VinePair Podcast Brand Managers Can't Market Just to Themselves
16 snips
Oct 30, 2025 The hosts delve into how brand managers often craft marketing campaigns based on their own tastes instead of focusing on consumer insights. They highlight missed opportunities when marketers ignore essential data and regional trends, particularly outside major cities. An intriguing case study reveals how Lalo's targeted strategy effectively followed high-net-worth consumers. The discussion also covers the impact of social media in understanding consumer habits and the importance of aligning innovation with genuine consumer needs.
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Marketers Market Themselves, Not Customers
- Brand campaigns often reflect what brand managers personally like rather than how core customers actually consume the product.
- This mismatch can waste marketing resources and miss the largest sources of volume for the brand.
Texas Shows Whiskey Drinking Habits
- A senior alcohol executive moved to Texas and found local consumers drank whiskey with Coke, not craft cocktails.
- The company never considered a whiskey-and-Coke campaign despite that being where most volume came from.
Sample Bias Distorts Strategy
- Small, biased samples (like friends at an event) don't accurately represent a brand's national consumer base.
- Large brands need systematic research to avoid basing strategy on anecdote or personal taste.