PSFK Video Skills of the Rockstar Planner: Understanding the Human Condition

The final video in the PSFK Series: Skills of the Rockstar Planner is one of the most insightful of the series. The title, Understanding the Human Condition sounds profound and hard to grasp but it's actually very simple; it's the idea that planners need to think of their consumers as humans and really delve into what makes them tick. Beth Kaiser from Arnold often takes psychology, anthropology and sociology into account when researching her target and developing strategies. Alda Alpert simplifies the inherent skills of a planner as someone who is curious about what makes people tick, recognizing that skill as key to understanding how to engage consumers at various points. I agreed with both Dylan Viner, from JWT and Ben Parker, from Mother's zen approach in that planning is about valuing virtually every type of consumer and understanding their hopes, dreams and interests in order to connect with them.But above all, I have been thinking a lot about what Lee Maicon, from 360i said, about how more than ever, the skills of the planner aren't modern, that the height of technology has actually made us more human, drawing us back to humans as individuals rather than the masses. How are our needs as individuals shaping our relationships with brands? How is technology making us more human and what does "more human" even mean? My feelings are that social media enables us to virtually make the small, supportive communities that we've had in the physical world for centuries. In what other ways does technology make us more human?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e--9ZkuP7QY&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3&w=640&h=390]