This legendary explorer set out to find a route to Asia, across the Atlantic. Instead, as we all know, he landed in the Caribbean.
However even as he lived out his life in what is now Haiti, he insisted even up to his death that he had in fact arrived in Asia.
Confirmation Bias. All of us are incredibly reluctant to let go of things we hold to be true. It’s a natural product of our brains, baked in by evolution. Not something we get to choose. All of us constantly reject ideas or opinions counter to our own and pay far more attention to facts that agree with our own point of view.
So what’s the relevance to marketing?
Marketers live in the world of their business. Trapped in the bubble of all the truths tightly held therein. Yet some of these truths may be misguided. Or plain wrong.
As marketers or founders/MDs, we are the people tasked to reach out to the outside, to understand customers and reflect THEIR truths into the business so we connect more powerfully with them. And in doing so achieve greater sales.
But to do that we have to hold onto our internally driven opinions and perspectives lightly or we will find ourselves rejecting feedback that we don’t “like” and rejoicing about feedback that makes us feel good because we agree with it. Marketers must sweat buckets to listen with an objective mindset.
The first step is to be aware that confirmation bias exists and is incredibly powerful. The next is to seek feedback and external input.
Finally, the crucial success factor is to be able to hear that feedback, resist the bias and champion things that make our brand connect more effectively to the humans that really matter – customers.
Here at SenseCheck, we get you external feedback. From people not steeped in your current “truths”. What you do with it is really up to you….
Sadly for Mr Columbus, he never got to celebrate the achievement of discovering the New World.
Roger Jackson – founder and CEO of SenseCheck
