Google and Apple: Poster Brands for Consumer Focus

“Apple proves that if you organize around the consumer, the rest of it will follow…” said Google’s Eric Schmidt in a recent interview.

Hallelujah!  It’s the perfect reinforcement of marketing’s Holy Grail – the absolute critical need to focus on the consumer.   To hear it from the mouth of Google’s founder and in the context of Apple gives a uniquely  relevant reinforcement of the importance of the consumer for today’s student.

In my teaching and professional experience consumer centricity is by far the most difficult concept to drill into newbie marketers. When students get it, they get it.  But when there is a struggle it invariably goes back to one of the following;

• Understanding you are not your target market

We experience life through our own filters.  They are not indicative of other people’s experiences and perceptions.  Get out of your own head. Get into the head of your target.

• Starting the solution – before you understand the target

This is like prescription without diagnosis.  It presents itself commonly with a student excitedly talking about building an app or developing a tactic without even beginning to understand the consumer.

Schmidt goes on to say; “…Google sort of runs in a similar way (to Apple) . . . try to figure out how to solve a consumer problem and then the revenue will show up.”

Thanks to this article, the reinforcement of understanding the consumer will become a little easier… as it speaks a language that is more relevant to an educator’s target market: students!