Reflect Carefully on Marketing to the Mirror

What’s a recent movie you liked? Keep that title in mind, please, and estimate what percentage of the people you know also liked the movie. Now please do the same thing with the title of a movie you did not like. What percentage of people you know also did not like that movie, do you think?
     Researchers at University of Michigan and McGill University find that people are much better at guessing what other people will dislike than at what they’ll like. It was true for movies and also for ice cream sundaes. People who liked a certain blend of ingredients—such as mint ice cream topped with hot fudge and sprinkled with walnuts—overestimated that others would like it by an average of 10%. Those who disliked the combination the experimenters had described overestimated others’ dislike by an average of less than 1%.
     Notice that in either direction, it was an overestimate, even if by a bit. Moreover, researchers at University of Michigan and University of Chicago find that in making predictions of like and dislike, we tend to assume that other people come to their conclusions using reasoning like our own. Even if they prefer Coke and we prefer Pepsi, we’ll think that they used the same criteria and weighting of criteria as we did in coming to our decision.
     Let’s apply this to your retailing decisions. When you assume your target customers hold the same preferences as you and make their purchase decisions the same way you do, that’s marketing to the mirror. It can mislead you.
     Psychologists use the term “projection” to refer to the tendency we all have to assume that what we enjoy is embraced by those around us. In reality, this assumption can work for the very small retailer who is just getting the business started. The hobby shop owner and the purveyor of specialty foods can pay the bills for a little while by depending on a cadre of consumers who share the merchant’s niche passion.
     But to grow their businesses, retailers must broaden their target markets beyond themselves. The flip side of projection is called “introjection.” It consists of incorporating the perspectives of others into our own thinking. Allowing the preferences and predilections of others to guide our actions.
     It’s harder for people to engage in introjection than in projection. But reflect on the importance to you of doing it.

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Broaden Target Markets Beyond Yourself