Consumer Focused vs. Consumer Driven

I recently found myself in an interesting dialogue with a colleague. I mentioned that successful innovation stems from being focused on the consumer. He agreed but within moments mentioned the phrase “consumer-driven”. I pointed out that I disagreed with him on this, and a perplexed look immediately crossed his face. “But you just said…”, he stated, thinking he was merely restating my original premise. After much discussion, we agreed that this is much more than semantics.

Voice of the Consumer (VOC) research is consumer driven. Purists of this tool insist that anything spoken by a consumer be captured verbatim, and maintained as such throughout the ideation and development process. The belief here is that if you deliver on what consumers say they want, you will be wildly successful. In other words, develop a process where the consumers “drive” what it is provided to the marketplace.

I don’t buy it. I have seen too many focus groups and one on one interviews where the researcher asks consumers “If you could have anything you want, what would you ask for?” That “ground-breaking” question is more often than not met with a room full of blank stares. If answers are provided, they typically reflect an existing product that has been seen by the respondent, but not owned.

The fundamental flaw with “consumer driven” is that your average consumer is not an inventor, a dreamer, or a visionary. Unlike product managers, their world does not revolve around specific products or categories.

Now contrast that with “consumer focused” innovation. To focus on something is to pay it special attention and to understand it from as many perspectives as possible. That still involves interaction with the consumer, but it is not limited to their exact requests. I can learn as much about a person sometimes from what they don’t say as from what they do say. I seldom conduct a contextual interview but what I see people contradicting their own words with their actions. Seeing what they own, how they live, how they entertain themselves, how they interact with their families or communities can all be very telling in understanding what new product or service would best resonate with them.

As product developers and marketers, we need to embrace this. If we allow consumers to drive our efforts, we will be limited to the types of incremental improvements that they can readily envision. We’re the experts on our businesses. Let’s understand our consumers and the true needs they have. Then we can develop breakthrough products that truly delight them!