This Is Marketing: You Cant Be Seen Until You Learn to See

What do people want?
That’s probably the wrong question.
Different people want different things.
Neophiliacs want to go first. They want hope and possibility and magic.
They want the thrill of it working and the risk that it might not. They want
the pleasure of showing their innovation to the rest of the crew. And they
want the satisfaction of doing better work faster, as well as the anticipation
of being rewarded for their innovation and productivity.
On the other hand, the typical corporate cog wants to avoid getting in
trouble with the boss. And if trouble does happen, he wants an airtight alibi
and a great way to avoid responsibility.
The social crusader wants a glimmer of hope and the chance to make
things right.
The person who measures dominance instead of affiliation wants to win.
And if he can’t win, he might be willing to settle for watching his opponent
lose.
The affiliation-seeking tribe member wants to fit in, to be in sync, to feel
the pleasure of people like us do things like this without the risk of being

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picked to be the leader.
Some people want responsibility, while others seek to be recognized.
Some of those you seek to serve want a bargain, while a few eagerly want
to overpay, to prove that they can.
Almost no one wants to feel stupid.
More and more people have been seduced by the promise of
convenience, so that they don’t have to pay attention or exercise judgment.
Others feel empty when they’re unable to contribute effort.
The lesson: Always be wondering, always be testing, always be willing
to treat different people differently. If you don’t, they’ll find someone who
will.
The superuser
Some customers are worth more than others.
You’ve certainly heard the stories of restaurants that keep a picture of the
local restaurant critic on the wall of the kitchen. The thinking is that if you
can spot the critic early in the meal, you can raise the quality of the
experience and get a better review.
If you can pull it off, this might be worth the effort.
The thing is, everyone is a restaurant critic now. Everyone can post on
Yelp or share the experience with others. And so, the thinking goes, you
need to treat everyone better because everyone has more power.
The math here doesn’t hold up. Treating everyone better is a bit like
treating everyone worse—given your resources, you can’t treat everyone
better than you already are. Instead, you can look at the new normal and
realize that while everyone has a platform, not everyone is using it.
While everyone could be a neophiliac, a sneezer, a power user, a
significant contributor, not everyone is taking that opportunity.
You can learn a lot about people by watching what they do. And when
you find someone who is adopting your cause, adopt them back. When you
find someone who is eager to talk about what you do, give him something
to talk about. When you find someone who is itching to become a generous
leader, give her the resources to lead.

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We have the technological levers to treat different people differently if
we choose to. But we’ll need to watch and listen to be able to figure out
what to offer and who to offer it to.