There are dissenting opinions on EVERY topic

[ON SEPTEMBER 18, 2011, SOMEONE PURPORTING TO BE L HOON, THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OF THE QUOTED PAGES IN PHRENOLOGY.ORG, POSTED A COMMENT STATING THAT I HAD MADE A COPYRIGHT VIOLATION. WHILE I BELIEVE THAT THE QUOTES FALL UNDER FAIR USE, I HAVE REMOVED ALL QUOTES FROM THIS POST PER THE REQUEST OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER.]

I have a fake passport, acquired during my trip to France last year. Actually, it's a demonstration of passport printing technology from the parent company of my employer, and is clearly marked as a fake passport. (Too bad - the passport date of birth is younger than my true date of birth.) Every page has a statement along the lines of "THIS IS NOT A PASSPORT."

The opening page also has a statement, below the word "Phrenology." On this page, the statement reads "THIS IS NOT A SCIENCE."

Tell that to the folks at phrenology.org, a page that aims "to advocate a positive approach to scientific Phrenology."

Let's allow them to make their case:

[QUOTE REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER.]


So who is to blame for the low opinion of phrenology today? Sigmund Freud. Oh, and Adolf Hitler.

[QUOTE REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER.]

But these criticisms didn't start in the 20th century. They started with Napoleon Bonaparte:

[QUOTE REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER.]

Why is a discussion of phrenology relevant to a business blog? Because it illustrates that when you are creating a business plan, or a marketing campaign, you cannot necessarily make assumptions in the macro sense. Perhaps someday my company will give a fake passport to a dedicated phrenologist and offend him or her. Perhaps some day your company will contact a MySpace user and be surprised to learn that the user is a rich white male who hates music. Or perhaps a progressive American will be dismayed to be called "a stupid fascist cowboy American, just like Bush and Obama."

If you don't understand your customers, you don't understand your customers.