Talking with Tom Peters about what’s wrong with marketing to women, Lisa Johnson put her finger right on the bruise:

"I think the problem with a lot of companies is they sit down with their customers and, first of all, they put them in a very uncomfortable, unnatural environment, which changes the way they would normally interact with each other. Secondly, they ask them marketing questions instead of customer questions.

"The best thing to do is ask your customers customer questions. "Do you really understand them?" Then you use your marketing mind to translate that into strategy. I think many companies are not really understanding their customer experience. They’re asking the wrong kinds of questions in the wrong setting in the wrong way."

How about you? What can your customers — male, female, young, old, brown-skinned, white-skinned — tell you about what they need and want and are willing to pay for, if you ask the right question the right way?

Think on that and get back to us.