​​Strategy: What's your customer truth and how can it transform your business?

Insights and customer truths – they’re everywhere. But finding useful (and transformative) ones, now that’s easier said than done. Just because you have a wealth of insights doesn’t mean they’re going to have any real impact on your business or your bottom line. Why not? Well, there are two main issues with most strategies: where they come from and how they’re used.
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Dig deeper and find the gold

Businesses are full of vanilla, off-the-shelf and generic strategies. They often focus on well-worn category insights and do little to inspire teams to do anything in a meaningful or innovative way. At best, they deliver parity for your product, brand, or service. But you’ll miss out on the opportunity to create value for either customer or business.

Diverse perspectives for richer thinking

Uncovering real insights is about harnessing the power of multiple perspectives. Don’t settle for a quantitative study stating that people want to save time (everyone does) or customer feedback indicating that your call centre is slow to respond (it can always be faster). While these inputs are valuable, you need to broaden your research to push beyond the obvious and explore your business and category from multiple angles.

 This could include methods like:

• Immersing yourself in the customers experience
• Shadowing customers as they use your product or service
• Mapping competitors' products and services
• Dissecting analogous business models
• Gathering perspectives from internal SMEs, particularly the front line
• Consulting futurists
• Auditing media and social channels
• Reviewing all your research from the last five years to uncover overlooked learnings

These efforts will yield a more robust and thoughtful set of insights. Unfortunately, this is where most businesses stop. All that great research goes untapped. But insights are only valuable if you use them.

It’s your task to identify a customer truth within your research that can form the foundation of your strategy. This truth should act as a catalyst that ignites creative thought and action. It should be something that would make customers say, "You read my mind." Why? Because you've made a customer's hidden motivations, feelings, or needs visible.

A great example of a powerful truth behind product strategy is Air New Zealand’s research into seating designs in the economy cabin. Through observations, shadowing and customer interviews, a simple truth emerged: "Free me from the emotional and physical trap of the seat."

This emotive and provocative truth informed a product design process that stretched far beyond traditional approaches. It inspired an entire team of designers to push the boundaries of seat design in pursuit of solving this truth.

The result was the Skycouch™, a world-first product that allowed customers to sit, recline, and even lie with their travel companions. An experience that was truly liberating for economy flyers.

Another example is Cambridge Clothing’s research into the relationship that men have with the suits they wear to work. Until then, Cambridge had pursued a strategy of following fashion trends, believing this was what customers wanted. It was, after all, what the competition was doing.

However, after speaking with men in front of their wardrobes and discussing their suit choices, it became clear that men weren’t looking for the latest trend. They wanted to feel confident. This very human truth led Cambridge to rethink their approach completely. Not just in the way they displayed suits in-store, but also in the combinations they offered. This ensured that at 6 a.m., when men opened their wardrobes, they would find the right look to give them the confidence they wanted for the day ahead.

These two case studies are perfect examples of how a deeper exploration of the customer’s needs can transform a product to make a business more relevant and more competitive in the long term.

Build everything around your truth 

As we’ve already mentioned, finding that human truth isn’t enough. Now you need to place the consumer, their truth and your strategy at the heart of how you think and operate.

If you settle for one of those generic insights or don’t actually implement a real truth effectively, the results will inevitably be underwhelming. Sooner or later, someone will ask: "Have we clearly identified and agreed upon the specific customer truth we’re addressing?"

The power of visualisation

The true power of uncovering a customer truth lies in its ability to resonate with stakeholders and energise the team responsible for executing the strategy. This truth should ignite a sense of urgency and purpose. Without that spark, who will feel inspired or motivated to bring the strategy to life?

To ensure your customer truth has maximum impact, it's essential to bring it to life through effective visualisation. This means not just stating the truth, but vividly illustrating the customer, their problem and the broader context in which this problem exists. By painting a clear picture, you make the challenge relatable and tangible, making it easier for others to see its importance and relevance.

Additionally, if possible, go a step further and communicate the opportunity that solving this customer truth presents. Highlight the potential benefits or competitive advantage that could be gained, providing a compelling reason for everyone involved to rally around the cause.

One practical way to do this is through a well-crafted one-pager. This concise document can serve as a powerful anchor, keeping everyone aligned and focused on the shared goal. By distilling the key elements of the customer truth into a visual format, you ensure that the strategy remains clear, compelling and actionable for the entire team.

Find your transformative customer truth

Strategies founded on customer truths are powerful, defensible and (most importantly) solve genuine customer needs in unique ways. Implemented correctly, your customer truth will fuel business growth.

Can you identify the truth upon which your strategy is built? Is it at the core of your product, brand, or service? Is your business focused on answering that customer truth? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” then it might be time for a strategy refresh.

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