Wait a minute longer

We need to deliver fast, make customers happy FAST. Act fast, think fast and reward ourselves even faster. We are trained to think of the goal or gratification and not think about the process of getting there. The process is the 'dirty word'; long, arduous journey that might take a little longer than a minute to fulfill your goal. Add on the ups and downs in the process, some might not even take the first step at all! They enjoyed the idea of the goal and not the process. They want something instant and fast. Instant gratification at its best.

Today, Dr AR Bernard came and shared about processes, goals and getting to it. Each level of upgrade in our life goals is a series of stages and processes. We need to get through a stage before we get to a new level. A stage that is to be completed only through a process of grinding and moulding. Only through this, we get to ascend to the next level of higher attainment in skills and personal development.

I can relate this immediately to the way consumers today focus only on the end results and not wanting to know how to get there. They are 'sold' based on the end. Dr Bernard quoted an example of the abs machine seen on the shopping channel. The abs on the well toned man is the goal. The abs machine (you are paying for) became secondary because you are fixated about the end goal or result. You want to look good like him. Period.

Can we wait a minute longer to think about the process instead of jumping in on the goal? What about these?

1) Think about the purpose of volunteering before you sign up to give time and money to a cause?
2) Think about how you are able to make a comeback from failures before you start your own business?
3) Think about the training you need to go through before thinking of the Marathon or Ironman Finisher medal around your neck.

Delaying gratification or waiting a minute longer before you leech your eyes on the goal. Being goal oriented does not mean you forsake the process. Consumers stay with brands who are willing to take them from A to Z in a process or journey. Returning profitable customers are the ones who grow with your brand through a process and a goal in mind. Do this today, wait a minute longer to think about the process first before you fix on the end goal. It might save you alot of minutes in the long run.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Time for a migration

Dear readers, apologies for not posting for the past few weeks. I am setting up a new WORDPRESS Blog at INGENS website. It can be found here at www.ingens.sg/blog.html. I do hope you continue to show your support.

As for this blog, I will continue to write on it but will take a new positioning. Stay tune for updates in June.

Leong

Why Simplicity Wins

Today lots of information is fast spreading around and we live in a much connected world than 20 years ago. I am still not sure if my new iPhone makes my life easier or more complex. On average, we get exposed to heaps of data (ads, emails, junk), tools are invented to make information simple for us. A web page 'filter' like Readability is one good example. Readability allows web browsers to install a button on their web browser task bar and it discards away everything that is irrelevant to the main text you are reading. Doing away with ads, web banners, buttons and other links. You pretty much get a simple, black-white text article. You might first find this to be rather boring yet on hindsight, rather refreshing.

Do you crave for such simplicity in your life where it is more straightforward with less frills. Having less is more?

Interestingly, the trend is going the simplicity way. Fresh out of the financial crisis, consumers or tribes banded together and demanded a clearer, more transparent world. Brands are also recognizing this need. Some brands are striving towards being 'simple and transparent'. However, being simple is far more difficult that being complex. Anyone who presents information can attest to this. Having 10 bullet points in a Powerpoint is alot easier than summarizing it to a 6 word sentence and an image that tells the story. Yet the best presenters known today are known for being profoundly insightful yet simple at the same time. How? They painstakingly go through layers of complexity and refining it to make things simple for their audience to understand and spread the message. All these without losing the essence of the message. Here is George Whitesides talking about this topic in TED.

Simplicity wins not because it makes it easier for us to understand but also it allows the message to be digested and communicated quickly to other tribes. If you are struggling with simplicity, start examining simple things first. Look at its simple design and try to 'reverse engineer' why is it done this way? What is the intended purpose and end result? If you can come out with an even simpler solution to achieve the same result, you might be on your way to create something meaningful. Anyone wants to re-invent the ubiquitous PC QWERTY keyboard for a start? How many keys are unknown functionally to you and why is it there?

Be simple and win.

It is what it is. PASTA ALGAR from IKEA Food. Image from IKEA.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Renew, Refresh or Revamp?

On the 24th April 2010, a tribe of 10 volunteers including myself went over to a one-bedroom elderly home for an Extreme Makeover. For 12 hours, we turned a one-room HDB flat inside out. Painting, repairing and fixing up new furnishing for a 80 year old Singaporean single male. He is without family and living with a friend in this flat. The purpose is to renew, refresh and revamp their living space. Cleaner, brighter and more livable.

Hardly, we get to see, touch and enter into the homes of the less privileged. Concealed out of our everyday lives, theirs is a world without LCD TV, heated showers and washing machine. Things we easily take for granted. Not to mention having a Personal Computer. The revamped flat which is about the size of my bedroom but it sure push us to the limit in terms of the details we need to take care of. Dead beat but definitely happy inside.

At some stage of our lives, we tend to seek renewal, refreshment or revamp. It could be internal or on the outside. Even an established brand seeks the same. The key is when and more importantly what do we do it for? Does the brand seek new meanings with new line of products? Or simply, it is time to refresh itself with a simpler look like what Pepsi did recently. Finding the purpose fuels the motivation to do it. Ours is simply to make an impact in a small way. Writing it, hopefully makes that effect a little bigger. I hope to dirty more sleeves in the future. My next pipeline is to promote road safety, especially within the cycling community.

No matter what is your choice, you need to stick to it and have a clear purpose with end goal in mind. If it benefits you, good. If it benefits a bigger cause, more than yourself. Great. You have outdone yourself. Quoting John Hope Bryant; "You can never go wrong doing good.".




PS. I will post pictures of the Before and After revamp sometime in the next 2 weeks. Stay tune.

Please leave your comments, if any.

The multi-million dollar Airline Brand Promise test

Yes, that sounds expensive. That is the price that many airlines have to pay to test their brand promise in the recent Eyjafjoell volcano eruption that closed down the entire European airspace for a few days. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) put the overall cost to the airline industry at $US1.7 billion ($A1.83 billion): at its peak, said IATA, the crisis was costing $US400 million ($A431.69 million) a day.

Now the blame game starts within the airline industry but they neglected a bigger problem; did airline brands pass their brand promise test to their tribes or customers? Who is ultimately going to recuperate these losses? Not the airlines themselves but their customers ultimately. Those who buy the tickets, experience the on-brand flight services where it all comes as a package.

Thousands of airline passengers are left stranded, angsty and stressed up. Some airports look like refugee camps. Airline brands are tested for their competence and service delivery at the ground level even before passengers step on the plane. Yes, the branded airline experience starts way before that.

One brand did shine. Singapore Airlines gave awaiting passengers hotels and meals etc. Yes, it costs about S$10 million dollars to do all of these. That is not including another S$30 million lost through this crisis. SIA shares dropped but I reckon their brand equity has raised another bar. Reinforcing their brand promise of 'A great way to fly', SIA won over confidence and continue delivering their on-brand experience. I will not be surprised they will not only cash back the S$40 million quickly but also increase their brand tribe many folds. That is again adversity that leads to opportunity and success.

Please leave your comments, if any. Picture taken from ABC news.

What are the problems to solve?

Problems abound. In fact, there are more problems surfacing than ready solutions. Solutions take time and effort. Creative solutions need dedication, design thinking and a strong purpose. More importantly, we also need to prioritise problems when the floodgates open periodically. Bjorn Lomborg gave his views on that in TED.

Ever once in a while, we identify problems that exists and turn them into a project. It could be a thesis you are writing, rebranding excercise or even a movement you want to start. You have teams or tribes who are interested to get their hands dirty. The result could be quite amazing. Solutions to solve cataract removal in India where cost of surgery can be reduced 100 times. Or Danielle Zurovcik, a doctoral student at MIT who invented a cheap hand-powered suction-healing system for use in developing countries. It uses negative suction to promote healing. You can read more about this amazing device that cost US$3 to manufacture which can potentially impact 50-60 million people in the developing world that suffer from acute or chronic wounds. This device is slated for testing in Haiti.

Think about your community or tribes today. What are the issues and problems do you think they are facing? How are you making change today?

Heres one. How many above 60 are living around you today. Have we spent enough time knowing them? Start with those around us first. If you are interested to engage them and want to know how to do it. Drop me a message.

Please leave your comments, if any. Picture taken from MIT news.

Higher Grounds

There are higher education, higher thinking and higher grounds. Higher can mean more advance, more technical, more difficult and maybe even more irrelevant. However, one of the way to improve ourselves or a brand is to go higher. How high? High enough for us to guage what is coming next and strategize ahead. Knowing how the market might move and how consumers might react to it.

Why brands or businesses hire external consultants is to advise them why and how they should make that move. Consultants cannot tell the future nor have a crystal ball in their suitcase. Consultants are here to elevate you, gain higher ground of added advantage, create value and not make empty promises. End of the day, higher grounds can only be attained if foundations are firm. Foundations such as leadership, foresight and a solid dedicated team that rallies behind a common purpose. Take neccessary risks and learn from failures.

Here is Girl Effect, your chance to be at higher ground and be more than ourselves.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Resolve and Absolve

Monday morning, I am at one of the major telco retailer to buy an iPhone. I wanted to change my current phone plan to join the iPhone tribe. I was told I could not do so as my current phone had contact with moisture as so says the red sticker at the back of my E71. I decided to live with my Nokia which had no major issues with my current needs. It still works fine. I left the shop empty as the customer service representative did not offer me any alternatives.

Reflecting back, I am disappointed. Seeing from both a business and consumer point of view. Why?

Through the eyes of a customer, there is no effort on the customer service representative to resolve my current need: Getting an iPhone and getting more business from me. Instead, they choose to tell me I have hit a dead end. I could not trade in and she did not tell me how much I need to top up to get what I want. I have to do the math myself?

As a consultant, I would have used the Resolve and Absolve model to empower each customer facing representative. Resolve the problem of the customer need as the top priority. If that is not met, little else really matters. Find out what is the tipping point (cost-benefit of not having the phone) and create value (opportunity cost of not having the phone).

Finally, absolve the customer need of not having the desired phone by showing alternatives. Ask: What could we do to make sure this customer walk out of the door buying something? Absolve the customer guilt of not getting the phone he wants. Probably it is a lot to ask for a young lady who just filling in during the holidays but generic good service is necessary not a luxury. So is a Green branded customer service that sets them apart from the Red and Orange telco brands.

Please leave your comments, if any.

A logo that tells you more

A logo or Brand Mark design is one of the most visible visual identity a brand can have. Sadly, many companies CEO or brand owners consider this to be their only 'branding'. Little or no efforts to build a brand strategy or allowing the brand to grow internally/externally effectively.

The logo or Brand Mark does communicate stories or design cues to its audience. Hence, it is one of the first and important visuals a brand can have. Brand marks can be simply the spelling or word that consitute the brand like Google or Facebook.

Have your stories told...
One of the most interesting Brand Mark stories is Starbuck. How Starbucks is named after a character from the novel Moby Dick and the twin tail siren design is derived from a 17th century Norse Woodcut. If a brand has a story, why not tell it? Have storytellers within the tribe to romance about how the Brand Mark and name came about.

Subconscious mind play a role too
Our subconscious mind plays an important role when we look at Brand Marks. Depending on our individual experiences, culture and beliefs, Brand Marks communicate subconsciously to us. One of the forefront thinkers of subconscious research is Dr Zaltman who pioneered an elicitation technique to understand and decipher how our subconsicous thoughts are affecting our everyday decisions. It has been proven that 90% of our decisions are made sub consciously or without actively thinking about it. Hence, the choice of design cues are affecting our views of the Brand Mark beyond superficiously.

Design houses and brand agencies are offering brand design as part of the total consultancy package to clients. What they often fail to offer is the deciphering of meanings behind these logo beyond the surface. These are again cues which are controlled by culture, beliefs and values which their customers are residing. Sensitivity to such issues will allow the brand to grow, penetrate the minds of consumers today.

This is one of the original logo of Starbucks. Source Wikipedia.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Brand Empowerment

To empower means to develop confidence in own capacity. This is powerful and liberating at the same time. A greater sense of drive, direction and purpose to achieve. To be Brand Empowered, the brand and its people behind it takes on a strong sense of purpose to deliver its promise to deliver a compelling brand experience. It is a catalyst of brand velocity and growth.

Today, branding activities actualize from the top but brand experience hardly filters down entirely to the entire body within the organization. A brand strategy takes care of the road map and action plan to make this happen. However, without the key ingredient of brand empowerment, the brand experience can waiver and become inconsistent by the time it reaches its customers.

Brand Empowerment should work on all levels. In a SME, it can be the boss who passes down a certain set of instructions to the staff. How to service clients and sell the brand. However, Brand Empowerment is more than that set of instructions. Here are the key aspects of Brand Empowerment.

Who owns the brand? Everyone does!
Everyone in a organization should be empowered to have brand ownership. This means all the staff are able to deliver the brand promise and effectively trained to do so. Think of them as different parts of a body (the brand) to move the body forward. 

Advertising and Brand Delivery, do they align?
What do you communicate and what do you deliver? Is there a gap? Are the customers trying to tell you something? Do you even ask through a simple survey. Customers evolve, why should a brand keep still? Ultimately, if your customers are empowered by your brand, you attained a whole new level of growth. Social media takes brand empowerment to a whole new level. Brand spreads if customers are empowered to do so. Consider a brand platform as a starting point.

Customer Service, a powerful competitive advantage.
In my previous post, I talked about Branded Customer Service. In its essence, it is taking the brand promise and delivering to its customers in an unique, branded way. This can be achieved only if staff are brand empowered in the first place. This transfer can be done through proper brand training at the service front.

Brand Cues
Are there enough cues or touch points which your staff are able to communicate to customers? Do you give enough customers to talk, gossip and spread around? Too often, great brands are let down by lack of the 'long tail'. The tail that allows you to curl up the customers and let them have a reason to come back again. Look at your brand cues, what are those left to marketing which you can refresh, rejuvenate and reengage.

I will leave you with this.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Branded Customer Service

A lot of brands are frustrated. They spent huge amount of money on advertising, branding and design, yet the brand promise fails to get across to their customers. A brand that claims "Our customers are number one" fails to train their staff to deliver this. Great products, great services but lousy customer service. Brands suffer erosion rather than positive gain.When a brand's communication and delivery do not gel, the brand fails ultimately. Brand value drops.

Once in a while, we hear good news about how customer service can lift a brand to new heights. Much more effective than the millions spent on advertising and branding activities. Nick's Pizza & Pub, Zappos, Ritz Carlton and Singapore Airlines. Zappos is worth US$1billion dollars when Amazon acquired it. Zappos spent $0 in mass media advertising before the takeover. That is a billion dollar worth of tangible brand value from delivering good customer service. I find it hard to argue that great customer service is indeed a key competitive advantage for brands, especially for those in Asia where customer service has a huge gap to fill.

Some CEOs realize this but ground issues are especially sticky to handle, they are helpless. The reach and management chain works against them. Meetings and boardroom strategies take priority. It is a slippery slope.

Branded Customer Service takes a new approach at helping brands achieve its promise and potential. Here is the alternative approach. Branding and branded customer service are taught to service staff, not just to senior-middle management. Having a branded customer service training that inculcates brand values and its essence to service staff. How to effectively translate, impart and deliver the brand promise to its customer through great customer service. This is beyond the courtesy greet or 'get-your-shoes-in-2-minutes' prompt service. It is taking the brand essence and effectively imbue it. Getting your merchandise into the hands of your customers in an unique and branded way. Challenging but the results are nothing short of remarkable.
 
To learn more about Training for Branded Customer Service, write to training@ingens.sg for more details. Find out how you can do it the branded way.

Please leave your comments, if any. Image taken from Zappos.

The design of endurance races

In the second post of Design Strategy, I would like to touch on the design of experiences. Experiences which leaves a lingering and impactful memory on consumers who got in touch with the brand. The design of such an experience takes a lot of planning, brainstorming and proper execution. A well thought out design from start till end.

Events which I can personally relate to are endurance races like biathlons. Having completed a few over the past few years, I have my personal hits and misses.

For the 10th year running, the Singapore Biathlon is the longest running biathlon and the largest in Southeast Asia. I had the chance to relish this race experience on the 13th March 2010. There are high expectations on the race organiser to maintain interest amongst existing endurance tribes and new ones.

 There are different areas of experience which can be streamlined to.

1) Design Themes for Comunication: The entire experience revolves around safety, sense of achievement and scale. These are the themes to reinforce its brand promise as the biggest biathlon in the region.

2) Design for Engagement: It is a qualification race. First timers have to qualify by swimming 50m in a swimming ppol for 1.5km under a certain timing. Lapsed participants have to go through this process if they did not race for two consecutive years.

3) Design for Emotional Branding: Medal and Finisher T-shirt. These are the main items for rewarding the well deserved biathletes whom finished the course. These items are badging products which form part of the loyalty towards the race or brand.

Please leave your comments, if any. Picture taken from SAFRA website.

What Design Strategy can do for a lifestyle furniture brand?

The THE LIFE SHOP is a locally founded brand in the lifestyle category. In this category, they sell household items like furniture and even baby wear (LIFE baby). Their theme is New Asian. Part of its strategy is to define and sell this meaning to customers. Not everyone who walks into the store gets it but they are not targeting everyone. The brand is targeting mainly white collars who appreciate finer things in life.

For any Design Strategy, it is closely related to the brand and business strategy. It is a close relation that complements each other. What THE LIFE SHOP has captured is a synergy of the three. At closer look, let us investigate what a Design Strategy can do for a brand like this.

Clear Design Theme: THE LIFE SHOP had a clear design stance. It seeks to define new meanings of items that they sell rather than just being a channel or distributor. Most, if not all of their items are designed in-house. This consists of an eclectic mix of sofas, beds, sofas and household furniture.

Synthesis of Design Experiences with the Business: This brand is a close merger of design and all aspects of its business. From the painting of a lady to the coasters on their table, THE LIFE SHOP business merges the entire experience of their items with their brand identity.

Innovation Driven: The founders and merchandisers are constantly seeking new ways to innovate new designs. So as to constantly remain relevant to their brand identity and consumer climate. Last year, their LIFE baby sub-brand is one of the fastest growing in the challenging retail climate.

THE LIFE SHOP is on the foot path of brand growth regionally. It is not a bed of roses. As Asians become increasingly wealthy, competition for their dollar gets increasingly intense. Brands that do not have a clear brand identity or proposition fade quickly.

The demise of Barang Barang is a cautionary tale. Stellar growth but unsustainable in the long run. I do believe that a Design Strategy would have helped with its growth strategies.

Images and Logo taken from The LIFE Shop .Please leave your comments, if any.

7 Reasons Why Design Helps You Achieve Better Business Results

1) Consumers go for experiences. Brands need to design compelling experiences that engage and connect with tribes. A sound Design Strategy helps you to achieve this.
2) We live in the age of design. Consumers today appreciate the heart and soul behind intelligent, emotive designs. They are willing to part good money for good designs. Your margins increase.
3) Great design sustains both the brand and business. Good design allows a brand to achieve breakthrough growth and market share. Apple designed the iPhone and reaped in billions. One single model.
4) Design communicates your brand value with high impact.
5) Design thinking allows you to innovate outside your business constraints.
6) It allows you to differentiate and gain greater competitive edge over your competitors.
7) A design-centered culture inspires people to work for you. Talents are attracted to innovation.

Please leave your comments, if any. iPhone image taken from Apple website.

Creating Design Strategies for businesses

A brand is a manifestation of design experiences. So are the products, services and marketing communications such as packaging, corporate websites and advertisements. The glass of water with your company logo that you serve your clients is one of them too.

Following this line of thought, it is almost easy to conclude a Design Strategy sounds very relevant to any business. Yet, Design Strategy is relatively rare in businesses outside of the creative industry especially SMEs in Singapore. My guess is that this is a relative alien or new concept where the definition and benefits are not very clear. We need to know what Design does first.

Design in business is hard to define yet its manifestations abound. From the way the logo, brand, tag line and the experience it delivers, it is like a light bulb which produces light but you do not feel it is really there. Increasingly, design in businesses is getting a heads up as we know what it can achieve. Design grows a business and ensures its sustainability.

 
Razer which designs gaming mice and peripherals is a testament of good design and branding. Gaming and mice are both not new categories yet Razer managed to capture nearly half of gaming peripheral market share in a matter of years. This model above is one of the fastest wireless mouse in the market. By this design alone, it is remarkable.Razer understood the language of gaming tribes and dived in deep. Designing true experiences for gamers by gamers which is also its brand tag line.

The Strategy aspects talks about a plan or model which Design is road-mapped like a business strategy. Hence, Design Strategy is about utilizing design or design thinking to help businesses gain competitive advantage over competitors.

In the next 3 posts, I will investigate how Design Strategy can impact businesses with examples.

Please leave your comments, if any. Image taken from Razer website.

Challenging your belief or stance

Beliefs are the makeup of our knowledge, views, culture and norms. As individuals or tribes, our actions are a direct translation of our beliefs. For example, you shake hands with another stranger as a belief of goodwill (I hope at least on your part). Brands try to shape your beliefs about them through advertising and other marketing activities.

It is a fact that we depend a lot on our beliefs and took it for granted. Questioning your beliefs can be fundamentally unnerving. Post September 11, it took a while for Americans to change their beliefs about homeland security. Beliefs are sometimes radically shaped by circumstance. Here are some beliefs that have been shaped over the last decade.

1) Commercialization of space travel. Virgin Galactic
2) Electronic books changing the entire publishing industry.
3) Consumers telling brands what to do.
4) You can make a living out of publishing your life online.
5) Designer office chairs that can cost up to S$2,000 each.

You can probably think of more.

Your beliefs or stance of the world is a powerful subconscious inner voice that guides and alters your decisions and actions. At the same time, altering these deep seated beliefs can potentially impact your lives. One of the most powerful result of changing your beliefs is to solve difficult sticky situations and problems. Relationships, careers and health. Taking a alternative discourse to solve them. In short, changing your stance for the better.

In the book Integrative Thinking, Roger Martin challenge readers to review and change your stance. Has it stifled your thinking and vision? If it is, probably time to reassess and think about reshaping it. Your own beliefs might be the single greatest barrier and tool for creative thinking. In the business world, changing stance can help deliver better experiences for customers or tribes. For example, if we change our beliefs that a hair salon can do more than hair related services, this business model will not look for other complementary services like pedicure and manicure services.

Engaging a coach might be a possible avenue. Here is Enrico Varella & Associates where change development is carefully shaped and mentored in the hands of experts.

Please leave your comments, if any.

How do we become more innovative?

Aeron Chair from Herman Miller Inc.

Attract more Design Centers, less Business Centers. Design leading businesses.
Build a proper Art School. Uplift the notion of being a designer. We need design maestros.
Brand innovation as a culture rather than an approach. Creativity is never an algorithm.
Gather tribes to promote innovation, TED.
Put a designer in every business meeting.
Design thinking with T-shape employees.
Encourage Validity over Reliability. Take risks. Fail forward.
Advocate design consultancies.
Government to rally in.
Involve the SMEs.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Battling Adversity

Today, I received news that a fellow triathlete Enrico Varella is involved in an accident during one of his 230km training ride. He is knocked down by a taxi and suffered some minor fracture, bruises and cuts. Being a fellow cyclist, such news came eerily frequent as we increasingly spend more time on the roads than average recreational cyclists. Fortunately, he is all right and will be back on his feet pretty soon. Being a multiple time Ironman Finisher, I believe he can dig deep to battle this adversity.

Adversity is a rather discouraging word. It is sometimes call The Dip, the deep valley and dark tunnel that creeps into our lives. It can happen in the worst of times, it hits us like a car from the rear. Fast, unexpected and shocking. Enrico's accident comes 25 days before his 9th Ironman race in Taupo, New Zealand. This is his second return to Taupo after his first ' half bake' attempt due to weather changes which significantly shorten the race. No fault of his.

In times like these, we can't help but wonder what can help us overcome adversity? Tribes who share the same passion and love for sports, movements, visions and brands certainly make this a lot easier. They offer the support, insights and encouragement to help fellow tribe members make it through. The barrage of well wishes and support he received is a testament of this.

Enrico, get well soon! - From your ENR tribe.

Brand Success Factors in Singapore

1) Boldness and being remarkable. Take a leap of faith and be bold in their offerings. For example, I noticed nearly all local optical shops look and feel the same. Where is the differentation here? If customers cannot find the tipping point, only their shop appearances and price matters.

2) Design matters. Design their own line of products to innovate and differentiate themselves. Design gives a huge competitive edge in brands. More importantly, they need to harness design thinking to solve their business challenges.

3) Customer Service or User Experience. Singaporeans have a huge gap to fill in this aspect. No brand experience is complete if staff are not trained to deliver the critical human touch. Stop talking Singapore Airlines, be Singapore Airlines.

4) Building a Brand platform. We are talking about customer engagement here. Brands should think about serving customers beyond the store. How can brand engagement START after customers END their purchases with them. Start them thinking about the next 3 visits. As the marketing mantra goes 'It's always easier to retain than to get new customers'.

Please leave your comments if any. Image taken from Nanyang Optical Website.

Test-bed for innovation?

Yesterday I read an article about turning Singapore into Asia's consumer-business hub. Mr Heng Swee Keat, a member of the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) elaborated on recommending setting up several consumer insights, marketing and branding bodies to support testing new products in Singapore. He argued that given Singapore small market, we make an ideal test-bed to try out new products for different Asian markets. Adding on that we have a common culture with the rest of Asia with a good grasp of Asian consumer psyche.

I cannot help but think that the focus on innovation creation should be the focal point first before we position Singapore as a test-bed.

The key challenge lies in innovating products by Asians for Asia. Taking our understanding of Asian culture through consumer research and fuse the insights with creative design. Supported by marketing and branding that can resonant with Asians. Testing though important, should be part of the entire creative innovation process.

Can Singapore have an innovative culture? That is when we get the ball rolling.

Please leave your comments, if any.

Mastery or Originality? Do both.

In the book The Opposable Mind, Winning through Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin. There is a section on Mastery which is counting on one's skill and experience to attain a certain level of competence to complete a certain task. And Originality which is about creativity and creative thinking. Both can be nurtured through the grinds of failing forward and experimentation. The more we try, the more we fail and also succeed.

Martin argued that the way to go is to have both Mastery and Originality combined in order to create breakthroughs solutions. What a revelation! Let’s apply this on branding.

Brand managers are always faced with the constant need to seek new ways to position their products to continuously maintain relevance to consumers and stand out from the crowd. These managers probably have the qualifications and experience to do so. Commissioning rigorous market research and sifting through these data and charts to make the most informed decision. If anything goes wrong, there is the research report to fall back on. It’s safe.

On the other hand, branding may dive straight to Originality. Creativity that stems mostly from  intuition.  Such creative elements are then mostly left to the creative folks.

Notice the problem? Products fail to take off because of either extreme inclinations.

What results is a polarisation of either overly rationalisation or abstract. Are we able to combine the two? I sure hope so. A new breed of MBA courses that include design thinking modules are already in place. Hopefully to produce design thinkers who are capable of tapping into analystics and creative thinking at the same time. 

What about you and me? Time to start?

Please leave your comments, if any.

Our obsession with being remarkable

In a recent event I volunteered at Ngee Ann Secondary School, it involves making lanterns by students and elderly. In total, 800 over lanterns were made to break the Singapore Book of Records. Overall, it's good fun for the 100 odd elderly who enjoyed themselves on a rainy Friday morning.

Today, records are continuously being made and broken. It lies in being 'the most' in something. We have an obsession with that notion of remarkability. We celebrate, honor and applaud those who attained it. Till someone better knocks them off their record.

Can someone build a taller sky scraper? Or a bigger Ferris Wheel?

Brands today are having a hard time standing out. Why? Too many brands say the same thing or nothing at all. Hence, tribes switch brands because they have a hard time deciphering what is the real difference.

There is hope for brands who seek otherwise. They are the outliers who define new meanings for consumers. Nintendo Wii do not challenge Xbox and Playstation for better graphics and fingers-only gaming. Wii takes on movement gaming and became remarkable. Today, Wii has more game titles than PS3 even though they are a later entrant. Wii can be argued to be the best in experiential gaming.

In the art of being remarkable, here are some of my thoughts.

1) Recognize that you need to be remarkable to win.
2) Winning everyone over is not going to work. Winning over those that matters to your brand matters more.
3) Innovation is a culture, more than a mission.
4) You do not need to be a million dollar company to become remarkable. Being remarkable can make you worth millions.
5) Think what can you give first rather than what you can receive. Service attitude counts. Think Zappos.

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The meanings behind

Saturday was another COPE Saturation visitation to Toa Payoh households and dropping leaflets door-to-door. We are informing the elderly of an up-coming CNY activity. Saturations are labour intensive and time consuming. It involves patience and leg power (not every floor has a lift stop). We want to inform all elderly living across 12 HDB blocks.

Saturations also allow me to observe many gates and doors of HDB households. Yesterday brought me to the doorsteps of about 210 households. From the months of Saturations I have done, a total count of about 1500. None really stood out in their designs but I made some interesting observations.

Each of these gates represent a variety of different design patterns, materials and shapes. What draws me to them are the different modifications that majority of owners made to their doors and gates. For example, one would attach plastic panels at the bottom third of their gate to keep dirt out. Another would use a mesh to keep the pet dog from getting too adventurous. Another plastered the entire gate with clear plastic panels to keep flyer distributors like me out.

What I found was that each of these owners have attached different personal meaning(s) to their gates. The variations are rather astonishing. Their chosen and after sale modifications reflected their own taste, culture, religion and personal messages.

As a consultant, who is advising my clients on their brands and products, this is the exact perspective of attaching meanings to products which I would like my clients to position their offerings. A milk brand should not be just claiming it has high calcium and low fat (like everyone else). Perhaps a graceful way of aging?

The challenge I pose to gates and door manufacturers, does your design brief specifies 'salient' constraints like corrosion-free, stainless steel and 5 years warranty? Or are you looking at meanings that represent culture, family security, comfort and longevity etc? If it is the latter, you will have designed them quite differently. Also, be able to innovate new designs that differentiate yourself from competitors.

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What makes me come back for more?

Repeat visits to your regular salon, restaurant and telco tells you that they are doing something right. You are loyal to them. You are part of their tribe, so they think. Are you?

Lets take the scissors test.

A) Hair Salon A cuts your hair without busting a hole in your pocket. It is your regular.

B) Hair Salon B serves you tea and then cuts your hair, and charges you a little extra. You tried them once, and had nothing to rave. You did not return since.

C) Hair Salon C remembers their customers' name and takes a picture of them when they are done, so that they remember their hair color and style. They charge a premium for it. Their customers swear by the entire experience. C encourages customers to blog, tweet and talk about their new hairdo and experience. You heard about it from their regulars, but have never tried their service before.

Hair Salon C ensures that their customers are deeply engaged to the brand experience first. Brand engagement is hard to quantify, especially with emotional engagement, but it is entirely possible. There are metrics which measure the degree of customer-brand engagement. In the qualitative department, visual metaphorical interview techniques are powerful tools that probe into the subconscious mind.

Unfortunately, many service providers are deeply concerned more about getting new customers, and not worry too much about their current tribe. When is the last time you were pleasantly surprised by your own favourites? In the coming months, IDA Singapore will remove the contractual lock-ins from telcos. Consumers are going to be faced with 'What makes me come back for more?'. What will be your answer?

Please leave your comments, if any. Thank you Enrico for your editorial inputs.

Overlooked brand touchpoints

Brand touchpoints are the spoke persons for your brand. They are like the models on a catwalk that show off what you stand for as a brand or designer. You are at the back stage feeling nervous. You should be.

Consumer tribes are increasingly nit picky about what they see and experience from brands. Every single piece of news, blog, ads, voice and presentation you gave, they scrutinize and comment. Lets take an example of something functional which brands overlooked.

'Functional' touch points like ticket stubs or airline tickets get you past that door and to your seats. There is usually little innovation or attention being paid to them. Here is an attempt to change an airline boarding pass to an experience. Do airline passengers keep their boarding passes? Yes, if they want to retain fond memories of that flight or journey. Certain airlines gives discount to tourists if they keep their stubs, ugly stubs.

The good news is, they take note if you do something remarkable about these touch points. The bad news is, being remarkable takes more than merely good design. Its about designing experiences.

Image taken from Tyler N Thompson website.

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