I get very enthusiastic about my sushi. While at a recent “all you can eat” sushi outing with my sister and some friends, we ordered up a storm and as soon as my plate of caterpillar roll, yellow tail and scallion roll and Toro sashimi arrived, I dove in. A few minutes later, I came up for air lifting my head from my empty plate and remarked about the poor size of the portions.
As I looked around the table, everyone else still had half to ¾ of a plate full of food. The friend to my left commented on the soy sauce dribbling from my chin and the pieces of rice sticking to my cheek. My sister pronounced I was not allowed to eat sushi in a dating situation.
What does all this have to do with stereotyping? Everything. The owners of the sushi restaurant eyed me on this “all you can eat” sushi night and figured I was the person they’d make money on. Being a woman and somewhat small in stature, they were much happier to see me than a large man, figuring I would eat a roll or two and be done. They were sorely mistaken.
This is one of the single biggest dangers of stereotyping…..you label a person based on a few qualities. I am a woman, I am not big, therefore I was labeled as not being a big sushi eater. Not true.
We see a woman driving a minivan with children inside…therefore she is a Soccer Mom. Based on those qualities we now assign her a whole host of other qualities that may prove to be largely untrue. We would probably assume that she is married, lives in a nice home in the suburbs, and votes pro-education, anti-gun.
If you took the time to really get to know this woman, you might find that she is a single mom, lives in an apartment complex, owns a gun she keeps hidden under her bed for protection every since she got that series of obscene phone calls, and thinks “no child left behind” is a total farce.
Stereotype your customers at your own risk. Make decisions based on a few demographic statistics, and you’ll miss all sorts of opportunities. Take the time to get to know your customers as individuals, and you’ll gain invaluable insight into their lives, needs and motivations.
Sushi lovers, unite! Great post... and right on the mark. I wonder if we could break down the myriad ways business owners consciously or unconsciously stereotype everyday. There should be a list of categories or a checklist for business owners to regularly check themselves (and their websites) against, don't you?
Posted by: Michele Miller | October 19, 2005 at 01:27 AM
You mean, one can actually get full eating sushi? Those plates just keep coming and I just keep eating (believe it or not, we do have some good sushi places here in the quirky 'burque)
It is a challenge, isn't it? Successful marketers must do some profiling and categorization in order to hit the "points of passion" - be it for sushi or cars. Maybe top on the checklist, Michele, would be: 1. "Hide and watch - often." 2. Assume your assumptions are wrong at least 1/2 the time; 3. Allow yourself time and budget to try things that seem wacky. You might well find a new (andb better) market niche.
Posted by: Mary Schmidt | October 20, 2005 at 02:49 PM
Hi Frankie, I was rrnreeifg particularly to how Hollywood addresses and presents African Americans on the big screen. Several books can probably be written on that; it's a point of contention in the African American communtiy. Have a great weekend!
Posted by: Osama | February 19, 2012 at 02:35 AM
Sushi File Previewer in Ubuntu 11.10 Unity One of the new features in GNOME 3.2 is quick file preivew. Pressing space while a file is selected in the file browser will open a window with a preivew of the file contents. Previews of images, videos, music, PDF documents, and more are supported.
Posted by: Tajska | August 18, 2012 at 06:15 PM