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.

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.

Please leave your comments, if any.

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.

Please leave your comments, if any.