Speaking of: The Ford F-100 Eluminator

It is the absolute golden age to be working in consumer insights.

Earlier today, Ford tweeted out a concept car called the F-100 Eluminator that carries an old-fashioned Ford pickup design but is all electric, an interesting past-present mashup that only Ford, Chevy, and Kanye could pull off.

The truck itself I didn't care for. I personally like the sleek, modern designs of most electric cars, and if I wanted to look like Mater driving down the 101, I would've started car shopping at the junkyard ages ago. The far more fascinating aspect of this to me was that social media now allows a company like Ford to throw out ideas like this at extremely minimal risk and cost to answer the question every company is covertly wondering: what does my consumer actually want?

Only a handful of years ago, getting this sort of feedback would've taken expensive focus groups or access to research reports costing thousands of dollars (and that's if execs at the company even bothered to consult anything other than their gut.) Now all it takes is a tweet, and you have thousands of data points and reactions instantly at your finger tips. Can this shoot you in the foot if your consumer base likes a product you cannot actually deliver? Of course. But will most companies desperate to innovate happily take that risk? I think so.