We marketers rely so much on research and formal analysis that we have forgotten the power of instinct in our business decisions. Which packaging should we go with? Research it! Is the ad good? Research it! What should be the price point for our new product? Research it! I am not knocking marketing research (I have gained from some insightful researches; equally, I have taken some awful decisions because research gave it the thumbs up).

Research has its place (though not for the late Steve Jobs!) but doing things based on our ‘gut’ has an important role to play as well. I just finished reading the book ‘See, Feel Think Do’ by Andy Milligan and Shaun Smith and what they have propounded does resonate with me.

See, Feel, Think, Do argues that one can take the right decisions by ‘experiencing what your customers experience and changing it for the better. It requires three key human skills: observation, empathy, and problem solving.’ Archimedes discovered his principle of displacement by observing what happened when he got into his bath tub; Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head.

The See, Feel, Think, Do model looks at the four words in its title:

1. See: Walk in your customers’ shoes. When Rich Teerlink took over as CEO of then troubled Harley-Davidson in the early 1980s, he and his team spent a lot of time riding with the Harley loyalists and talking to the old factory hands. They discovered that while Harley had a loyal following, its users were disgruntled with the unreliability, poor quality control and uncaring after-sales-service of the bikes. This led to the changes that Harley made and the formation of the Harley Owners Group.

2. Feel: Feel what your customers feel. We all know what happened when New Coke was launched. The Coke executives just didn’t understand what their own consumers felt about their brand.

3. Think: There is no such thing as a stupid idea. Even today, most online retaining is done on the basis of the shopping cart (that replicates the way shopping is done in a store). Amazon thought that this approach took too long and needed to be shortened. And one-click shopping was born.

4. Do: Make it happen. Many ideas fail because of poor execution and by not taking fast action on the face of adversity.

Don’t get hooked on to formal idea generating tools and the ratification of every decision by a formal research. Observe, think and give your instinct a chance!

Visual courtesy :https://www.flickr.com/photos/trojanllama/