Experience Manifesto

Branding: P&G Pushes Design in Brand-Building Strategy - Advertising Age - News

For several years I've been writing about the importance of the in-store experience. It's always on my list of yearly predictions, as you can see in A Look Forward, Some Predictions for 2010 that I wrote earlier this year.

So I wasn't surprised to see a company like P&G talking about the importance of the in-store experience. I would guess that they've seen some impact because of store brands and this is one way to fight back. In my personal experience, one key difference between name and store brands is the package. When you start to look at how well Target has done redesigning their packaging and you can see the challenge a brand like P&G faces.

The article talks at length about design thinking and several ways P&G is using design:

• CREATING NEW FRANCHISES AMONG BRANDS
• TO EXPAND BRANDS AND BUSINESS MODELS
• TO TURN AROUND BRANDS
• TO SOLVE BUSINESS PROBLEMS

One thing that I thought was a key takeaway is that P&G is using design to drive business objectives. It's not just about making the package prettier on the shelves, this change is helping them drive business.

As I said on my 2010 predictions: Given how crowded the retail world is today, and given the number of brands reaching out to consumers, the ability to touch and engage consumers in a place where you control the entire message has incredible value. Instead of viewing your retail presence as a necessary evil, you should be using it to create a better connection with your audience.

As in-store marketing grows in importance and marketers focus more at winning over consumers at the shelf, one discipline is seeing its star rise: design.

No less a giant than Procter & Gamble Co. has incorporated design into its comprehensive brand-building function under the group headed by Global Brand-Building Officer Marc Pritchard. After initially carving design shops out of its new "Brand Agency Leader" model for managing and paying marketing-services shops, P&G now increasingly includes them in the system, in which lead creative agencies essentially function as general contractors over other marketing services shops.

The growing importance of the store has been central to Mr. Pritchard's "store back" concept, in which all marketing ideas need to prove their mettle by whether they work at the shelf. And bringing design into the brand-building organization is a key part of implementing that strategy.

A study last year by Nielsen Co.'s Bases unit found in-store marketing clearly beats TV as the leading medium creating awareness of new package goods in the U.S. and five other key developed markets. About half of consumers in Bases' survey cited in-store as their source of awareness of new products, vs. only a third citing TV. Peel the onion further, and it turns out of that half of consumers who became aware of products for the first time in store, 71% became aware simply by seeing them on the shelf. And what drives that shelf awareness is the package. (Emphasis mine)

Branding: P&G Pushes Design in Brand-Building Strategy - Advertising Age - News.

A Look Forward, Some Predictions for 2010

Time to look ahead into 2010 and think about what's going to make an impact this year: 

1. Authenticity continues to be a critical.  For 10+ years, I've been talking about the need to create authentic, compelling and relevant brand experiences.  Today, I continue to stress authenticity as the number one issue facing brands.  The sad thing is that it should be a challenge for brands at all.  I mean, shouldn't being you be pretty easy?  A few years back, here's what Joe Pine, co-author of The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage had to say:

   Our view is that in the Experience Economy authenticity is becoming the new consumer sensibility -- the buying criteria by which people choose what to buy and who to buy from. Increasingly, they no longer accept the fake from the phony but want the real from the genuine. Therefore, businesses must render their offerings to be perceived as authentic.

   As I've said in the past, authenticity is a tricky thing to define.  So I go back to Shakespeare.  To thine own self be true.  So take some stock of who you are and what you stand for, everyone else is.

2. As SM grows, people will demand much more from brands.  The truth is, we've always shared stories about our experiences with brands, right?  We go to a store, have a good or bad experience, go out to have drinks and tell our friends about our experience.  The difference is that today, it's in real time and it could hit thousands at one time.  And worse then that, we have a much faster expectation of when you're going to respond.  It used to be OK to get back to people in weeks, now we want immediate replies.  Now when I tweet about a problem, I expect some kind of immediate response.  And if you're going to respond at all, it needs to be something that's helpful and authentic. Don't offer to help if you're not willing to do the follow-up.  Recently, I reached out to The Territory Ahead to see if they still sold a shirt that I apparently left behind on a trip.  It isn't made any more, but here's what they said to me:

   If you would like, you may contact one of our representatives at 1-800-686-8212 and have them fill out a No Longer Available request form for you. With this, your billing information is taken down and if the item happens to come back into stock, it is shipped directly to you.

   That's a great response. They could've just said sorry, not made any more, wish we could help.  And they may never make this shirt again.  But the fact that they have a mechanism in place to handle such issues shows me that they understand how people feel about their products.  Are you prepared like that?

3. Brands must learn that they start the conversation, people amplify it.  As I wrote here, brands need to understand that they have a lot more control over the conversation then they think they do. The problem is that they have to work pretty hard to take the control that's needed.  What's radically changing today is that we don't have control over how the conversation is distributed.  People may not be looking for information about brands through the traditional channels, but we're still looking for information.  And every interaction you have with the consumer is you starting the conversation.  When I walk into a store and it's grossly understaffed, that sends a message to me about how much you care about my business.  When your staff can't tell me about your products, that starts a conversation with me.  Retail brands in particular are wasting huge opportunities to start great conversations.  Get in the game.  Start great conversations.  Win business.
4. If you don't give me information, I'll go to someone who will.  This past Christmas, I looked into taking some dance classes with my wife as a present to the both of us.  So I went to the web site of a major dance class studio here in town and could not get a single piece of useful information.  I couldn't find a class schedule or how much lessons costs.  All I got were messages to call them for more information.  The result, my wife got lots of great baking tools and this studio didn't get our business.  

   I still find company web sites where I can't find basic contact information, like a phone number.  And when I can't find the information I need from you, I'll go to someone else who can give me the information I need.  It's 2010 folks, it's time to stop playing the "hide my information so you have to call me" game.  New tools like QR codes and bar code readers will let consumers get information even if you try to control it.  If you want my business, you need to provide me with the right information when I need it.

5. We need to expand the Experience Continuum.  As a theme park employee at Disney, I was first introduced to the concept of pre-show, show and post show, something they do very well in the theme parks.  Thanks to social media and other online tools, brands should be thinking about how to expand the brand experience.  Think pre-show, show, post-show.  Think about how you should be speaking with your audience across the entire process of interacting with your brand.  But remember, you need to think about it authentically.  
6. To expand the Experience Continuum, we need to start creating Oneline experiences.  We don't live online or offline any more, we move seamlessly between the two.  If we're out having dinner and Sydney asks me a question, we go right to the web for research.  We rarely talk about being offline or online.  Today, especially thanks to cell phone technology, we can be "online" anywhere.  Through tools like Wikitude and Layar and others, we're starting to see the melding into oneline experiences.   I still hear agency people talk about location based services in terms of advertising, as in "it'll be great when you can get a coupon from the store as you walk past it" and really, who wants that?  What we want is information that's available everywhere and whenever I want it.  
7. We'll start to understand the importance of Location Based Branding.  As more and more of us move our shopping activities online and as we have so many more channels to communicate, location based branding will increase in importance.  We're seeing more and more brands creating pop-up environments to speak directly with their audience.  Wired does a store every holiday season in NYC to bring the pages of the magazine to life.  Of course, one of my favorite pop-up experiences is the Charmin Restrooms, also in NYC.  According to their web site, almost 400,000 people visited the Charmin restroom in about a month.  And having visited the Charmin bathroom, I can tell you, that people were having a pretty good time there too.  Yea, they needed the practicality of a clean bathroom in Times Square, but they were more engaged then that.  They were taking pictures and sending texts and telling people where they were.

   Given how crowded the retail world is today, and given the number of brands reaching out to consumers, the ability to touch and engage consumers in a place where you control the entire message has incredible value.  Instead of viewing your retail presence as a necessary evil, you should be using it to create a better connection with your audience.  

8. AR & QR codes will become mainstream. Take a look at this post to see Google's recent move into combining physical place with QR codes and you can start to see where QR codes can take us. Mashable put together 10 Awesome Uses of Augmented Reality Marketing and we're just beginning to see how AR can be used to engage.  These are just two of the technologies that will become mainstream this year.  With the changes happening in mobile technology, these technologies will only grow.  Add in the rumored Apple iTablet and its (rumored) capabilities and you've got some real game changers coming online in 2010.  These technologies allow for "just-in-time" advertising, where the consumer is controlling how & when messages come to them.  It allows the consumer to gather information from "official" sources as well as seeing what other consumers are saying.  Imagine me walking through your store and using my phone to get real time information about your products and what people are saying about them.  Could they stand up to that?
9. Physical retail needs to adapt or face the consequences.  Retail was up slightly thanks to a big push into online retailing. But overall, the anecdotal experience that I'm having and most of the people I know are having, is that the retail experience is getting worse and worse.  Employees who don't know about the products and seem to have no interest in helping.  Stores that are a mess.  No cashiers available so even if you want to buy something, brands make it tough as hell.  You can get great information online but when you get into the store, you can't any information at all.   Retailers need to look for ways to e-tail their retail.  

   There needs to be a much better connection between the in-store experience and the information that's available online.  It still makes me crazy that when I go into stores, information that's available on their web site isn't available in-store.  I can't tell you the number of times I have to use my phone to pull up the store web site to get information about a product.  And thanks to the bar code readers or Google Goggles on my cell phone, I can now find out all kinds of information about a product, including who has the best price.  With those tools, I do a lot more window shopping and buying somewhere else.

Now, there are a few things that I wish I could say are predictions, but since I don't think they'll ever happen, I can't put them on my predictions list.  Let's just call these wishes and I'll keep my fingers crossed that maybe, just maybe, we'll make some headway on these items!

1. We stop the old vs. new arguments.  A few days back, someone posted a link on Twitter asking the question SM or e-mail, what's better?  Well really, that's like asking what's better, a spoon or a knife? Spoons are great if you're having soup, but not so hot on cutting meat.  Knives are great for that task, but I wouldn't want to use a knife to eat soup.  It's time we stop arguing old vs. new and start asking what's the best tool to accomplish the job.  
2. Brands will grow a set.  Sorry for the crudeness, but I'm still amazed at how quickly brands respond & react to every complaint.  Enough already.  If you believe in something, believe in it.  Don't just believe in it as long as you're not challenged.  If you think you've created the right campaign, don't just pull it when someone complains.  Tell us why it's right for you.  Tell us what made you decide to create and run the campaign.  We're in the persuasion business folks, if you can't persuade us, you should get out!

That's my starting point.  The world is changing like crazy these days.  We've got new cell phone technologies, the Apple iTablet, 3D TV, pico projectors and whatever else comes out of CES this week.  We'll continue to change our ability to connect with consumers every where they go.  Of course, the more we create ways to reach the consumers, the more they find ways to disconnect from us.  In the end, it's all about creating compelling, authentic and relevant brand experiences.  No matter what changes take place; no matter what new technologies come down the pike, that need won't change. 

Stop Listening to the BS - You Do Control the Message!

I saw a headline come across Twitter today that said Social Media for brands: "You no longer control the message. And that's OK." And it hit me for the first time how completely wrong this thought is. In fact, it's utter bullshit if I may be so bold.

Now, what they might be saying is that the traditional use of a 30 or 60 second spot might be fading away, although I'm not even sure that's true. But today, the truth is, you control the message more then you ever have. AND EVERYTHING YOU DO IS YOUR MESSAGE. I put that in all caps and bold because it's important. So read it again. Go ahead, I'll wait.

For the most part, consumers aren't creating their own messages for you, they're passing along or amplifying the message they're getting from you. So, when:

• I go into your store and no one there can help me or they know less about your product then I do, you're delivering a message.
• I try to use your web site and I can't figure out your navigation, you're delivering a message.
• Your return policy is as complicated as possible to deter people from returning products they don't like, you're delivering a message.
• You use those horrible voicemail systems where it takes forever to try to figure out how to speak to a real person, you're delivering a message.
• You put the needs of the company ahead of the needs of your consumer, you're delivering a message.

And thanks to all of the social media tools out there, when you deliver your message, we, the consumer, use those tools to pass along your message. We amplify your message, both good & bad, and pass it along. You may not control what I pass along, but you sure control the message that's delivered in the first place. But thanks to the silo'd world of brands and advertising, brand managers are so far removed from the actual delivery of the brand message, they they have no idea what's actually being delivered at the point of interaction with the brand. I'll place a good bet that most brand managers don't spend much time in retail watching people interact with their brands.

Tonight I saw the new Domino's commercial and visited their new web site, New Domino's Pizza - Oh Yes We Did. This is the world we live in. Companies listening to people saying good and bad things about their brand and then making adjustments as needed. Clearly, their brand experience was not delivering on their message. And unless it's all a put on, they're being transparent about how they're dealing with the gap between message and experience.

That's why I say that today, more then perhaps ever, you do control your message. You, the brand, should be more concerned today about truly making every connection with the consumer work. Stop listening to all of this crap that you don't control the message. People who say that really don't get the world we live in. The world where it's actually more important for you to control the message by delivering compelling, authentic and relevant experiences. So stop listening to this crap and start really controlling your message.

Here are 5 starting points:

1. Make it compelling.
2. Deliver on your message.
3. Don’t use slogans to deliver an empty promise.
4. Make it a movement.
5. Be authentic.

Click on the link below to download a piece I wrote with a little more detail about those points.

Remember, you're delivering a great message when people want to hear it, tell it, and participate in it. You can create a story that people will want to share in—once you do, your brand won’t just be a product.

Don't listen to people saying you don't control the message. You're just controlling the message in ways you've never thought of before.

Download Are You Just Hunting.

What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate

Movie buffs know that line from the great Paul Newman movie, Cool Hand Luke. Newman, as the title character in the movie, seems to have some problems in the southern prison that he's in. Each time he breaks the rules, the warden says to him "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

I did a lot of walking today, gathering information for some upcoming walking tours and this one of the the quotes floating around my head as I thought about how brands are and should be communicating to their audiences. Another quote in my head all day comes from Herbert Simon in the early 70's:

What does an abundance of information create? A scarcity of attention

The two thoughts suddenly ran together and I began to ask myself if our abundance of information might actually be creating a failure to really communicate.

A few times when I've spoken at a conference, I've opened with a cacophony of sound, building to a crescendo of just noise. And then it all stops. I then describe two futures of advertising. One where we just try to yell louder then everyone else and one we're we're speaking in a direct voice and I ask the audience which one they'd like. Everyone says the 2nd future, but I'd bet most people spend their day working towards the 1st one.

Right now, Twitter's all the rage and I'm there a good deal myself. But I did some quick math and if you follow 5,000 people and each one of those people only sends one tweet/day and it takes you 5 seconds to read each tweet, you're spending 6.9 hours per day just reading them. Right now one of my morning frustrations is trying to catch up on all of the tweets I missed overnight. And I'm following less then 600 people. Can you have any really meaningful conversation with 5 or 10 thousand people?

So first, we have an abundance of information. Then I started to think about the instantaneousness of our communication today. Does the fact that we can communicate immediately mean that we should?

For example, I think I was one of the few people who didn't really think there was a Motrin controversy. And before people say I'm a guy and I just don't understand, I was the house Daddy for Sydney before she went to day care. She spent many hours in her Baby Bjorn strapped to my body. Sydney was 9 pounds, 6 ounces, so at the end of a day of walking around with her, I felt that I totally bonded with her (at almost 8, she's still a snugly kid with me) and my back hurt. I wasn't offended by the ad.

But I was surprised by the incredible frustration that people expressed because they had been talking about this commercial for like 24 hours -- on a Saturday, no less -- and no one from Motrin had responded yet.

Just because we can communicate 24/7, does that mean we have to respond instantly?

As I said at the time, if the complaint was that someone found rat poison or something in a bottle of Motrin, they should've responded immediately and as big as they could. But, people not liking their commercial does not create a life-threatening situation that required a response that quickly.

So if next you have a scarcity of attention, how do you break through? My previous post showed an augmented reality demo being developed at MIT and in that post I asked what happens when people actually can control all of the media that they experience.

Even with all of our talk about two-way communications and relationships and engaging the consumer, we're still frequently using the new tools just to push messages out. Hey, of course I'll tweet this post when it's done.

Most of what we call interactive really isn't. Is watching a video on-line fundamentally different then watching it on TV? Does the fact that it's on-line make it interactive? Is using Twitter for customer service really different then using any other tool for customer service? It's faster and it hits more people, but it's still, good old fashioned hearing & listening to the customer.

A while back, I wrote about a study that showed that companies were very excited about SM because it allowed them to listen to their customers. At the time, I said that's what's wrong with most of our business world, we thought it was a paradigm shift that could listen to our customers!

So we do we do in a world where we have an abundance of information and a scarcity of attention? Create just in time marketing that allows us to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time. When I'm shopping for a car, I want all of the car information I can find. Once I've actually bought a car, I don't want any more car information.

I believe that just-in-time marketing creates a huge opportunity, especially for placed-based media (like at retail), that we haven't even begun to explore. This is not just digital networks running content we don't really pay attention to, this is creating ways to give people the information they need to make a purchase decision when they want to and how they want it.

But that takes a lot of work and really, for the most part, I think that too often we don't really think it's worth the effort. We've got to find the balance between the abundance of information and a scarcity of attention. That's why I believe in just-in-time communication. Get people the information when they want and you'll find that people will give you the attention you want.