A conversation with Joe Morrison of Craft & Scale
Photo by Ankush Minda on Unsplash.
Brani: Hi Joe, you help organisations understand and grow their audiences. What are your top do's and don'ts?
Do think holistically about your audiences. Creativity comes from bringing in ideas from outside your regular space or sector. That's how you get breakthroughs. Look at alcohol-free drinks right now: they’re a great example of taking a trend (people wanting to feel healthier, avoid hangovers etc) then coming up with new products and ideas to match.
Do solve people’s problems for them, and create real value. And know that people’s problems are multi-layered. They’re not exclusively trying to achieve a functional goal, or meet an emotional need. Generally the best propositions have a mix of emotional and practical benefit.
As for the don'ts, a problem I see is that people over-research before taking an idea to market. They'll research for too long because they're looking for a definitive answer
At some point you have to say, “Enough of the market research, let’s take action.”
Plus, there's only so much you can prove by asking people what they think. Often, people aren't fully aware of their needs and behaviours.
I’ve seen people put products out and then conclude that they didn’t work, without even trying to improve them. Testing and learning from audience feedback is OK, we don't need to get it right the first time, do we?
Yes, it's about iteration. The whole purpose of that early launch should be to get feedback. And we shouldn’t rush it. I saw a great quote from the chief executive of Timpson. He said you should give new ideas three years to succeed and you should give culture change five years.
Looking at trends, a company like Timpson should have gone out of business years ago (because they mainly offered dry cleaning, shoe repair and key cutting services - all declining) but they’ve acquired new businesses, added services and are opening new branches.
How often do we say “Well, we tried that, it didn’t work”? Often, we’ve tried a new idea and fallen at the first hurdle. If we take a longer term perspective, we may be surprised by what works.
We often hear the terms ‘audience centricity’ and ‘audience empathy.’ What are they, why are they important, and how can organisations become more audience centric?
I think Amazon is an interesting case study. Amazon pitch themselves as being the most customer centric business in the world. And perhaps 15 years ago you could make a case for that. I don’t think you can today, because when I go on Amazon I just feel manipulated. Everything they're doing is steering you towards what’s best for Amazon rather than what's best for you. Who hasn't been caught out by the Amazon Prime sign up? There's no way that the most customer centric business in the world would trick its customers into
The organisations that will succeed in the future will be agile organisations that can evolve quickly in response to customer needs. You've got to be endlessly curious about what's going on in your customers’ or supporters' lives.
People are doing quite different things this year, from the things they were doing last year, because of changes like the cost of living crisis. We need to know where people are right now because they might not have the headspace to do something today that they would have willingly done a year ago.
It's also important that charities think about the value of their fundraising activities. What value might there be, beyond the obvious? For example, some people fundraise or donate for emotional reasons (to feel like they’ve done something positive). Others might fundraise because they want to honour someone who suffered from that disease, get fit, or meet like minded people.
So, again, looking at emotional, functional and social motivators is simple, but it's where breakthroughs happen.
Customer or audience engagement starts with knowing your audiences, then accepting what the data is telling you and acting on that. How do you help your clients to do this?
Take insights from all the sources you can find. Often my clients will have loads of relevant stuff in the archives that hasn't even been used.
Things change all the time, and data can help you see that. For example, I’m working with a charity that had a really good understanding of their supporters and potential supporters and partners. But then the cost of living crisis happened. Should they now focus on more affluent people who are a bit more insulated from cost of living pressures? That's the hypothesis we've got. And we’ll test it and see what comes out of it – we could be proven wrong!
Look at your question and accept what the data is telling you, especially if it disputes your hypothesis. But, in market research, don’t necessarily take what people say at face value. You need to try to understand the context in which they're saying something. For example, with one of my clients, we were looking at the clothing sector and the importance of environmental credentials. Environmental credentials were important for younger audiences, but they weren't a decisive factor. When it comes down to a purchase, they will buy on price or style, ahead of environmental concerns.
I'm big on learning about customers or supporters on their terms. Organisations have traditionally relied on focus groups to understand their customers. One of the issues with focus groups is that not many people can travel at 8pm to the town centre and meet with other people to chat about something quite random in their lives. But now we have the technology to speak to people in the comfort of their own homes, we can access a diverse range of opinions more quickly and easily. The real test of being audience centric is when you make a decision based on evidence about what people are actually willing to do, rather than what you want them to do or what you hope they will.
Beware the ego! If you’re too emotionally invested in an idea you can’t evaluate it effectively.
People sometimes say that audience centricity means being populist. What do you think of that challenge?
I wouldn’t say populist but popular. Popular should not be a bad word in charity. Charities need to maximise the value of their limited resources. For me, the best way you can use those resources is to segment your audience and be strategic about who you talk to, and who you don't talk to. I meet a lot of trustees who want their charities to appeal to as many people as possible. They don’t want to exclude anyone. But it's not a good way of using your resources and your messaging will be weak.
Coming back to the populist point, you need to be able to talk in a way that is consistent with your values. While at the same time being willing to evolve your organisation. So you're not stuck speaking to the same people in the same old way.
What's one practical change that organisations can make in order to grow their audiences right now?
Dedicate more time to thinking about audiences. The biggest thing I see leaders struggle with is they just don't get enough time to do this - they get sucked into too much day-to-day, business as usual stuff. Which they should actually, to be frank, delegate more.
Take time out to think, reflect on the data and support other people who are leading change. What can you let go of, and allow someone else to step up and do for you? How can you empower people to solve problems themselves?
We’ve talked a lot about audiences and engaging them. But to me, the biggest challenge is how you use your time. Many of the clients I work with could actually do this thinking themselves, if they could dedicate and protect the time required.
Block out 20% of your diary for thinking.
If 20% isn’t possible, start by blocking out a smaller amount of time and build up from there. With some smart delegating and committing to thinking time, you will be amazed at what you can do for your audience-focus, and your impact.
