• by Grace Kwak , April 28, 2025

For years, I sold a product for seniors -- despite being generations away from that club. Millennials have heard that boomers have it easier financially, but I learned that many seniors are super price-conscious, with little incoming income.

We’ve all worked for brands where we’re not the target. We’ve all been better for it. But ensuring meaningful consumer representation in the process is still a work in progress for adland.

Look around the room you’re in: Are your customers represented throughout every stage of the process? While some efforts include diverse voices, they’re often confined to either opening or closing remarks, versus woven throughout the entire process.

Success will follow when representation is part of every phase of the process.

Ensure that your customer is in the room. Marketers act as the bridge between a company and its customers, with a lot of pressure to get it right.

We often hire people for their skills, but not for their ability to reflect customer inclusion.

Consider the 2012 Bic For Her campaign: pens in pink and purple “designed” for women. Imagine a woman in that room agreeing that a pink Bic is what women have awaited.

A marketer that is not a brand’s consumer must exert extra effort to define a consumer’s true needs. This requires more than an annual research report from a reputable firm. Get in touch with your audience -- literally. Call them, engage with them, and discover unfiltered perspectives.

If the customer is not in the room, make sure data reflects their voice. Without direct customer input or a good stand-in, marketers often rely on research and tools to understand their audience. Social listening often misses key community conversations, especially those in niche spaces. Sentiment analysis tends to group entire communities into one box, even though no community is one-size-fits-all.

Marketers that depend on research and tools need to pull insights from every possible source: sentiment analysis, ad performance, focus groups, hands-on research, etc. Though difficult, it can be done. Work alongside audiences, rather than showing them end results. Co-create solutions and establish a continuous feedback loop that keeps you attuned to evolving expectations.

Bring the consumer in at the middle of the process. Standard industry process disconnects the brand from the audience it’s trying to reach. We usually find out too late, when the campaign is done. When people don't feel connected with the brand in the end, marketing dollars are wasted.

We need voices and data that live at the beginning of the process, and every point after. To account for people midprocess, know that you have a direct line to consumers. Want to know what they like? Ask. Keep an eye on reviews. Recurring feedback makes or breaks your marketing. When I marketed a product for seniors, we interviewed five customers every month to stay in tune with their needs. It kept us sharp and connected.

At the top of every strategic meeting, just ask: Is the customer in the room with us?