It has always bothered me that the USDA describes the sales of meat or poultry as “disappearance.” It sure did disappear into a consumer’s mouth through their digestive tract and into waste repositories, AKA sewers, of America. But a choice had to be made for that disappearance. And that choice is the reason for marketing.

I suppose the mistake that the USDA made when originally deciding to call sales “disappearance” was their insistence on describing the meat and poultry products we have dedicated our lives to producing as “commodities.”

Our products are not commodities. They are food products to be sold to and consumed by our customers, who, as I said, must put them in their mouths and their families’ mouths, trusting that we have produced safe and tasty meat and poultry products.

Marketing gurus around the world have devised ways to categorize consumers by painting them as if they are members of some cult, e.g., segments, with similar almost pejorative definitive brushes, like Generation Z or X, or WASP, or some other moniker.

Why do we develop such labels? Maybe because we as marketers are too lazy to really get to know our customers/consumers. We develop consumer categories with similar traits and call that segmentation. But it is wrong! Do you want to be known by some label? Neither do our customers.

You may be starting to conclude that I do not believe in market research. Nothing could be further from the truth. But the market research I believe in is much more personal and in-depth than what you can get from some formalized market research study. To me, that formality is just being lazy and the information you get back is filtered with resulting labels categorizing your customers. If you insist on such formalized market research, have some carefully agreed-upon guidelines and definitions and then do a deep dive into how your hired marketing dragon slayer is going to do the research.

In my view, the best marketing research is personal. Let me give you an example: A company I once worked for wanted to introduce a tasty new product we had carefully developed. We chose a couple of markets and convinced some retailers there to put the product in their counters. And then I went around to the various stores, stood in front of meat counters and asked consumers who were contemplating purchasing the product, “Why?” Why were they considering a purchase? If they said they were not interested, I asked them that other powerful question, “Why not?” And, then I just listened. After a few days of my “market research,” I knew all about those who were and were not buying our new product and their reasons.

Now, don’t get your hackles up, all of you market researchers steeped in the psychographic nuances of consumer behavior. I have found that personal consumer interaction by those responsible for the success of the product produces the most informed marketing decisions. It is just as accurate as a PowerPoint presentation based on reams of data from months of in-depth, outsourced market research.

Gen X, Y or Z are just categories, and categories don’t buy meat; people do. Get to know the people by asking the “why” or “why not” questions if you want to sell them.

You may remember a line spoken by Harold Hill from the musical “The Music Man” on a train travelling through Iowa when he intoned to his fellow salesmen (and they were all men in those days), “You’ve got to know the territory.” What he meant was you have to know the people of the territory. And the youth of River City, Iowa, were in trouble. That trouble “starts with a ‘T’ that rhymes with ‘P’ that stands for pool.” He was suggesting that River City’s youth were being hoodwinked by the nefarious wiles of playing “pool.” His solution was to sell musical instruments to the parents of these misguided youth while he absconded with their money.

He didn’t label the youth, but described their brassy behavior that his product, musical instruments, could help cure.

The lesson for all of us market researchers is, “Do not label me unless you first get to know me if you want to sell me!”

Don't label me if you want to sell me!

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