Can’t believe the author believes otherwise.
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For those of us who have been around the block a few times, and thinking about what Debbie is saying reminds me of one of the many great David Ogilvy’s truths. It is not so much about what our profession calls consumers/customers in house, but ultimately how we treat & speak to them….
Debbie deserves credit for making us all think about it, regardless of whether the usual morons who don’t have the strength of character to put their names to their opinions think.
“The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her.” David Ogilvy.
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I think there is real significance of the point Debbie is making.
If you use dehumanising language to describe the people you are serving then you are more likely to perpetuate a culture in which your relationship with said people (and the brand that sits at the intersection of this relationship) is at best disengaged and at worst exploitative.
You don’t have to look very far to see extreme examples of the problems that arise when large orgs don’t see their “consumers” as people, but rather as a resource to be exploited.
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I’ve been saying this for years. You know, I don’t mind being a “customer,” but it’s perfectly fine to just say “people.” But consumer? That refuses me to nothing but a worthless eater. I counter with the fact that it is, in reality, corporations which are the consumers. They consume vast amount of the world’s resources to make cheap, disposable crap, in their efforts to make continuous profits. And they know it. Therefore they shift blame and call us “consumers,” telling themselves they are simply doing what they must to meet our demand (which they damn sure helped create, too.) The simple fact is that merchants are dishonest. They know they are greedy pics of filth, and they must create a false reality in order to justify their worthless existence. So yeah, don’t EVER call me a “consumer,” you locust.
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You were eating? That’s natural. You need to eat too live. “Consuming” is unnatural, needless eating.
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