I’m going to ask you, the hard core advertising professional, to do something out of character.

Get up from your desk, walk to the elevator and go down to the lobby of your building.

Step out of the elevator, walk out of the building and find someone who fits the description of your target audience.

Now just watch them for a little while. No, not the kind of watching that could get you arrested. Just notice them. See what they look like. Listen to how they sound. See who they’re with. See if they’re in a hurry or not…the little things.

I tried this last week and it was actually kind of eye-opening. I was surrounded by these people every day and rarely gave it them second thought. It’s like looking up from watching TV one evening and for the first time in years actually noticing your wife who’s always sitting there with you.

We see our customers on paper all the time. They’re a target market or a demographic. They’re 18 to 32 year-old men. They’re families with a median household income of $60K. We know their numbers but not their faces.

I’ve made the case for listening to them in focus groups when we can but I readily admit that to be a poor substitute to the face-to-face experience of your customer. So try the little exercise. Get outside and notice these people. You might like what you see. You might despise what you see. But either way, you’ll see it a little differently.Give it a try. And tell me what you and your customer got from it.

- Glen Day