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No one knows everything (I am getting pretty close though :) ) and everyone has something to teach.

If you are a brand manager and think you know everything about your brand, think again

If you are a brand manager and think you know everything about your consumer base, you are in even worse shape

Brands are living entities; changing shape and composition in the minds of consumers all the time. These changes are taking place all the time, and are different in every consumer. That said, knowledge communities tend to share brand perceptions, and it is easier to target one consumercommunity at a time.

The questions is, how do you garner information in order to best message a consumer segment.You can:

Create what you think consumers want to hear

Hold scientifically engineered focus groups

Ask consumers to show you how they would like to be messaged

Number three has been very popular over the past few years. User Generated Content has surfaced and hit the mainstream--but letting consumers do the job of the marketer is not necessarily the answer. I have said this many times before; the answer lies in collaboration and co-creation.

Recently, Scion began a campaign that takes advantage of point three. According to Marketing Daily, Scion challenged high school students to create marketing campaigns on their behalf--but here is the kicker; Scion does not plan to use these campaigns. This is not a strict UGC effort where consumer work will be paraded around as advertising. This effort is an exercise in collaboration and co-creation, done in a very strategic manner.

Next time you find yourself in a planning cycle and trying to find the voice of the consumer, I suggest going right to the source.