Eric LeBlanc

Marketing on a Human Scale

Marketing is a discipline with processes and methodologies. And that’s a good thing. Good process yields good results more often than a bad process or no process. No marketer worth their salt would fail to use the tools of the trade, from market assessments, segmentations, creative briefs, and on and on. Except–they do. Often. The nice thing is, generally when a marketer fails to follow good process, the project they are working on sends them a reminder about why they shouldn’t fail to follow process.

Marketing on a Human Scale, however, is a way I like to think about reaching an audience that preserves all of that good process, but takes the time to consider the human dimension. Let’s all roll our eyes and claim that we already do that. No, we don’t.

Sergio Zyman, former chief marketer at Coca-Cola, wrote about the launch of New Coke. Many observers thought that Zyman and his team had failed to do the appropriate market research. Now, make no mistake: Zyman had marketing chops. In blind taste test after blind taste test, consumers preferred New Coke. What went wrong? The question that got asked was, “Do you like this new Cola?” The question that didn’t get asked is, “Is it ok if we screw around with your Coke?” While the answer to the first question was a strong, “Yes,” the answer to the second question was a resounding, “No!”

I don’t think there’s any cause for smugness here. Bright marketers did what bright marketers do: they followed good process. But they missed an important thing on the front end–they didn’t connect to what was human in those consumers whom we, when we are at our worst, try to manipulate. When we fail to connect with the consumer in their human need, we fail to provide the solution that meets that need, so we fail to connect and reach that magic space where brands meet consumers and loyalty is created.

This website includes information about my background and my approach to marketing. I’ve password-protected some content to protect intellectual property. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or if I can be of service to you.

Eric Le Blanc