Do Marketers really know their customers?.

​Certainly, the first role of any marketing department is to know their customers. Existing customers, target customers, and lapsed customers. If we do, we divide our customers into groups of similar pre-determined characteristics so we can fluctuate the messaging dependent on each portion.

The challenge is, what happens when customers' pre-determined characteristics become fluid? What if those data algorithms are undermined by the constant shifting of customer personality? It is no longer a clear differentiation between customers based on age, gender, ethnicity, education, and location because they are not necessarily the best guide.

What if you discover that your customer clusters are a mix of demographic variables? As the blog by Naira Musallam, Co-founder of SightX succinctly states, if you really want to understand your customer, you really need to understand their behavior.

​To do that you need a strategy, data, tools, and of course you also need people.

​As the economy grows out of the pandemic, the availability of experienced talent has rapidly developed. At the same time, the demand for experienced data, insight and market research professionals has skyrocketed. There is a clear supply and demand issue and we weren’t recruiting and training new professionals in the pandemic so there isn’t a new supply of talent.

So to compete in today's market, you don’t only need to understand your customer as Naira expertly demonstrates in her blog, you also need to understand your current and future talent resources. This is why talking to recruiters when you are not looking, is as valuable as when you are.