“Customer is King”, so goes the old adage. In the marketing world, this expression has almost never gone unchallenged. There are companies who will do anything to know what the customers want, through extensive consumer research and survey. The problem that I had is, a lot of important marketing strategic decisions were let to customers to decide, because, well, they are “King”. Unfortunately, this blind interpretation of “customer is King” often costs companies great innovation opportunities, or great communication ideas. Let me explain this by first proposing a further interpretation of “customer is King”. Customer is King, but the King is not necessarily the smartest person in the country. There, I said it. To me customer is King means companies should act in the best interest of the customers. Because that’s how companies retain their customers and keep the business. But it is not the same with treating the King (customers) as the smartest people in the world, or as marketing experts, because they are NOT. That’s why a King does not have to design its own castles, or train his own army, or design its own weapons. He has competent people in their fields to do all that, and eventually, by letting the experts do their job, the King eventually reaps the benefits himself. Again, let me say it. The King is not the smartest person in the kingdom, and letting him decide on things that are not his expertise may […]
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