{"id":361,"date":"2007-03-24T19:52:55","date_gmt":"2007-03-25T02:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/361\/unarticulated-customer-needs"},"modified":"2016-11-30T02:49:41","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T07:49:41","slug":"unarticulated-customer-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/unarticulated-customer-needs\/361\/","title":{"rendered":"Unarticulated Customer Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;d venture to say that most products and services are bloated with features that customers most likely don&#8217;t care for;\u00a0 I&#8217;ve been part of product development teams where the focus is on features, with an implicit goal to stuffing as many features as possible &#8212; in consumer packaged goods and in software.\u00a0\u00a0 This is the wrong approach to developing memorable and sticky products.<\/p>\n<p>The above statement might be best described by Kathy Sierra&#8217;s Featuritis Curve:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10075 aligncenter\" title=\"customer-needs-not-spoken\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/03\/customer-needs-not-spoken.jpg\" alt=\"customers needs but not spoken or articulated\" width=\"440\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/03\/customer-needs-not-spoken.jpg 440w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/03\/customer-needs-not-spoken-300x233.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In my own personal venture in product and package design (a side project), I employ ethnography &#8212; the science of watching people do stuff; of learning about unarticulated customer needs, which is otherwise known as ethnography; Toyota calls it <a title=\"genchi genbutsu\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/genchi-genbutsu-go-and-see-part-1\/2896\/\">Genchi Genbutsu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A.G. Lafley, the CEO of Procter and Gamble, understands this well:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>JANUARY 28, 2005, Business Week<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to get after what we call unarticulated consumer needs. What she wants that she can&#8217;t tell us about. And there are lots of techniques we have developed or are developing to do that. And two, I wanted to focus more on the consumer experiences as much as on the product and technology.<\/p>\n<p>People remember experiences. They don&#8217;t remember attributes or benefits or features.\u00a0 We talk a lot about how you create a delightful experience.\u00a0 Now, when you&#8217;re dealing with underarm deodorants and cleaning dirty floors, you have to work real hard to try and deliver a less unpleasant experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The key phrase here is this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>People remember experiences. They don&#8217;t remember attributes or benefits or features.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What a simple, yet profound statement that still many, many companies fail to understand.<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;d venture to say that most products and services are bloated with features that customers most likely don&#8217;t care for;\u00a0 I&#8217;ve been part of product development teams where the focus is on features, with an implicit goal to stuffing as many features as possible &#8212; in consumer packaged goods and in software.\u00a0\u00a0 This is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":10075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Unarticulated Customer Needs | How to Understand the Customer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Customers don&#039;t share their thoughts and needs sometimes because they actually do not know then or are ware of them. 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