The Emperor (or case study) has no clothes!
October, 2024
Case study credibility. It’s bit like the Emperor who thought his new clothes looked wonderful, but actually he had no clothes on at all!
If you are not familiar with The Emperor’s New Clothes, it is a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, sometimes referred to as The Emperor Has No Clothes, hence the title of this piece. In summary, the story concerns a rather conceited Emperor who is conned into buying a set of clothes so fine and rare that they are invisible. The Emperor’s courtiers dare not say anything and it is only when parading through the streets that a child shouts out “the Emperor has no clothes” that the truth is revealed.
What, you might ask, has this tale got to do with case studies? I used the tale to focus on credibility. The Emperor loses credibility because he is fooled into thinking that his new clothes make him look magnificent when in fact he’s made to look a bit of a fool. Does this translate to how case studies are created? Well, partly.
Credibility
I have worked on, with and around case studies for several years and one question that has often nagged at the back of my mind, and possibility many marketeers, is credibility. That isn’t to suggest that case studies aren’t credible. Almost every business uses them in some form or other to provide an independent and customer-centric view about their products and services. And they work really well. I’ve built a successful business providing a variety of case study services to small and large businesses worldwide. The point of a case study is to lend credibility to a company and its products and services. The very fact that the customer reviews and approves a case study is, in and of itself, a seal of credibility.
Nagging question
But sometimes during an interview with one of my client’s customers, I’ve come across customers that want to tell you about the things that did not go so well. Overall, the experience is good – they wouldn’t be talking if it wasn’t. But typically, it could be things like a deployment didn’t go as quickly or as well as expected or there were issues with the product that resulted in delays. As the intermediary between the client and customer, you’re in a privileged position in that customers often say things to you that they might not say direct to the client, or they may use the opportunity to sound off.
The nagging question I have is this. A prospect who picks up a case study knows that the engagement being described won’t have gone quite a smoothly as a case study might imply. This might be a high-risk strategy, but would even greater credibility be given to a case study that mentions some of the warts as well as all the good stuff?
No clothes
We all know that the emperor has no clothes – or in the context of a customer’s experience – no installation and use of a product, service or solution is ever entirely perfect. So, maybe if we were a bit more candid about what happened and added into case studies some of the things that don’t go so well, would that help to make them a little more credible?
