How brands can pay it forward

Storytelling is one of the oldest aids for memory. It is also one of the oldest examples of viral marketing as stories were shared throughout communities, between cities and eventually, across the world.

For brands, storytelling can also be an invaluable aid for memory and sharing. When paired with word of mouth incentives, a successful viral marketing campaign is close at hand.

But the reasons people choose to recommend a product or refer a friend changes often and in context of the rest of their lives. Plus, do referral programs actually help keep brands top of mind?

Two recent studies ask what motivates people to either recommend a service or change their consumptive behaviors.

In the first study, one group was given the option of recommending a service in exchange for a discount (selfish incentive). The second group could also choose to recommend the service, but the friend who received the recommendation would get the discount instead (generous incentive).

In which situation did more people recommend the service? The generous incentive.

In the second study, researchers wanted to know what reasons would cause people to change their habits around energy use. During a heat wave one summer, researchers put one of four signs on people’s doors throughout the city. Each cited a different reason to use less energy:

1.     Save money
2.     Save the planet
3.     Be a good citizen and prevent a power outage
4.     The neighbors are saving more energy

Which lowered energy usage? Only reason number four.

The motivation

Both of these studies tie in the human desire to feel good about oneself.

When we choose to recommend a service, we put our own credibility on the line. With an automatic benefit to the receiver, there is less risk to the sender. At best, the item itself is beneficial, and a new, shared experience now exists between the people.

In the second study, residents are motivated to change because of the direct comparison to others from a comparable group. We all like to be within the norm of those we consider similar to us. By showing us where we fall in the mix, we’ll try to return to our perceived spot.

What about brands?

It’s hard to be remembered first by customers, especially for good reasons. It’s difficult to rebuild brand stories with customers as the hero rather than products or services. These studies show ways to put customers at the center and engage them in meaningful, memorable ways.

Competitions motivate us to raise our standards. We want to be seen as both a team player and someone who stands out. Generous incentives help people form memories that start with the brand and end with the people who matter to them. When good brand experience is paired with meaningful moments, brands rise to top of mind. 

Ultimately, it’s possible to both create stories around your brand as well as develop advocates within your customers in order to achieve mutual goals. Brand stories then become branded stories, which are authentic and alive. 

Any other ways you've helped customers tell their stories? Let me know @Jess_so_cool #newstories

The Courage to Change

It’s been said before: brands are most successful when they focus on a single, core purpose. This singular identity helps establish expectations and provides a roadmap for action. It sets a foundation for future business strategy, employee commitment and customer loyalty. But what happens when the product becomes the brand, acting as both a strategic asset and hindrance? 

Encyclopedia Britannica confronted this question exactly one year ago. After years of internal shifts and product diversification, it finally announced it was discontinuing its 32-volume print edition encyclopedias. The world was shocked. Britannica was so well known for its print collections that ending their production seemed unthinkable, even if subscriptions to the encyclopedias represented less than 10% of revenue. 

In actuality, this decision was aligned with Britannica’s mission to be an essential reference and educational aid. It was also necessary in an industry that’s been in a downward spiral for over a decade. One year later, it’s clear this was the right call. The company is profitable, growing and as beloved as ever. 

But how did it successfully evolve its businesses, and how can other brands ensure they evolve successfully, too? 

Britannica seems to have followed three rules to keep its standing: 

1. Listen to relevant warning signs

The media pit Wikipedia against Britannica because of perceived similarities. However, their audience, purpose and business model only slightly overlap. The real warning signs lay in the potential of digital and changing consumption patterns. By focusing on the right signals—threats and opportunities—Britannica successfully matured into an educational partner from a traditional publisher. 

2. Work iteratively and be ready to cut ties

Every industry is looking for the next disruption, but most companies know they won’t create it on the first try. Those that get closest are the ones that work iteratively, learn to bounce back quickly and build on failed attempts. Britannica implemented a variety of business changes and suffered the corresponding amount of flops before finding the right balance of services. Its willingness to both shut down underperforming businesses, like printed encyclopedias, and invest in new products has been vital to its success.

3. Maintain a culture of learning and development that emphasizes flexible uses of talent rather than pigeonholed expertise

Early on Britannica realized its talent stretched beyond editing and publishing and restructured its offerings accordingly. With constant changes in technology and consumer mindsets, it’s more important to have a workforce that knows how to learn and respond to real-time needs than one that’s set in its ways, hanging on to outdated processes.

Time to let go

Britannica’s choice to leave behind its printed encyclopedias was definitely a risk. It had achieved a feat shared with only a handful of brands: the product was synonymous with the brand. However, such a significant change also signaled the strength and trust Britannica has in its remaining offerings. With so much volatility in and across industries, agility and awareness have become brands’ most important assets. The brands that can reinvent themselves by capitalizing on talents to create new, relevant value are the ones that’ll stick around. 

You’ve been infected by a meme: Predictions for customer experience in 2013

Memes are one of the simplest representations of pop culture trends. Some sociologists describe them as the atoms of human society, a fundamental unit of culture. Others say memes are idea-viruses that infect the population, jumping from person to person. As simple experiences continue to lead, I wanted to see how the simplest concepts of 2012 have changed customer behavior and will continue to influence behavior in 2013. 

Over the past year, thousands of memes have gone viral and transformed new behaviors and ideas into established and ubiquitous norms. Some memes are the spreadable, imitable images like the three examples below, while others are phrases that reframe popular issues, such as the 1% or the fiscal cliff. 

McKayla's not impressed

Kony 2012

Clint Eastwood's chair

The incredible strength of memes lies in their ability to transform thinking beyond the simplistic phrase. They embody value systems through which new solutions and priorities surface that never would’ve been thought of or accepted without the phrase. The meme I’m most interested in for 2013, though, is the sharing economy. 

This trend in American consumer outlook stands in stark contrast to most business models. Yet, it’s quietly entered the public sphere, changed consumer habits and shifted loyalty. 

To understand it as a meme, let’s clarify what’s proposed by the conjunction of these words: sharing + economy. 

Sharing has grown from a kindergartener’s lesson into an integral, daily habit that’s proven the viability of social networks and the need for a comprehensive digital strategy. Sharing promotes accessibility and openness and crumbles walls between systems and groups. Economy represents the management of resources, generally within an environment of limited supply. Together, this meme instills a shift in perspective from product dependency to proactive, connected citizenry. 

This is already seen in communities where members seek carpools for commutes, develop local farming initiatives, or use apps like Community Leash to find lost dogs. Many companies have implemented internal social networks, added interdepartmental projects or changed top-down communication to be more open and constant. Digitally, the sharing economy represents peer recommendations, mobile commerce, cloud synchronization and big data, and our share everything, #instanation mindset.

But the meme is still nascent.

Sharing economy apps and networks, like Uniiverse, AirBnB, or Skillshare, have yet to establish their utility to the broader market. Younger generations are still the main adopters, though many—young and older adults alike—don’t really trust their “neighbor.” Additionally, brands aren’t fully leveraging how customer perceptions of value have changed and how communication strategies and services may need to change, too. 

The sharing economy meme reaches beyond customer experience and expectations to encompass sub-memes like shared planet, shared knowledge and shared responsibility. Each of these has been reflected in recent marketing campaigns and brand platforms, for example inPatagonia’s “Buy Less” campaign. These implied values and sub-memes are what make memes so persuasive and pervasive—they provide a complete frame to help conceptualize, promote or solve challenges, inventions and trends. 

What memes have you seen infect the population in 2012, and which do you see infecting us in 2013? 

Digital filters: Enhancing experience or limiting perspectives?

Through both self-select options and behind-the-scenes algorithms, websites effectively cater their content to individual users. Google was a pioneer in this space, with tailored search engine results that incorporate our location, past searches, frequented websites and even our friends’ searches to provide the most useful information, as quickly as possible. Nearly every website and app has since followed suit.

  

Spotify’s opening page features new albums and recommended users based on my listening habits, The New York Times lists recommended articles based on my reading habits and Yelp answers restaurant queries based on my eating habits. The information I’m shown is all pre-filtered by my behaviors and preferences. Nothing is sent to me based on time zero.

Truthfully, I’m okay with this. I love the personalized ads and recommendations. Often, I end up clicking on the link or searching for the subject. But of course, who doesn’t love being surrounded by what is familiar and well liked? From a branding perspective, this has obvious benefits. Such an in-depth, accurate understanding of one’s audience is an incredibly crucial asset. You reach the right people and you don’t disrupt the wrong ones. Ultimately, you can strategically grow your relationships and optimize your content strategy—in a true dialogue with loyal advocates.

From the consumer perspective, though, it’s more complicated.

The initial promise of the Internet was not so much about personalized content as it was about broadened exposure and augmented perspectives. Alex Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit states it well in his TED talk, “I fight for Internet freedom because on an open Internet, where all links are created equal, good ideas win. Anyone, anywhere can share an idea that can be seen by millions by the end of the day.”

But, we all know that links are not created equal and the flow of information is much more structured. In fact, it’s become a bit cyclical, perhaps due to these automated filters.

For example, I choose who is in my network, I choose which links I click on and I choose what articles I read. Then, the rest of my web experience takes these cues (and traces my cookies) and builds on them, reinforcing my current knowledge and behaviors with related content rather than leading me somewhere new. Everything comes to me from fewer than six degrees of separation.

I’m not suggesting we do away with filtered results, tailored recommendations or targeted ads. However, I do think it’s important as content creators to think about the information that is on the web and the perspectives we’re exposed to regularly. Until the algorithms become smart enough to let in a few wild cards, I challenge us to consciously traipse unknown paths and seek the other opinion. Who knows what serendipitous knowledge it may afford?

Simplicity in the city of excess at CES 2013

After Qualcomm’s lavish and somewhat uncomfortable keynote speech at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I should’ve realized this year’s show might miss its mark. Usually, tech innovators pride themselves on logic, function and integration. The best products are seamlessly incorporated into one’s routine; their value innate.

Perhaps this year’s attendants simply caught the Vegas bug, but I found most of the products and prototypes to be anything but innately valuable. Big, bigger and biggest was instead the operating mantra, and I was often confused as to what problems these products wanted to solve and how I would use them when/if they came to market.

So instead, I scanned coverage of CES for the exceptions. I wanted to find the simple products—those that solve a clear need, and do so in an unexpectedly fresh and compelling manner. Here are my chosen finalists. Any others you think should join the list?

Simplicity on the road with Qi wireless chargers

The Qi website boldly touts, “Simplify your life,” and after reading the one sentence explanation of the company’s wireless charging technology, it’s immediately clear how much this technology would simplify mine. As the owner of a constantly drained droid, I’d love to be able to charge my phone on the go, without struggling to find an outlet. Add the benefits of no cords or adapters and a single charger for all my devices— I’m hooked!

 

Simplicity for the mind with Muse’s Brain Sensing Headband

If productivity or mindful meditation were part of your 2013 resolutions, this product is for you. There are only two settings on the lightweight headband: relaxation and focus. Both can help you be more efficient with your time. Through mental games that train your mind to quickly calm thoughts or increase focus, this headband improves brainpower and mental control.

Simplicity in the family with Ibitz activity tracker

Even with all the family time during the holidays, I continue to hear parents complain about inactive children who can’t stop texting, instagramming or playing on their phones, tablets and gaming consoles. They just want their kids to go outside and unglue their eyes! Enter Ibitz, a Bluetooth connected physical activity tracker that unlocks digital access. The more physical activity the children complete, the more privileges they gain. Sounds pretty simple to me!

Simplicity during meals with HAPIfork by Jacques Lépine

Another resolution helper, the HAPIfork hopes to change unhealthy eating behavior by slowing down our meals, which has been shown to improve digestion and decrease caloric intake. This electronic fork records bites taken per minute, the interval between bites and the meal’s total duration. The fork buzzes during meals if you’re eating too fast. After meals, the information is synced with a HAPIfork online dashboard that lets you track progress and view tips from a coaching program. It’s a simple way to improve habits that combats them at the source.

How scientific notation can help your brand

What’s the purpose of scientific notation in the math and science world? To simplify numbers by emphasizing their most relevant traits and reducing them to more usable scales. Scientific notation teases out what’s important for the problem at hand and ignores the rest.

The same could be said for brand building. Companies must distill the essence of what’s important and eliminate the clutter so a brand’s inherent truths come through.

Simplifying experiences can have a significant impact on companies’ profits. In a poll by Siegel+Gale of more than 6,000 people across the world, respondents said they would pay between 5.5 and 6.6 percent more for simpler experiences, depending on the industry.

Unfortunately, the poll also found that simplicity in one region doesn’t always translate to simplicity in another. What is a simple customer experience and how can it extend to a global customer base?

Extending the logic of scientific notation, I’d argue that simple customer experiences have two parts:
1. Relevance: Is the offering and content relevant to me or must I sift through noise?
2. Usability: Can I access, understand and implement the offering and content in my routine?

But how to be relevant?

Pre-filter content with personal profiles

Eventbrite and Ikea are great at providing relevant content by having customers build profiles using checklists, budgets, timeframes and complementary mobile apps. Content is immediately and always pre-filtered, with the option of expanding results later.

Accelerate feedback loops

Hulu’s ad-polls let viewers give feedback and update the viewing experience immediately. With all of the share icons and comment sections across the web, customers are primed and willing to provide their thoughts on how you’re doing.

How to be useful?

Follow best practices in customer-centricity

If you can’t maintain databases for customer profiles, try to adhere to best practices in customer-centricity. Test and improve signage, layout and services across touchpoints so they’re based on customer rather than organizational needs. While storytelling can build brand loyalty, over-sharing slows down customers’ experiences. Focus on their context.

Fit in

There are no longer patterns for who will shop where, when or why. Take into account how behaviors change from increased accessibility and mobility.

Three Sheets Research, a market research company, only studies intoxicated consumers. The company saw that 10% of digital purchases happen after midnight and that location-based apps are often used for late-night meals and bar crawls. In these settings, customers may be less technically savvy than usual and have more difficulty using your mobile offerings. If you are able to successfully convert this audience into customers, you have the potential to significantly increase your profits in aggregate.

Scaling back to global

The best part of scientific notation is that you experience numbers on a relevant and useful scale, and then return later to true quantities. It may seem trivial to improve customer experience in these small instances, but their small size makes them cheap investments. Multiply each by a global population and you’ve augmented your scale immensely.

It's a big world wide web out there

Do you browse the web on your phone or computer more often? Is there a difference? How many times have you opened your Yelp mobile app, turned on your iPad for Google Maps and chatted on your laptop to see who’s around?

Past distinctions between “mobile user” and “laptop user” have become just that: past distinctions.

But here’s the issue: only users feel this way. Website creators and strategists still consider each device deserving of its own experience. So as I switch between devices to browse the same websites, I discover inconsistencies. Inconsistencies in the placement of information, the use of logos and the features I can access. I cringe when I see the ominous link: “click to full site.” What a fail in user experience.

There’s a better way

Responsive web design is a growing trend in the coding world. It lets web content adapt to viewing and system needs from within one codebase. No rerouting to a “mobile site” necessary. Instead of three distinct websites for a computer, smartphone and tablet, a company has one website that is functional, well designed and optimized across all three. Touchscreen and geolocation capabilities can be activated on a mobile or tablet, while right clicks and hover effects can occur on a computer.

The following screen shots show a full-sized window and condensed window of two news sites, The New York Times and The Boston Globe. The former uses traditional web design and the latter uses responsive web design.

 

The New York Times’ condensed window loses its name and front-page articles. An advertisement steals prime real estate until you scroll back manually.

The Boston Globe’s homepage resembles a smartphone interface in its condensed window. Pictures, navigation buttons and layout shift, disappear or simplify to accommodate the changing dimensions. Relevant information remains central.

What does this mean for us?

Yes, The Boston Globe website looks better, but responsive web design doesn’t stop there. It also addresses the back-end issues that arise when developing across devices.

If we design first for the system with the most capabilities—a computer—we are actually designing for the least amount of devices and users. The site must constantly be scaled back to ensure it works on all operating systems. But as any writer, coder or designer knows, it’s a lot harder to cut content and simplify after the fact.

If you design for the most limited system—a smartphone—you ensure your site will work for everyone, everywhere.

No longer would it matter if your site is accessed from a Mac or a PC, an upgraded smartphone or a phone’s first release, an iPad or a Kindle Fire. By building up from the most simplified version, you guarantee that the most important content can always load and run. The default is function and purpose.

The most important lesson is to start with needs and priorities—and then add bells and whistles. No one cares about the great photo of your restaurant’s best dish if they can’t find your hours and location.