As Mark Ritson says... It's good to TALK (er, or was that BT?)

How often do you hear a brand talking about 'putting the customer first' or 'built around our customers' needs'... but how often are those same brands actually talking with (or to use the more digitally-friendly word) 'engaging with' their customers. Frankly, openly, and with no agenda other than understanding.

As usual, Mark Ritson puts his finger on it in his latest Marketing Week column, and the answer is 'not often enough.' And, as he says,

'People come up with all kinds of excuses not to talk to consumers: they don’t have time.; it will cost money; it will stifle innovation; Steve Jobs didn’t do it. The excuses are endless.'

He goes on to say:

Forget about content marketing and bloody Facebook for a minute. They are mere cake decorations on the top of the massive gateaux of market orientation.

And yet (and perhaps this is semantics) -- shouldn't we be even more interested in talking 'with' our customers? And isn't that something digital interaction can allow on a greater scale than ever before? 

So by all means and absolutely go talk with your customers in person. And at the same time, use social media, which can certainly be more than mere decoration.

What makes both of these interactions valuable? Intelligent listening. It's not enough to talk to your customers -- how often have we seen customer views discounted by someone who's *convinced* their idea is the right one, and their customers just don't know it yet (which of course then gets bolstered by the Steve Jobs example.)

So, talk with your customers and listen intelligently -- using *all* channels at your disposal. And then distill that information, sometimes conflicting, sometimes disjointed, into a cohesive strategy that *also* takes on the knowledge you as a producer has built, but in a way open enough to new ideas.

Easy-peasy, right?