About a decade ago our small town (2,700 people) held an event where 8-10 year olds could come sit on a tractor or a grader or fire truck. When my wife volunteered to bring our Winnebago ERA to the event, we thought it might be a fun way for us to spend a few hours.
What's the worst thing that could happen when a handful of nine year olds are crammed into eighty square feet inside an RV?
You'd think the kids would line up to enjoy a fire truck.
You'd be wrong.
The first sign of trouble happened when one of the intrepid youngsters asked me to turn on HOT 104, because, as the young man said, "They're number one for all of the hits." For some reason the kids didn't feel the vibes of the soft favorites I chose to play.
I turned HOT 104 on the radio.
Ninety seconds later the decibel level of HOT 104 went from 50db to 90db.
It's amazing how 90db of "Worth It" by Fifth Harmony attracts the youngsters.
I noticed that all of the shades had been pulled down. I hopped in the RV, asked everybody to leave the shades open, opened them all, then fought through eight more kids entering the vehicle as I tried to get out. In the driver's seat sat a kid who had to be smaller than the steering wheel. He told me that he was going to "Hijack this thing to Mexico".
As I exited the vehicle, about ten parents had lined up to watch the festivities. "It's so nice of you to do this!" Days earlier I thought the same thing. While speaking with the parents, I noticed another five or six kids enter the rig, and as Maroon 5's mega hit "Sugar" blasted out the speakers I saw the shades get pulled down again. Seconds later, my RV was rocking side-to-side, with kids singing lyrics that, quite honestly, they shouldn't be singing. The parents didn't seem to mind ... "if the house is a rockin' don't bother knockin'".
Well, the house that was rockin' was MY house!
I entered the vehicle to see fifteen or twenty kids singing loudly. One of the little boys winked at me during the chorus like he was in a music video. These kids were, as Arianna Grande would say, "vibing".
The kids also vibed a melted chocolate bar all over the floor of the RV. I mean, what an unholy mess that created.
That wouldn't be the only unholy mess they created.
Ten minutes later twelve kids ran out of the vehicle at the same time, some gagging. "Hailee just made a mess in the bathroom!" She made a mess all right. I didn't turn on the water pump because, I mean, why would I need to? So when Hailee made a mess in the bathroom, there wasn't any water for Hailee or anybody else to resolve the mess created minutes earlier.
These kids were my customers. In no possible way did they view my "product" the same way I viewed it. Nor did their parents.
It's common to do these Zooms and hear comments from folks about their business. One Executive described his business to me as being "modern". He had a 1-800 number prominently featured all over his home page. His business may be modern, his customers are not, they're 65-79 years old. He views his customers differently than his customers view his brand.
I worked with one company who learned via testing that the models used to feature merchandise had to be 15-20 years younger than the core customer. They didn't assume they knew the customer ... they let the customer tell them how the customer viewed herself.
It's awfully hard to view your business the same way your customers view it. Had I viewed 40 kids destroying my RV ahead of time, I wouldn't have brought my RV to the event.
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