Power of observation

Observation can be an extremely useful skill. Seeing is different from observing; they are distinct. Observation goes beyond just merely using our eyes to make sense of things, people or the environment. Observatory eyes question and probe consumer actions. Hence, people may see same things but draw different conclusions depending on which technique you use. 

Good news is we can all be trained to become keen observers. Keen observers usually have the upper hand of situations. Imagine yourself deciphering more of any given situation instead of simply glazing through them. You would have thought about questions and answers ahead of others. The mind is already in forward thinking mode with an advantage.

In market research, its everyday musing to know what is going on in the market place and most importantly, how consumers behave and why. It’s an intriguing, interesting world out there that constantly changes. For some, it is a livelihood. Anthropologists have been observing people’s behaviour for years. Making notes and hypothesis on human behaviour, they are the observation experts. This profession has even spun off ethnography research which is applied in market research where focused observation entails a large part of it.

How about if we apply this to marketing?

Ivory Tower Marketers

Ivory Tower marketers plan, strategize and hold meetings. They spend a lot of their time in office doing this very often. Too often in fact. I call this Ivory Tower marketing; up there and losing touch with their customers. Dedication of their time knowing and understanding consumers by walking the ground is absolutely crucial. If one loses touch with consumer needs, no amount of marketing budget will work. If so they decide to engage a market research firm to survey it, splendid. However, we know such requests seem frivolous for today's lean marketing budgets. The most effective choice will be to just simply apply observation techniques on their customers.

Let’s do a simple seeing vs observation experiment taken from IDEO social innovation toolkit. I highly recommend this to aspiring social innovators doing R&D. Social innovation is talk of the town today. Hope it stays this way with initiatives like SIP. 

What are your observations of this person dressed in yellow and pink?

Seeing: This lady dressed in yellow top and pink pants is hanging her clothes at her back alley. A person is walking towards her.  
 
Observing: This person (gender unsure, could be a guy with long hair?) is holding up a pole in the air, very close to some clothes on hangers. This person is dressed in yellow vest and pink pants, standing in an alley and someone is approaching her. 

Some of you might be quick to point out that she is just hanging her clothes. Her upright pole is a tool to help her achieve that. Try looking at the picture again. Can we really make that conclusion? Our associative minds will be quick to note this down; Upright pole + clothes at back alley = clothes hanging. 

For all we know, she could be using this pole to poke something, signal to someone and a hundred different other possibilities. We can’t simply conclude she is hanging clothes. Did we observe the end of the pole? Again, observatory eyes are ready with questions and probes without quick conclusions.

My point is that observation takes more effort but its worth it. We need to question ourselves and the subject to make better sense of situations. Best way is to expand the frame of this picture or simply ask this person. 

Try turning your vision around by observing instead of just seeing. Your world around you may be alot more interesting that you think and that is where opportunities are. For example, I observed alot of Singapore MRT commuters do not like the in-betwen carriage space, here is my account.

Please leave your comments, if any.

You can't shut me up; Conversation 2.0

Face it, we live more densely together today compared to 20 years ago yet we are having less face to face time with your neighbors. A study from Hebrew University states that the volume of electronic communications is inversely proportionate to geographic distance. In short, we have more Facebook interactions, tweets, emails to individuals that are pretty close in proximity. In fact, we all know it is far easier to connect with one another today than ever. I call this Conversation 2.0 where we talk electronically but still close by physically to start tribe movements.

Today, brand tribes are powered by Conversation 2.0. Brand huggers who will help us spread the word about our products and services digitally through their real world experiences. The challenge for brand owners is how to manage it? There are blogs, forums, tweets, instant messaging etc to sieve through.

Readers make their own conclusions and can choose to participate in this Conversation 2.0. What they compliment or bad mouth is also pretty much left entirely up to them. Consumers are empowered with Conversation 2.0 to collaborate, lift or sink brands. The crux is consumers trust fellow consumers or tribe members more than brands’ themselves. Brands who think they can stop them still live in Conversation 1.0; top down, one way street. Consume and goodbye(keep quiet if its bad). FACT: Brands can’t stop consumers from talking positively or negatively. Attempt to stop negative PR could possibly lead to tribes that form against the brand. Brand tribes work both ways like 2 sides of a coin.

There is hope for brands who want to be in the upper hand.

Brand owners can actually monitor Conversation 2.0 using available tools. Here is one that sieves through Conversation 2.0 and make some sense out of it. The key is to realize its power and use it to position brands. Consumers today demand no nonsense products which they either shun or shout about. The in-between is getting thinner everyday. Inward looking brands are probably with the best potential to succeed and lead tribes successfully. Bottom line, recognize the power of Conversation 2.0 and love your tribes, they may be the ones who pull you out of the reds rather than your board members in the near future.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Sensory Branding

Sensory branding has not really taken off in Asia yet. I believe there are huge potential for Asian marketers who can tap into their customer's senses to brand themselves more effectively. Break out from the clutter to be remarkable.

Some the brands which use this technique to brand themselves, intentionally or not, are around us. Think about the distinctive smell of KFC's famous fried chicken or over the counter Famous Amos cookies. Each of these brands have tapped into our sense of smell as part of their branding. Some might argue this is less important compared to how it taste. Own a winning recipe, own a winning taste. I agree but I believe some passer-bys are 'caught by the scent' and walk right into buying something. These brands have succeeded in owning a state of our mind through our sense of smell before actual purchase. Time to rethink where to point the oven's exhaust fan? Away from the crowd or into the crowd?

The point is, sensory branding if explored and used effectively, can be a powerful tool for brands who are thinking hard of reaching out. Today, consumers are buying into experiences and winning brands should be potentially tapping into as many of their customer senses as possible. Integrate that as part of their brand strategy.

Cinematic experiences too. A jacket that allows you to 'feel the movie'.

Can a photography studio explore other ways of branding their photo taking skills beyond using sense of sight? One that does, usually becomes remarkable and in turn successful.

Please leave you comments, if any.

The 2 wheeler challenge

Segway® is a rather remarkable product. A mobility device that seeks to redefine the way we do short distance commuting like walking. Some argued Segway® can replace in-city driving. Inventor Dean Kamen  aims to redefine the way we get around to cut down congestion and carbon footprint. Segway® is also pretty intuitive and usable. In all, it has the hallmarks of a successful product.

Question is why no mass adoption yet? Sentosa had some to allow tourist to move around but more as a tourist thingy. Vivio City had even demonstrated this inside their mall. Paul Blart made it fun in Mall Cop.

I believe there are two challenges which Segway® has to overcome. 

Fundamental consumer behaviours take a long time to interrupt. Humans are hardwired to walk though significantly reduced due to modern conveniences. Walking is harder to interrupt because of how fundamental and subconscious it is to us. Compared to gaming like Tap Tap Revenge, the challenge for the game developer to interrupt you to play it is a lot easier. Reason being gaming does not potentially interrupt any major behaviour of ours. 

Lack of category association. New products in new categories get consumer confuse. What is it? Where and how shall I use this? Will I look stupid on it? The first cars were called horseless carriages for this reason. A hybrid Honda is still a car, it is easy for us to buy into the idea of a modified, green car. Hybrids are still in our car category which we can make association quickly. 

However, that is not the case for Segway® where associations are missing. Segway® needs to help consumers out. Probably, they should try ‘standing electric bike’ (at least I gave it shot). Probably easier than the official; 'self-balancing, zero emissions personal transportation vehicle: the Segway® Personal Transporter (PT)'. A standing electric bike is easier for me to spread the Segway® idea. Take a cue from followformation which is for twitter newbies to get them started on the concept of online following; an intermediary step might be needed here.

Sure hope to use one of these in the near future. I still hear how cycling is bad for men's health.     
 

Please leave your comments, if any.

Why should brands look inward first?

Inward in this context does not mean self brandishing. Rather, inward here means ability to self reflect and build strong foundations for the brand.

Brands are measured in areas of awareness, resonance, impact and sales (profitability). These factors often form the benchmarks of brand research today. Indeed, they are important for the measurement of brand success in the marketplace. However something is missing here which overlooks four major success qualities for brands to go a lot further.

      

Leadership – Great leaders lead great teams. Great teams = great brands.

Tenacity – A purpose-driven belief than can weather hard knocks. Passion fuels their purpose.

Integrity – Ability to do the right thing when tested.

Giving – Social responsibility. Giving always start with an open hand not a close fist. Which one will your customers rather hold?

I argue a brand’s ability to achieve greatness will depend on these inward qualities. The leader of an inward looking brand appreciates longevity and tenacity. Can the team rally behind the leader when stormy weather closes in? Bad product reviews, drop in consumer confidence, declining profits etc. Storms WILL eventually come so do not wait to react before it hits. Enron is an example of a skewed outward looking brand for its stakeholders, employees and customers but we know a weak wall breaks down over time. Short-termism is extremely tempting compared to a marathon which is long and arduous. The high road is always the tougher one but pays to prepare.

Avoiding the pitfalls of hurried and myopic decisions to have short term gains, inward looking brands are with better foresight. Inward looking brands may be giving up some immediate opportunities instead of having it all now but they spend time to work on what truly matters which are the insides; the team behind the brand. 

An inward looking brand always prevails with slow twitch muscles for the long runs. How are those legs for your brands today? Maybe its time to reflect and change.

Please leave your comments, if any.

The coolest tribe around

YAMI Yoghurt is arguably one of the most successful, soft serve, take away yoghurt brand in Singapore. It  delivers not only consistent products but also continous innovation in its range of localised flavours.

More importantly, YAMI marketers had started their own tribe or ardent fans which rank in the thousands today. Yes, they are possibly the 'coolest' tribe around in Singapore; The YAMI tribe. Here are more examples of their marketing strategies using some of the concepts I mentioned earlier like Brand Platform and Consumer Stardom. Drawn from their very own tribe influences to promote the brand!

Brand Platform: YAMI FaceBook Page, YAMI Twitter and even a recently launched YAMI Times for e-coupon cutouts and deals. A multi platform approach that singularly point towards creating buzz and talk for the brand. All these without spending tons of money on ads, ads, ads. Good job. 

Consumer Stardom: You can find these YAMILebrities displayed at their counters featuring their very own tribe members. She looks pretty hot in such a cool tribe. :)

Picture taken from YAMI Yoghurt FaceBook Page


I have got a small request. Can we have YAMI yoghurt that does not look like a regular soft serve ice-cream? Some innovation please? If  YAMI can reinvent their unique way of serving YAMI yoghurt, it will surely be another remarkable product like the cone pizza. Same product but different delivery, worth taking another look. Let YAMI tribe followers have more things to talk about the brand and hopefully spread the word. YAMI's future looks promising in the days to come, scoring in brand engagement.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Pushing the Reset button

John Hope Bryant is an American financial literacy, poverty eradication activist and above all, a leader of giving hope. He is recently here in Singapore for the Social Innovation Forum '09 and has given a short address to City Harvest Church. He has touched on how the current economy is not a ‘crisis’ but a reset instead. I would like to share how this thinking implicates our current value system and its impact on how consumers view brands around us.

Pushing the Reset button
This economic ‘crisis’ has affected the lives of billions in these 2 years. Word has got out that we are on the recovery path. If we are to purely look at numbers, probably too myopic. The fundamental issue is of power and character imbalance that led to where we are now. All it takes are a group of self proclaim ‘leaders’ who made a series of wrong decisions for themselves. A tipping point of wanting too much and lack of justly character to self correct. This is a fundamental problem of social values that need to be reset which we know is a lot harder to tackle than simply numbers. In Singapore, we are not spared from this harsh reality on our value erosion; rising divorce rates, education scams, underage promiscuity and abandonment of elderly parents. A reset of our values should be in order.

Taking John’s way of love leadership may be an answer to address this reset. Could it be first using love to strengthen and correct our fundamental values? I guess there is only one way to know, try it out!

Resetting brand perspective in the marketplace
Brands that take the brunt of these value scrutiny especially financial institutions have to take the first move to communicate their plans for this reset. Threading back investors and consumers in this process is a tricky process. Surely, consumer perception in their belief of trust and empathy will evolve because of this situation. It will thus filter down to the choice of brands we use tomorrow. Are brands willing to step up and communicate their stand in this reset? Those who do so now will reap the rewards in the days to come.

Picture taken from NTUC Income website.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Ordinary to extra-ordinary

In the current marketplace where a lot of products are trying to get our attention, it is easy to notice there aren’t a lot of those that really make us excited. Just today, can you name 5 products or ads that sort of leave a deep impression? Chances are, minimal or nothing. The challenge for successful brands is to either stand out or be reminded of all the time. It’s survival not luxury. One of the reasons you are constantly reminded of Starbucks is because it wants to become your ‘third living space’. Your home, your workplace and you guessed it…Starbucks. They are trying for the state of coffee brand ubiquity. At one point, Suntec shopping mall alone has three. Starbucks? McDonald's? See the connection?

We know the Starbucks way is very, very expensive (McDonald’s too). Unless you have millions, chances are most of us needed to get around it or just keep reading this post.

These days, we just have too many things to mind and too little time to take it all. Research has proven that an average working adult will be exposed to hundreds of ads each day. The brain can’t handle all these ‘noise’ and we automatically start to filter or ignore. This instance, ignorance is bliss for our sanity sake. I do that all the time. From any marketer, it’s their worst nightmare. The only other way is to shine through winning design experiences or be simply extraordinary.

Take a look at this device on the left. Most of us would be unable to guess what this is or what it does at first look. Is it a lamp or even a star trek collectable? The moment you ponder, you stick around (much cheaper and more effective than 5 seconds of TV ad space). It is a bladeless fan that sucks in air and throws it out at very fast speed to cool you. It’s called the Dyson Air Multiplier, retails from US$299.99 onwards. Yes, it is just a fan and works exactly like one. Turn it on, close your eyes, you probably can’t tell the difference from a regular bladed one. However, if you put the Dyson along with the other fans in a store, it will be outstanding. I even want one myself. I should have written this before my 30th birthday. For more information on the Dyson fan, click on this link.


Picture taken from Dyson website.

Lets recall a recent trip to a hair saloon. Remember how they always try to sell us hair products? How about doing so while saloon customers are horizontal, staring upwards, having their hair washed. These customers can only look upwards at the ceiling (unutilized ad space) and that is where they should be placing their hair product ads! Throw in some sales talk from the hair stylist; I am sure hair care product sales will go up. What customers get is instant gratification of the products being advertised to them at the same time. Ordinary service, extraordinary effort to increase sales.

One of your brand consultant goals must always be to allow your brand or products to be nothing short of stunning. Keep your eyes on not only appreciating extraordinary things (hard to ignore) but also keep a lookout for the ordinary (try not to ignore) and make it extraordinary.

The key aim; reinvent the ordinary that upscale product or service experience. Create a brand tribe (Bladeless fan fans) that follows it and start profiting.

Please leave your comments if you have any.

How to give your ideas traction?

You have a great idea about a business, product or service  experience. Whats next? Who is willing to listen? How do I get started on forming my own tribe? Boomz.

Thinking ways to give your idea traction can be either a pit-stop that can stall your great idea or super charge it. Viral collaboration may be your answer. Get your idea out there and watch it grow collaboratively with others who share your passion.

Some of the famous examples like Linux and Wikipedia started from an idea and sparked off massive viral collaborators to fill in the expertise for the idea, all via online. Some of the principles behind its success are these.

1) Openess of idea and purpose. Is it clear and everyone knows what is it about? For Wikipedia, its about sharing knowledge. Whats yours? State your purpose clearly and why you are forming this tribe?
2) Build a platform for your ideas to spread and allow tribe members to talk to each other and not only to the leader or idea initiator.
3) Make your results visible. If your idea is clearly having an impact, tribe members want to know what is going on. If you have a great cake that tastes great, show your customers smiling. Consumer stardom or consumer engagement always work for your brand or idea.
4) Last but not least, brand leadership. Without this, the future is pretty gloomy.

No step, no traction
We are not lack of ideas. In fact, they are everywhere. Everyone can come out with some. But are you an idea initiator and penetrator? Willingliness to take massive action for your idea(s) is always the hardest. The platform is already out there. It cost you nothing to start something. If you never start, its 100% failure. Try  what if before the buts that stops you in your tracks. No step, no traction.

Talk is really really cheap. When will be your next movement or a remarkable cake idea?

Please leave your comments, if any.

Part 2: Leadership Branding for the Franchise Model

I will take a few minutes to talk about renaming this blog. I call it 'Brand Tribes'. It is written for you and if you like what you read please share it (@LimLeong) amongst your own network . If you dislike this, hope you come visit again. Now why Brand Tribes?

A brand is a symbol, a name and logo that represents a product or service. A tribe is a rather 'ancient' word to describe a group of people who got together because an intent or idea they believed in. There is also a tribe leader who leads and manage the tribe or brand owner. Today, brand tribes are groups of consumers or people who follows an idea, cause or brand with a high degree of engagement. These groups are the ones who talks about your brand and in turn, makes them extremely rewarding to have. Both from profit point of view and brand building too. You want to have them. In fact, I believe that is the strongest way to define brand loyalty.

Brand Tribes is a movement to help brands form their own tribes. Brand Tribes intent is to get deeply connected tribe followers (consumers) who follow the brand that provides them with compelling experiences. At the same time, elevating the brand owner to be a successful tribal leader that leads and grow the brand. Read about Tribes by Seth Godin.

Back to the Leadership Branding for the Franchise Model; success factor for replication.

A franchise model works like this. Locate franchisee, build store, manage store and sell. Branding, I hope is not pass on like a manual. Does the franchisee really get it? I believe the brand owner bought into a 'yes' during the pitch. I sure hope its not just about the figures and a big smile.

Oftentimes a franchise model main challenge is controling replication. How does the brand owner ensures that the brand remains true to its brand foundation? How to really control the same standard of brand experience etc. Quoting one of the most successful brands out there that has tackled replication successfully; McDonald's. They applied brand leadership in their replication model (they bought back all their franchise).

The largest fast food chain McDonald's are a little different from country to country today yet having the same quality standards and taste. Realising the importance of cultural needs and their differences, the brand needs to evolve without losing its 'McDonad's brand experience'. Credit to their emphasis on staff training.

More importantly, a large contributing factor goes on to passing down their leadership qualities which ensure the success of the mother brand in different geographic regions. Ensuring proper brand steward training with these right qualities to create the same great level of customer experiences from Norway down to Australia.

Thanks for reading and for more insights on leadership. Read this blog by Enrico Varella who is a tribe leader on this topic. This concludes my 2 part Leadership Branding series.

Please leave your comments.

Part 1: Importance of leadership branding.

Why brand leadership and not the leader?

Time. A brand can outlive its leader. Its about brand legacy. A great brand may thrive through a set of leadership qualities and has higher chance of survival as a leader does not live forever.

"Leadership matters more because it is tied not to a person but to the process of building leaders." -Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, LEADERSHIP BRAND. This pretty much sums it up nicely.

In another analogy, quoted by the book, it is not about branding a person (a particular great mum) but motherhood (her great leadership of love, care and values). What this mum is about to hand down has far greater positive effect than herself which has limited timeline. Yes, reality is that I only have 40 over years of shelf life, maybe shorter. A brand life span might be a few times longer, if the sucessor is a great leader of course.

Hence, for any given brand to sustain itself, great leaders must realise that they too must develop a process and system to sustain and permeate their brand leadership qualities. Oftentimes, you see the wise sage hand holding board meetings and making sure every detail ticks. It is pretty Asian in fact. It is the same with certain political parties.

In the business context, success replication of a brand like franchising should take on leadership branding rather than just 'photocopying the brand'. Thinking the brand experience can be applied anywhere. How wrong can that be! I will touch on this in Part 2: Leadership Branding for the Franchise Model.

Do leave your comments if you have any.

How to market yourself using a brand platform.

"Leong, you gonna tell me its about branding again right?" Partially right.

However, a person who solely brands him or herself may not be enough. In the context of the current job market, the skills of marketing yourself to employers becomes an ever more important skill. If you do not stand out, you do not stand a chance. Here are some tips from a branding platform point of view.

Creating a brand platform
A brand platform communicates about you and works for you only. It is on 24/7, 365 days. It never stops. It is a virtual representation of you (or your brand) that never sleeps. What is that? It is basically a set of communication tools. Think of them as your personal sales agent. They speaks about you and what you stand for. Be it a LinkIt account which profiles yourself, a blog or FaceBook profile. Monster and JobsDB are some of the pioneers of creating that platform for job seekers and employers alike to hook up with one another. Nothing wrong with that except that a rather 'template approach' makes you look like yet another job seeker. If you want true differentiation, you need to work a little harder.

Video, Blog or build your own website
These are basically medium which you easily use to market yourself. They are no longer confined to big corporates or brands with deep pockets. When you start spreading ideas about your skills and capabilities, you are bound to get noticed. Spread your ideas, what you do, what you are good at etc. An idea is only as good if someone knows about it and accepts it. Share smartly and this platform will work even harder and more effectively for you.

To sum it all up, a brand platform for yourself or your products/services can be achieved by:
1) Choosing a suitable medium to begin with and it can be multiple (FB, Twitter, Web page, Blog). Some marketers call this integrated marketing.
2) Branding (Communicating your brand intent/personality or what you stand for)
3) Keeping an open communication or conversation with your target audience

Essentially, you are already creating an experience for your prospects or employers before arriving at the door. Isn't that worthwhile with a little investment of time that goes a long way? Make it go viral and it cost you nothing except your time.

If you think this blog is useful, share it with someone. Please leave your comments, if you have any. I would also like to credit Seth Godin on his platform blog which got this started.

Next posting will be on branding leadership. Stay tune.

Defining the Silver Experience

The Silver market has been increasingly talked about. It has even become a key political agenda in face of rapid aging societies in the world. Notably, this segment of individuals are born between 1946 to 1964. The Pre-65s or simply Silver segment. So what makes them the talking point? Simply because of their sheer numbers, in the hundreds of million worldwide and billions in net worth going into their sunset years in a short span of this decade. They are also the parents of Gen X and Ys.

This blog is written for the benefit of brands or owners who like to reach out to them by providing great Silver experiences. Also to highlight some of the potential challenges they may possibly face.

The Silver Experience should revolve around these push factors;
1) Simplicity
2) Communication that encompass comfort, value and trust
3) Mental and Physical Well Being
4) Accessibility

Simplicity
The key driver for having simplicity as a desired experience is mainly due to Silvers need to down-shift, not disappear. There is clear distinction between the two. The Silver generation has seen one of the most significant changes of post-war modernization are still hungry to learn and adapt to the society. They will be quick to jump at you for dismissing them as 'behind times' or backwards. Their life experiences are brewing with an enormous amount of information and knowledge, waiting to be tapped. Today, some brands targeted at them may be too overwhelming and considered to be 'complex and unapproachable'. A clear and simpler way of communication is thus desired that communicates sincerity and trust is more desirable. Perhaps sharing is a better term to use for them rather than teaching or educating them about a brand or product. A softer, simpler approach please.

Brand Communication - Comfort, Trust and Value
These 3 traits should form the basis for any brands communicating themselves to the Silver market. Each of these trait is a requisite for the next and creates strong emotional bonding. To engage them is to open a door for them to step into you. A permissive approach. Brand X need to build a level of initial engagement with them, making them feel comfortable letting you in. This is followed by slowly building trust or bridges to communicate the benefit of the product and service that you are providing. Lastly, showing them the value of using your brand will round off the whole engagement process. It does not stop here. Like any brand, this is a continuous process of engagement, never once off. However, building a platform to create the initial outreach is crucial and the hardest. If this platform is not built, nothing else really matters. Brand owners need to think really hard how to create the initial outreach. The challenge lies in recognizing the diversity of many segments and getting their attention.

Mental and Physical Well Being Needs
Possibly one of the highest priority in their list of needs and wants from research is the subject of wellness. The success of health care products and services which take care of their well being are milking the most from this need. Spin off industries such as travel, self improvement courses etc are the result of addressing this. Be it a Silver cosmetic brand that exclusively takes care of aging skin or a travel agency that appreciates the slower pace of Silver tourists. Brand owners should take a closer look to refine some of these products and services, it is probably a lot easier than inventing something completely new. Or how about cooking classes that involves both the grand parent and grand kids? The possibilities are out there.

Accessibility
The pace and complexity of today's life may intimidate some of them. Feeling disconnected or overwhelmed, they turn to the next most accessible means. Yet, brands are slow to adjust or worst, turn a blind eye on them. Leaving them out completely. Good example of adaptation to allow this Silver segment into their brands such as Baidu123 which creates a search engine just for the elderly. Large fonts and special  interest categories (based on research of most searched words by this segment) are within reach. Again, it reinforces the importance of accessibility. More research can  be done on how this segment process information. Next, using User centered design thinking can be applied to create compelling solutions for their needs. For a start, travel brochures and instructions should consider making their fonts bigger. Next, call your friendly brand consultant. Here is one that is specialised for this market.

I hope to see their lifestyle improve over time with great experiences. From the social responsibility angle, giving your time to reach out to them can be extremely fulfilling for you too! Do write to me at leong.lim@gmail.com if you are interested to know how you can make a difference. Click on COPE to find out more. Hear from you soon.

What can being plain and simple do for your brand?

You probably know some of them pretty well. Muji, UNIQLO and even some FMCG brands found in supermarket have taken into it. Plain, simple without the thrills and spills of loud and colorful designs. Did our sub-conscious mind just hit the refresh button (F5)? What can we learn from this?

Plain can be a platform for promoting consumer self expression!

In my previous blog, I wrote about consumer these days wanting to self express. Having a plain brand fits here. Consumers are able to mix and match their own style to create their own. Consumers are self branding with no brands. Their combination is only limited by their creativity. Are you allowing your customers enough room to create? Probably you did. Do drop some hints, Asians customers need bigger nudges on creativity. This has again given opportunity for SKIN companies who are pimping up your 'plain looking' laptops and mobile phones. DELL has recently gotten into skin designs too.

Simple is the new LOUD
Lets imagine this scenario. Say you are scanning your eyes through the supermarket shelves trying to pick up your pack of BBQ Pringles for your stay home movie tonight. You are busy hunting for it. With Pringles trademark design, you probably can find it with an eye close if not for the clutter of other chips fighting for your attention with their fanciful packaging. While your eye sweeps, you chance upon a plain packaging that stood out from the rest. Minimal graphics, lots of white space, simple and plain colors. A 'relief from the shelve 'fireworks'. You may not pick it up and buy it but it may have successfully 'eye park' you for extra 2 seconds as compared to other brands just because it is plain and different. Kettle Chips is one good example of applying this principle. Even their packaging material feels different and premium. Nudie from Oz is another good example.  Plain to them means simple, fresh and higher prices.

With these principles in mind, doing less visually might just be doing more for your brand. Other sensory dimensions of the brand might need to compensate for this. Kettle Chips did so with its packaging material and premium pricing. Bottom line, your customers still need to get the intent about your brand, if not plain can mean plainly stupid.  Differentiation might not be as hard as it seems. Consult your brand consultant for some insights and ideas. It might be not as complicated as you think. Think different.