What Truly Matters to Your Customers? Exploring the Truth with Metia’s Misia Tramp

At this year’s Now You Know™ Conference, we explored the theme of the “truth.”

Misia Tramp, VP of Customer Experience at top global agency Metia, discussed the social truth and what that really means for consumers in a recent webinar.

She began by quoting Robert Evans, saying “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side and the truth – and no one is lying.”  

The truth is a perception based on our own experience which can lead to very different truths depending on who you are. But no one has a wrong “truth”. The truth, when put into context, creates a whole new story.

When research is put into context, brands can truly understand what their consumers are looking for.

Some trends in the marketplace today are changing the way we look at consumers and what they want. They are not looking for the art of surprise and delight or the value of their good in terms of cost anymore.

With all the choice and flexibility these days comes complexity in decision making. When customers have so many options, it is difficult for them to actually choose. They are looking for brands to make their lives effortless, no matter what they are selling.

But consumers also want to ensure their priorities match the priorities of the products they are buying. If we’re so focused on tactics using our data, we will never connect with what customers really want.

Personalization is key – not only at the individual level, but also at the tribe level

We must understand how the groups a customer belongs to is interacting, talking about products, what language are they using.

This is another way to personalize the content to your customers. When customers feel that you are trying to appeal to them, they are far more likely to buy your product.

Looking back at the Robert Evans quote, the truth is the intersection of everyone’s story.

When what matters to the audience also matters to the brands is wherein the social truth lies.  Brands have certain priorities and so do consumers but it is the overlap of those that counts. When both parties have reached a mutual agreement on what is important to them, everyone wins. So this should be easy to find?

With everything being able to be measured today, you would think the answer is yes.

Unfortunately, because everything can be measured, we find ourselves in a muck of data with no real answers, and everyone wants these answers in real-time.

To quote Misia, “No brands have the capacity to do this in real-time. Or at least not yet.”

But all brands can do this on time. Whatever that means for your company – once a quarter, once a month, even once a week. Being data driven does not mean that we should forget our customers.