Mele’s Musings

Google’s ‘Analytics Evangelist’ Explains Why Websites ‘Suck’

Are you a hippo?  Are you making decisions about consumer experiences even though you are “least closest to the customer”?

pitcure: lorla.com

Article excerpt:   Kaushik: Despite Mounds of Data, Marketers Don’t Understand Consumers. Avinash Kaushik thinks one of the reasons why so many websites “suck” today is because of the hippo — as in the “highest paid person’s opinion.”  And, yes, you’re likely a hippo — a successful advertising executive, CMO or brand manager, pulling in a six-figure income, often found pontificating about what does and doesn’t work online. You use tried-and-true metrics such as unique visitors and click-through rates to decide on the best design for your landing page or what content is best suited on your product site. Yet, despite your mounds of data, Mr. Kaushik thinks you are the “least closest to the customer.”  It was a blunt indictment, considering Mr. Kaushik offered it during a talk before roughly 200, well, hippos — marketing executives from Procter & Gamble, Victoria’s Secret, Coca-Cola and Timberland — at an invite-only client conference held by Resource Interactive, a Columbus-based digital agency.
the rest: adage.com

Musing:  The basic premise of Kaushik’s argument is a good one – that very often, the way we evaluate what customers want is based on our gut, or on what is “hot,” or what is what WE want, but not on what the customers want.  Despite all of the data that is available, or could be available, we sometimes decide not to invest the time or research into what customers really want because we have to hit some self-imposed deadline or have pre-determined expectations.  I am not sure that I totally agree with another part of his premise – that Google can tell marketers things that they used to rely on from agencies because of their ability to collect data – and that might be self-serving.  But my experience has been that it is not the data collection itself that is important, but the fact that we are not using it enough or interpreting it well enough.