Do you know how your TV or phone actually works? Have you studied how people choose cereal in the supermarket? When did you last ask someone why they truly love a particular brand?
Just because we’re human doesn’t mean we naturally understand people and let’s be honest, homo sapiens isn’t exactly a rational creature.
The customer experience gap
I was listening to the latest episode of the Uncensored CMO podcast with Gary Vaynerchuk, and his biggest insight struck me: working in his family’s wine store and serving customers drives his relentless focus on customer satisfaction above all else. As he put it, “I am the least full of shit when I am talking about the customer.”
Gary’s success doesn’t come from being a wine connoisseur, it comes from studying and experiencing consumer behaviour first hand. Those years watching his father negotiate with suppliers and interact with customers gave him genuine insight and evidence to build his evolving perspective and create strategies that actually drive satisfaction and growth.
"Here’s the uncomfortable truth: many of us in marketing are miles away from the customer."
Lex Bradshaw-Zanger
Grounding theory in reality
Think about an MBA taken later in life; the theory connects with real business experience you’ve already accumulated. Similarly, when we have genuine customer experience, we can anchor our marketing theories to something we’ve actually touched, felt, and lived.
I often reflect on my real-world customer experiences, not just as a consumer, but where I had to work for it, even if they were quite a while ago now.
I worked retail and restaurants through school and university, eventually helping run the business, which forced deeper thinking about operations and customer needs. When I joined McDonald’s, like every headquarters employee, I worked in a restaurant for a week. Now, whenever I travel to our L’Oréal markets, I try to visit consumers in their homes (and yes, their bathrooms too if they’ll let me) to understand what their lives are really about.
The power of one
It doesn’t matter that these are data points of one or two, what matters is being able to ground larger datasets in something real and tangible. I’ve always said it’s nearly impossible for the consumer to come to life in PowerPoint.
Hiring for tomorrow
So when we’re recruiting marketers for the future, we shouldn’t be looking for people who spend all day on TikTok or simply love our category, we need people who have actually done something - built their own apps, created their own content, or even tried to launch a brand.
The headline is tongue-in-cheek, but the point is serious:
"Platform expertise means nothing without understanding why people engage, what drives behaviour, and how to create genuine value."
Lex Bradshaw-Zanger
Building memory structures
Grounding our thinking in something real creates memory structures we can reference, much like how brands are built in consumers’ minds. These experiences become the foundation for pattern recognition, intuition and strategy that actually works.
The question isn’t whether you use TikTok, it’s whether you understand people deeply enough to know what would make them stop scrolling.
Credits:
- Thinking is mine
- Writing supported by Claude
- Visual created in partnership with ChatGPT
Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, Chief Marketing & Digital Officer, L’Oréal SAPMENA Region & The Marketing Society, Singapore Board Member
