EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
18th May 1997

The Individual "Customer"

A short message as I am on my way from Venice to Budapest. Last week I had a team from Elecrolux on my island as the final stage in a project that is looking at the future of domestic appliances.

In so many cases the "average" customer is going to disappear. Nor is segmentation by age, income or life style going to be enough. There are individual needs of individuals.

Exactly the same applies to this website. There are no average visitors. What do individual visitors want? And what are they willing to contribute? Let me know. (edwdebono@msn.com subject:"Letting you know")

Asking what people want is never sufficient. Customers cannot react to what they cannot imagine. There are so many examples where market research gave one answer and the eventual market gave another. In one case (told to me recently) market research rejected the re-introduction of an older product. Today, that product provides over 70 per cent of the profits of the company.

Continue the design work on the new professions of the future.

Edward de Bono
17th May 1997
Venice