In Which World, Detroit-based artist Pat Perry (previously) conjures a sense of whiplash that characterizes modern life, particularly in middle America. “I was thinking mostly about scale, and about how all the grand, contemplative ideas in the world are peppered amongst the banality of daily life, like listening to Hannah Arendt or Richard Rhodes on audiobook while driving to Toledo to buy a matching sink and toilet off of Facebook Marketplace,” he shares. “Our experience of the world in this moment jerks us back and forth between the two poles.”

On view now at Hashimoto Contemporary, Perry’s solo exhibition peers into a range of mundane instances familiar to Midwesterners, all captured candidly and earnestly. Taking cues from home videos and Craigslist ads, the artist paints scenes cropped at strange angles—a young girl’s figure is cut off in “Brief Candle #5” —while other works hone in on the eeriness of everyday life. “Craigslist Still Life 14 (Garden of Togetherness),” for example, features two green squares pinpointing a pair of plots for sale in a cemetery. Many of the works consider how we find dignity and meaning when “far away from the hubs of power or influence,” a timeless question that feels especially pertinent in the Midwest.

While Perry’s subject matter reflects the ordinary, the paintings emphasize the empathy and understanding gained by reflecting on these seemingly common moments. The Brief Candle series is particularly important in this respect as it’s derived from YouTube videos documenting families launching bottle rockets and other fireworks near their homes. “That’s the kind of subject matter I love the most, always has been, probably always will be: the kind of thing that never seemed worth noting until you looked at it for a while longer and realized, maybe it was,” he says.

See Which World at Hashimoto Contemporary’s Los Angeles space through November 4. Perry recently completed several new murals and is preparing for an upcoming solo show next year, which you can follow on Instagram.

“Which World” (2023)

“Ameliorator” (2023)

“Recreating” (2023)

“Brief Candle #5” (2023)

“Craigslist Still Life 14 (Garden of Togetherness)” (2023)

“Craigslist Still Life 08” (2023)

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Pat Perry Frames the Earnest and Eerie Moments of Midwestern Life in ‘Which World’ appeared first on Colossal.

The Gist

• Insight importance. Focusing on customer insights, not just demographics, can powerfully shape your B2B marketing strategies.
• Target value. Broad target audience analysis, especially using Ideal Customer Profiles, enhances almost every marketing tactic you employ.
• Intelligence impact. Leveraging customer intelligence provides a significant edge in lead generation, demand creation and brand building.

Who needs what we’re selling and why? Discover the answers to those two questions and it’ll shape your marketing strategy into something that has a direct and powerful impact on your bottom line.

Let’s take a closer look at how these customer insights can specifically impact the bottom line.

Unlocking Actionable Customer Insights for B2B

Unlocking actionable customer insights is why businesses in every sector are trying to get closer to their customers. But not all customer intelligence is useful. Knowing that your customer is 37, female and likes ice hockey might make them appear more human, but it isn’t going to help you sell software, or accountancy services, or manufacturing equipment — and especially not when B2B sales involve multiple decision makers across different teams, departments and with varying priorities.

Unless marketing personas deliver the customer insights you need to improve how you market your business — and this is where pain points are critical — then it’s impossible to differentiate your offering from the competition in a way that resonates with your customer.

Mastering Target Audience Analysis in B2B With the Ideal Customer Profile

Let’s look at how the top performers are doing when it comes to gathering customer intelligence.

Considered Content’s B2B Effectiveness Engine, which shows marketers how they compare to their top-performing peers, surveyed over 1,000 B2B marketers to learn more about their customers across nine different options — from general research into customer views and the brand’s products to gaining a better understanding of the purchase group and constructing a data-backed ideal customer profile (ICP).

What we see is that broad-based research is not only likely to propel you into the top-performing group, but it’s also going to make pretty much every tactic you use perform better.

Related Article: Customer Data Management Is the Key to Consumer Trust, Profitability

Elevate Sales with Customer Intelligence Insights

In tech, for example, those who research the broad views of their customers are over a fifth more likely to say their PPC advertising is delivering for lead gen and over a third more likely to rate their media advertising as highly effective for demand gen. 

Those who have researched their ICP are over 20% more likely to be a leader in lead generation, over 20% more likely to lead in demand generation and over 25% more likely to be a leader in brand-building.

This is why getting this right matters. A lot.

Related Article: Build a Buyer Persona in 5 Steps

Top Performers’ Actionable Insights Unveiled

So, what actionable customer insights are these top performers collecting? 

• They understand what’s happening in the market: They research the catalysts driving the broader market and any barriers to change.
• They have assessed the competition: They’ve explored who they’re up against (both direct and indirect competitors) and how competitors are positioning themselves in the market.
• They have determined their strengths, weaknesses and potential points of differentiation: They have a real-world view of how they stack up (and for different segments).
• They know where to focus their efforts: They’ve assessed which segments of the market should be the focus for their sales and marketing activity.
• They’ve created an actionable buyer profile: One they can use to sharpen who they target and what they say to them.

Harnessing ‘Jobs To Be Done Framework’ for Buyer Profiles

Once they know all this, buyer profiles can be produced. This is where the Jobs To Be Done framework is really useful — the theory that people don’t “buy products,” they hire them to help them make progress on a problem. In other words, people don’t buy because of who they are (so “adieu” personas), they buy because of what they need to get done. JTBD helps marketers identify why customers make purchases, what motivates them and, therefore, how to win their business.

Related Article: Using Customer Journey Maps and Jobs to Be Done for a Better Customer Experience

Final Thoughts on B2B Customer Insights

Like these top B2B marketing performers, you’ll need to get under the skin of who your customers are to learn what’s really driving their behavior. And beyond the jobs they need to get done, you need to know how customers buy, who’s involved in the purchase, what real-world pressures they’re under and their motivations for making a change (or resisting it).

The best way to gather meaningful customer insights? By undertaking and assessing customer interviews — past, present and almost — speaking to your sales team, and researching what’s driving change within your market.

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