Why you have to be able to market to people not like you

My Google alerts picked up an article that featured a book by a lady called Kelly McDonald in a publication called Lawn and Landscape.

In the UK there is a satirical programme called Have I Got News For You that always features stories from a strange sounding magazine - well Lawn and Landscapes sounds just such a mag, however, this article was really good.

One of the things I always tell marketers is that they  cannot extrapolate the universe of consumers from the knowledge of their own likes, dislikes and peculiarities. Many continue to do so.

This lady says something very similar. The criticism works just as much for older as younger people who find it impossible to get into the heads of people who are not like them. In fact you have to be able to get into the heads of people who you probably don't like very much.

I have no idea if the book is that good but I thought what she said in the article made it worth mentioning. Dick Stroud