Taste in Marketing: A Measurable Skillset for Professionals

You probably know who your customers are. The more valuable question is whether you understand what it actually takes for them to choose you. I want you to recall your last first-time purchase, what were the options before you? What was going through your mind and what influenced you to make a final decision to go ahead with the purchase? Data can describe purchasing behaviour with considerable accuracy. It can tell you who is buying, how frequently, and through which channels. What it cannot tell you is what the customer was weighing up before they decided, what nearly stopped them, and what finally made your product/service feel like the right choice. Most leadership teams provide marketing with a budget, a timeline, and a set of expectations. What is far less consistently provided is a clear, shared understanding of why customers actually choose your business, and what is happening in their thinking before they do. That understanding does not come from analytics. It comes from deliberate, structured attention to the customer's actual experience of making a decision, which is a different thing entirely from what they did once they had made it. Without that foundation, messaging gets built around what you believe is important rather than what the customer is genuinely responding to. The businesses that consistently outperform in their category are not always those with the largest budgets. They tend to be the ones with the clearest picture of their customer's context. Not just demographics, but the specific combination of pressure, uncertainty, and trust that shapes whether someone chooses you or does not. That level of understanding is rarely visible in reports. But it shows up, reliably, in outcomes. So, before concluding that a marketing problem is an execution problem, it is worth asking honestly how well the business actually understands the people it is trying to reach. #marketing #marketinginsights #businessgrowth #marketingstrategy

Before you define your GTM, your buyers already have feelings about their problem. But most B2B SaaS teams skip this entirely. They build personas --> They map funnels --> They define ICPs. They never ask: what emotion is driving this purchase? Brian Tracy in his book "The Psychology of Selling" mentions 𝟖𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥. 𝟐𝟎% 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥. The rational part appears in the business case. The emotional part closes the deal. Looking at Gong Labs eg. They didn't launch with "AI-powered conversation intelligence." They opened with one question VP Sales teams couldn't shake: "𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜?" That was the GTM. Not a feature. Not a category. One emotion - the fear of flying blind - identified early, validated in market, and compounded into $250M ARR before competitors understood what they were really selling. Emotion first. Logic second. Every time. Does your GTM map 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 - or just buyer demographics?

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫......... Marketing is no longer a battle of who sells better. It’s a battle of who understands better. We’re living in a time where information is everywhere. Customers don’t rely on brands to tell them what to buy anymore. They research. They compare. They validate. By the time you try to “sell,” they’ve already formed an opinion. So what really wins today? → Who has deeper customer insight → Who understands behavior, not just demographics → Who uses data to anticipate, not react → Who educates before they pitch Because attention isn’t captured by pressure anymore. It’s earned through relevance. The brands that win aren’t louder. They’re smarter. They don’t push products. They position understanding. In the end, marketing isn’t about convincing people. It’s about making them feel understood. And the brand that knows the customer best… rarely needs to sell at all. #LinkedIn

One of the biggest mistakes brands make when targeting the 55+ consumer market is assuming price is the primary decision driver. It usually isn’t. When engaging this demographic, the real question isn’t “How much does it cost?” It’s “Can I trust this company long term?” Senior consumers typically evaluate brands through a different lens: • Has this company been around long enough to be reliable? • If something breaks, will there be real support? • Is there a local presence or someone accessible to help? This changes the entire conversion equation. You’re not just selling a product. You’re selling confidence in continuity. Many companies focus their marketing on: • Feature lists • Promotional discounts • Urgency tactics But those signals often miss what this market actually evaluates first: stability, reliability, and long-term support. In practice, we see a consistent pattern: When brands clearly communicate longevity, service continuity, and operational stability, engagement quality improves and conversion friction drops. Because for senior consumers, trust architecture matters more than promotional pressure. And once that trust is earned, the long-term customer value can be significant. If you're designing strategy for the 55+ demographic, it’s worth asking: Are you communicating features and discounts… or confidence and reliability? #SeniorMarket #ConsumerBehavior #MarketStrategy #TrustMarketing #BusinessGrowth #CustomerTrust #ProExpo

Ever wondered how the world looks from the eyes of a marketer? A marketer never really sees the world the way others do. When most people walk into a supermarket, they see products. A marketer sees positioning, pricing, shelf strategy, and consumer psychology. When others watch an advertisement, they see a story. A marketer sees target audience, messaging hierarchy, emotional triggers, and conversion intent. When a new café opens in the neighbourhood, people think about coffee. A marketer thinks about footfall potential, brand identity, differentiation, and customer lifetime value. Even daily conversations feel different. A simple question like “What should we eat today?” suddenly becomes a choice architecture problem. A crowded street becomes a market segmentation case study. A trending meme becomes organic reach waiting to happen. Marketing is not just a profession, It is a lens through which you start seeing the world. - Every product tells a story. - Every brand fights for attention. - Every customer makes decisions influenced by emotions, habits, and perception. And once you start noticing these patterns, there is no going back. You don't just live in the market. You observe it, decode it, and learn from it every single day. That’s the world from the eyes of a marketer. #Marketing #MarketingMindset #BrandStrategy #ConsumerBehavior #LinkedInLearning

So, you're a Go-To-Market (GTM) leader. What market research solutions do you need to consider most? Well, a successful GTM strategy hinges on knowing WHO to target, HOW to talk to them, and WHY your competition should be rejected by your prospects. We recommend the following research approaches to help GTM efforts: 🗺️ Buyer Journey - before you can sell a product, you should deeply understand exactly what problem the customer is trying to solve and the path they take to solve it. Go beyond mere demographics and dive into the psychology and the logistics of the purchase process. A combination of qualitative discovery and quantitative confirmation should dictate your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). ⚾ Win/Loss Analysis - get an unvarnished view of where your product stands in the real world, not just in the minds of your product team. This high-ROI research uncovers why prospects choose your product over a competitor (the "Win") or why they walked away from your offer (the "Loss"). This is usually crafted with in-depth interviewing, and it provides the exact ammunition your Sales team needs to handle objections, realign your pricing, and pinpoint your key differentiators. 📜 Message Testing - you may have the world's best product in your category, but if the market doesn't understand it or know why they should care, the launch will likely fail. Ensure your brand positioning resonates before you load up on a campaign that your agency or your team has developed without testing. One value proposition will generate the highest intent to purchase, so why not make sure you're using that one? Research Biz is always happy to discuss your market research questions or concerns -- no pitch, no pressure. So, why not get in touch with us today?

I count 110 of my connections on LinkedIn who are GTM pros. This Research Biz post is for you! Caitlin Clark-Zigmond Alexis Dockery, MBA Kyle McAdams, AIA, MBA Kristen Mello Prasanna Kumar (PK) Thoguluva Santharam Jason Wolfson

Most companies chase new customers. Few optimize the ones they already have, which is strange. Because the biggest growth lever in many businesses is: 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞. But CLV doesn’t improve by accident. It requires segmentation. Not demographic segmentation,but 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Signals like: • frequency • recency • purchase patterns • response to offers When segmentation improves, marketing becomes dramatically more precise. Without it, every message becomes 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐞. How does your company currently 𝐬𝐞𝐠𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬?

"You're doing customer segmentation wrong! Here's what you need to know. First up is demographic segmentation. It's easy, game-changing, and perfect for top-of-funnel marketing. Think broad, like age or income, and use simple tools to gather data. Then we've got behavioral segmentation. This one's groundbreaking because it tracks what customers actually do, not just who they are. And then, it lets you tailor messages based on real actions—this is huge for conversions. The best part is, when you combine them, your campaigns get smarter and more targeted. Pretty cool, right? Follow for more marketing tips!"

After looking under the hood of hundreds of retention programs, the same pattern keeps showing up. Most brands fall into one of three phases: Phase 1 - Nothing set up or a few broad emails going out each week. That's fine early on. You don't have the data or content yet. Just get the foundation in place Phase 2 - Frequency increases. Segments deepen. Flows expand. Personalization starts to appear. More relevant, but still mostly segment based. Phase 3 - Segmentation gets highly refined. Flows pull real-time data from outside the ESP. Messaging approaches one to one. At this point it stops feeling like marketing. Most brands are stuck somewhere between Phase 1 and 2. The ones that reach Phase 3 treat retention like a engineered system, not a calendar.