gautamramdurai :

p. notdickless :

p. gautamramdurai :

p. You don’t understand your audience by reading research reports, poring over demographics and analyzing preset stereotypes. You understand them by talking to them, living their lives, speaking to their friends, watching the shows they watch, reading the books they read, dining at the places they dine at. Research is not just about deconstructing human beings through numbers and graphs and reports – it’s all that and so much more.

It’s about understanding, it’s about letting go of your pre-conceived notions, it’s about empathy – it’s about realizing that they’re not your target – they’re * people. *

Who are you? You’re not a strategist, that’s for sure.

Ha ha – I’ll take that as a compliment! :D

This is manifestly confusing. You do all of these things. You live the life, talk to the people, MAKE the research, and read the research other people make. You may think you can understand them by talking to them, living their lives, speaking to their friends, watching the shows, yes. But that is DOING the research. And while you’re doing research, someone else is doing research too, and you damn well better be reading their research too. You can talk to all the people you possibly can, but someone else is talking to more of them. Read their research too. Anyone who thinks any sort of planner or strategist sits around reading research grossly underestimates the job. I don’t know a single one who spends ANY time at all “analyzing preset stereotypes.” And I know a lot of strategists and planners.