Channel Mastery - Ep. 25: Margo Aaron

“Your colleagues are not your customers.”

- Margo Aaron

EPISODE PREVIEW:

Margo Aaron knows how to help us connect emotionally with our target end consumers (Avatars). Tune in today for a 30-minute MBA on how to discover your target avatar and how to get them to care and take action around your brand. In Margo’s own words about target avatar research:“I like to go a level further, which is the emotional level. And there isn't a fancy psych word for it, but it's effectively: What is this person's hope, fear, and dreams? That's really what I want to know. What is their worldview? What do they believe is true? What do they think about themselves?”Topics covered: Emotional connection with your target end consumer (avatar), consumer research, consumer marketing, shopper marketing, quantitative and qualitative consumer analysis psychographics, market research, overcoming self-doubt in business, adapting in business, identity branding.

GUEST PROFILES:

Margo aaron

Today’s guest has a very unique skillset, tailor-made to help us all understand how to emotionally connect our brand with our target end consumer (avatar). You’re about to meet Margo Aaron; she has a Master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University, a background in academic education and research, and years of doing end-consumer research for major consumer packaged goods companies like Starbucks, Target and Seattle’s Best Coffee. Plus? She’s a Millennial – she would kill me for pointing that out, but I wanted to because it underscores her mindset and ability to connect experience with digital – digital is not an add on, it’s part and parcel to the UX (user experience).Today, Margo’s built a successful consultancy business from her very unique background, and we’re beyond stoked to offer her as an entertaining and educational resource to you, dear Channel Master!Margo’s approach melds the psychology of why people buy and what they enjoy about the shopping experience (which is different from the buying experience), with a fluency in quantitative research. As you’ll learn in this show, we can’t let data drive 100% of our decision-making when it comes to testing and applying new strategies to be remarkable to our end consumers. If we do, we’ll literally whiff when it comes to making the crucial emotional connection with our avatar, which keeps them in our communities and prompts them to share all we offer through our brand. In short? Today’s podcast topic is ground central for successful multichannel businesses.A brand is a set of perceptions a consumer carries in his or her mind about what a company stands for. As Margo points out:“Part of that comes from what the brand tells you it is, and part of that comes from the consumer’s subjective experience with the brand. So when the end consumer is in that zero moment of truth about to make a choice, it’s an emotional decision, not a practical one.”

TOPICS COVERED:

Emotional connection with your target end consumer (avatar), consumer research, consumer marketing, shopper marketing, quantitative and qualitative consumer analysis psychographics, market research, overcoming self-doubt in business, adapting in business, identity branding.

SELECT QUOTES:

“Companies waste a lot of money on things that don't totally work.”

“Your colleagues are not your customers.”

“I think that's the mistake a lot of people make and a lot of brands make; They forget that there's a human on the other side of this interaction.”

“I spent a lot of time in market research and I will tell you, 90% of it is useless.”

“The qualitative thing is more interesting and more useful when it comes to marketing. Because when you're creating creative collateral, the qualitative stuff is what's going to drive how you tell your brand's story, and what story you tell, and who you tell it to.”

CONNECT:

That Seems Important: https://www.thatseemsimportant.com

Connect with Margo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margoaaron/

AS MENTIONED IN EPISODE:

“To What Extent are Amazon and Google Competitors?” (Forbes open contribution, Nov. 2017) https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/11/13/to-what-extent-are-amazon-and-google-competitors/ - 746f89864267

“Amazon Prepares for Apple and Google Competition with Home Devices Push,” by Mark Gurman (Bloomberg, Sept. 2017) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-27/amazon-girds-for-apple-google-competition-in-home-devices-push

Margo’s articles on Inc.com: https://www.inc.com/author/margo-aaron

Have questions or ideas for Kristin and the Channel Mastery podcast? Email: podcast@channelmastery.comLike what you hear? Or maybe you don’t?Help us deliver exactly what you need from Channel Mastery by writing an iTunes review at: https://apple.co/2FJ6lwB

PRESENTED BY:

SPONSORED BY:

DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT:

Margo AaronWATCH EPISODES ON YOUTUBE:WATCH NOW