The most dangerous place in the world of strategy is the echo chamber. This is the bubble where your own ideas and beliefs are reinforced by people like yourself, thus blinding you to alternative perspectives.
The consequence of this trap is a me-too strategy—a shallow, imitative plan that simply mimics what others are doing without offering anything unique or compelling. Such strategies fail because they offer no compelling reason for customers or employees to choose your organization over a competitor. A strategy built on personal assumptions, rather than on a deep understanding of your target group, is a house of cards. In a world filled with noise, a unique value proposition is the melody that cuts through it all.
Moving Beyond Assumption to Authenticity
To avoid this, you must actively listen to your audience and understand their motivations, needs, and pain points. This requires stepping out of your own bubble and seeking out honest conversations with the people you are trying to reach. This can be done through:
- Qualitative interviews. In-depth conversations with a small group of your target audience to understand their stories and motivations. Go beyond success and what they like and also talk about pain points, annoyances, and fears. We want to get an authentic and complete picture
- Quantitative survey. Gather data from a larger group to validate your findings from the interviews and identify trends. You want to confirm whether your initial insights apply to a wider audience and ground your strategy on broader evidence
- Empathy mapping. Define the insights from your interviews and survey to visualize what your target audience thinks, feels, says, and does. This is where you find connections between different target goups, departments or cultures whilst protecting unique individual insights
For example, if you are developing an employer brand strategy, it is critical to speak with a wide range of employees, not just those in senior leadership. A great strategy for a global company would require talking to employees from different countries and cultures to avoid a campaign that resonates in one region but falls flat in another. The experience of an engineer in Berlin might be different from that of a sales representative in Singapore and a customer experience agent in Brazil might value different parts of your culture.
By understanding your target groups, you can transform your strategy from a solo performance into a composition where every instrument plays a vital role in creating an impactful symphony.
If you’re ready to stop guessing and want to start truly understanding the people who matter most to your business, let’s work together to create a strategy that gets results.
