One size does NOT fit all
As the proud grandfather of our fourth grandchild, I felt fairly confident in my knowledge, understanding and role in the process. I get to hold the baby when everybody else needs both their hands to do whatever is needed. I get to assemble cribs, bassinets and other furniture items. I get to move those now fully assembled items six or seven times until they’re in just the right spot. I get to fashion makeshift step stools, support systems and other devices in MacGyver-like style because “Puh Puh can do that.” I even get to run errands to purchase any supplies that might be needed for the baby or his impressive roster of volunteer caregivers. It was on one such errand that I was struck with the reality that I hadn’t been fully briefed on some things during the first three births.
Early on a Saturday morning, I ventured out to procure some extra baby bottle nipples. It was also requested that I find and purchase a sleeper. The sleeper had to be cute, soft, have a full-length zipper and include those adorable, litte “feetie” parts. After scouring several stores for the specific bottle nipples I finally found myself in a store that had what was needed. I also found a sleeper that matched the prescribed criteria and in a size 0-3 months. I purchased the items and they were immediately delivered to my daughter and her new infant.
Moments later, I received a call from my wife who was at my daughter’s home with her. She said the sleeper was the wrong size. It was too big. He needs one sized for “newborns”. I explained to her, “yes, that’s why I got one that was 0-3 months.” I was under the impression a newborn baby who hasn’t been outside the womb for longer than a week would be the mathematical equivalent of zero month’s old. Apparently, that’s not correct.
It turns out, a newborn baby is less than zero months old. Somehow they have to grow into being zero months old. More confusing, that growth and the transition to becoming zero months old typically happens when the child is one month old. What kind of whacky system is this that can take something so soundly and logically grounded in math and twist into a vile, misleading contortion of retail confusion?
After a few hours of questioning everything I thought I knew about the world around me, I realized, as marketers, we sometimes perform this same, dark witchcraft. We build our plans and develop our campaigns and sit back as the metrics roll in. Then, we optimize our channels, adjust our messages, swap out graphics and photos hoping to get an incremental boost in the results. All the while, we’ve not realized we’re trying to put a 0-3 month sleeper on someone who isn’t 0-3 months.
Look, I get it. We can’t create work that’s so individually customized that it fits everyone who sees or hears or experiences it. Or can we? There are plenty of examples in retargeting, dynamic content, database-fed customizations and other techniques that, through a variety of technologies including marketing automation platforms, deliver more contextually relevant experiences. Our challenge as marketers is to evaluate, consider and, as possible, adopt these opportunities to improve the performance of our efforts and create better, more relevant experiences for those we’re endeavoring to communicate with. Because, as I was recently reminded, one size does NOT fit all (or even those that you thought were in that range).
