Rocket Readings: How To Deal With Customers' Lies

How To Deal With Customers' Lies:

It's well established market research fact that customers lie. Business history offers innumerable stories of companies that launch whizz-bang new products on the basis of extensive quantitative customer research only to find that the customers didn't end up doing what they said they would.

But how else are companies to get a handle on what customers will do? To see an alternative approach, take a look at Geox, an innovative European footwear company. Founded in 1995 it has a turnover today of nearly € 900 million, a 20% profit margin (even in the crisis) and its products are distributed in more than 100 countries.

Here's how Geox happened. During a business trip to Reno, Nevada, to promote the family's wine business at a trade fair, Geox's founder, Mario Poletti Polegato, decided to take a walk. After a while his feet began to swell in the heat and irritate him. To cool them down he poked a couple of holes into the rubber-soled trainers he was wearing, and soon felt better. He had just discovered a simple way to let excess heat out of his shoes.