These guys know their customers

In Silicon Valley marketing, one of the more enduring cliches is one about the need to"know your customers". Which, of course, has been honored more in the breach than the observance. Valley superstars in marketing are rare compared to the legions of tone-deaf, wannabes. At my last tour of duty on the client-side, Network Appliance (NTAP), there was no shortage of people with "marketing" in their titles who would parrot the gotta-know-your-customers soundbite regularly. Not that they didn't know customers one-to-one, but it was more in the realm of knowing them as "accounts", not as understanding what the world looks like through their eyes. Every so often, however, you come across marketing efforts having "customer" DNA. Check out the latest Fortune mag piece describing how Sony needs a home run with the PS3. Pay special attention to the ways in which uber-cool agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day (Apple's shop) created Sony's (SNE) weeping baby-doll. Coolness is fleeting, to be sure. Still, when you have marketing people who truly understand what turns off the target audience, chances are good they get it when it comes understanding the turn-ons. One of the tactical missions of customer-advocate (tm) is to reduce friction by staying out of the customer's way.