Category: Uncategorized

Power of Imagination. Unleashed

It’s funny – I just realized a recent happening in the world of brands that has, in a queer way, connected my previous 2 blog posts.

Speaking about Apple and Minimalism, I have posted designer Wonchan Lee’s much acclaimed minimalistic posters that are inspired from Pixar’s famous characters.

You would see that in each of these posters, Wonchan Lee has sought to, and incredibly succeeded at, bringing out  the personality of each character by using almost only the eyes, and leaves no doubt about who these characters are (to someone who is familiar with these movies – Up, Wall-E, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Monsters Inc (Sully), Toy Story, Ratatouille and Finding Nemo – in that order). His website says that each of these posters come in Synthetic Matt finish and an A3 size comes for 25$. Given the pull factor that these minimalist posters could have, as they challenge the viewer and plays with his/her imagination, I am sure these would have many takers – potentially also spawning fakes!

Cut to my previous post on brands that use the inherent limitations/constraints of their ‘system’ to create a commonly identifiable set of shared experiences among the user base and thereby make ‘tribes’ of them. One of the examples that I wrote about was Lego – a brand that was literally built by its famous and consistent ‘Lego bricks’. My argument was, given that each of these bricks are functionally similar to each other (for over decades!), they come with very similar set of capabilities and constraints for any given user across the world. Thereby any interesting possibility that can be realized out of these bricks tends to be limited only by the user’s imagination and subsequently spurs the other members of the tribe as an inspiration or a challenge. If you stop for a moment and reflect upon these dynamics, it would be evident that Lego is also speaking (in a focussed way) to an adult (as a potential consumer), an adult who loves to exercise his creative/exploratory capabilities to his/her ‘playful fullness’; an adult who is imaginative and yes fun loving.

Probably it is along these lines that Lego has commissioned the following line of Print Ads with the help of an agency named Jung von Matt.

(Source)

Essentially, these are minimalistic interpretations of popular cartoon-characters. Can you guess who’s who? I loved their simplicity and the power of imagination that is evoked by these executions. Squarely hits at the bulls eye of their ‘adults’ target group and seeks an undivided quantum of their attention by means of this ‘Guess-Who’ kind of dialogue/challenge that they are playfully throwing at them.

Being, not super comic-savvy, I set out to Google around and tried to build parallels with the actual cartoon characters referenced in these executions. Following is what I could knit together as an exercise for myself.

(Cartoon referenced: South Park)

(Cartoon referenced: Uncle Scrooge and the nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie)

(Cartoon referenced: The Simpsons) – this is my 2nd favourite!

(Cartoon referenced: Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix)

(Cartoon referenced: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) – this is my 1st favourite!

(Cartoon referenced: Bert and Ernie)

I should say that I am very inspired by this upcoming trend in brand communications that seeks to engage the consumer, grab an undivided pie of their attention (even if it is for a sliver of a moment) and evoke their imagination so that they discover something by themselves and thereby are entertained.

That is the power of imagination. Unleashed.

The New Theory of Constraints

What is common between Lego, NASCAR and Instagram?

Answer: A shared set of constraints (in functionality/features) and a shared set of capabilities that form the bedrock of the whole experience for any ‘participant’ in any part of the world. Well almost.

Let’s start with Lego – a brand with a phenomenal presence around the world that charmingly scales to ‘62 little color blocks for everyone on the planet’.

Throughout its roller coaster ride, over the last 60+ years, ‘despite’ new ideas and innovations that redefined dominant themes and possibilities that can be realized out of these toys, one thing remained the same throughout the times: the Lego brick.

(Dimensions of standard Lego bricks and plates. Source)

Lego bricks have constituted the fundamental building block of any Lego toy built through the ages. While they come in various sizes and shapes opening up newer possibilities, they are basically and functionally similar (if not same) to each other – in fact it is said that Lego bricks of 1950s can connect even with their 2009 counterparts as if they have been made for each other! So barring some theme specific add-ons that are sometimes bundled along with the building kits, all Lego toys come with the same/similar set of capabilities and constraints at a fundamental level. I feel it is this shared awareness of the multitude of possibilities that can be realized using the same set of blocks and the constituent constraints (or absence of them), that fires up peoples’ imagination and makes them co-creators of the brand’s physical and virtual footprints. And thereby makes this a real shared experience.

NASCAR is different from F1 in a number of ways.F1, besides from being a race among the drivers and their teams, is also a race among the ‘constructors of the car chassis’. So there are a number of factors at play in the run up to that coveted podium position in every Grand Prix– the engine, its aerodynamics, tyres, the technical support, the strategy, the drivers etc. But NASCAR on the contrary largely remains a race among drivers – with everything else (for most part) being equal. So what essentially matters is just the competency of the drivers and their strategy. In fact, this is what makes maintaining any given position consistently (1st or the 25th), while aiming to overtake the next man (or woman) in front of you  extremely challenging in a NASCAR rally. So in many ways, it is this ‘race among equals’ philosophy that makes NASCAR for as engaging a watch and fan following that it has as of today.

Over to photo sharing.  There are many social networks predicated on the concept of photo sharing and social networks. While they must be doing a great job in terms of providing a common platform for people to share their photos with friends and others, they lack what it takes to foster a real shared experience among the users. For eg, if I want to share my pictures that I have taken with my mobile phone and hence were to be on say flickr (I must admit I really like flickr for what it is, but that’s besides the point now), I might run into tons of stunning, visually breathtaking photos posted by a number of photographers around the world. So, while I might sometimes stop by and enjoy these pictures for what they are, I don’t and cannot relate to them. I might think that these have been shot with a Full Frame DSLR by a trained photographer and even post produced in some professional photo editing software. So this benefit of doubt that I give to these pictures in deference to those great cameras / photographers and software stand in my way of seeing this a real shared experience. Enter Instagram.

There is no doubt that factors like the quality of its filters, the reach (of iPhones), a well designed interface, the access to a visceral world that it fosters and the immediacy of outcomes that it presents the user have all made Instagram as popular as it is today. But, these factors alone never answered my question as to why Instagram has become ‘this’ popular. I set out to find out and I was so glad to have discovered this great insight. Nate Bolt’s article on TechChrunch nails it when he says…

“…There’s something enticing about knowing that most Instagram photos are created on the iPhone…… That makes it fun to see what other people can create with the same technical constraints you have. Photography has always been all about the equipment, and not at all about the equipment. Knowing millions of people are creating with roughly the same camera and app as you makes it exciting creatively. So constraints, combined with quality and an audience are what makes Instagram so addictive…..”

This also answers why Instagram hasn’t been in a rush to release an Android version of the App so far; for if it does so, there could be a sudden explosion of photos taken by thousands of different mobile phones / tablets with different specifications and capabilities. Hence suddenly the whole deal ceases becoming a real shared experience that it has always been till now.

So there you go – a common thread that connects and potentially explains the popularity and the impact that brands like Lego, NASCAR and Instagram enjoy. A celebration of the lowest common denominator in features/functions and constraints.

Can you think of any other brand/innovation/business model that thrives upon fostering a shared experience for the user/consumer based on a set of common constraints (and common capabilities)?

Minimalism and Apple

As I write this, Gizmodo shares an update that the latest version of the iPad could actually be called as the iPad HD (as opposed to iPad 3 or iPad 2S). I refresh my browser a number of times as I try to get all updates from the live blogs from gizmodo, wsj, cnet etc that are chronicling the event as it unfolds.

OK, the iPad HD (or is it?) release is just a couple of minutes away and I know that by the time anyone reads this post, the new iPad and a host of the other products from the Apple Stable would be announced by Tim Cook.

An observation that I have on the eve of the announcement:

This is one of those ‘new product announcements’ from Apple in the run up to which, there had always been a near synchronous, peaceful and a calm prediction on what could this next big thing be, from a number of expected sources. Relative to the previous events at this famous Yerba Buena Center for Arts, this is one event regarding which there has been very little debate, argument, disagreement, flight of wild fantasies etc on the shape and form of the things to come.

This is not to say that there is little excitement or any less eager sense of anticipation from the market, media and the consumers. This is one event that would be watched, dissected, analysed and evaluated on various counts – How would Tim Cook carry this off? How much more would the Apple Share price grow? To what greater degree would the traditional business models like books, TV, Cable be affected? Who are the new partners? And finally and more importantly for how much and when can I get my new iPad?

But, this definitely would be remembered as a launch event that was devoid of the kind of buzz, noise and the crazy and sometimes hysterical levels of anticipation that normally precede the actual event. I have always believed that it was this eclectic and testosterone charged set of rumour mills, discussion forums, blog posts, twitter feeds, photo shopped predictions regarding the next big thing that had actually stoked the fanaticism that only kept growing for the brand exponentially – event after event. It was these word of mouth, PR, earned and owned media components that have helped grow and build the brand equity of Apple event after event – duly supported and sustained by the product quality of these products.

Now, if these levels of ‘near stoicism’ and ‘no-brainer predictions’ prevail in the subsequent product launches too, I am afraid if the turbo charged growth engine – that Apple brand has been so far – would run out of its much needed fuel to get its share price touch $ 1000.

Neither Apple as a brand or its product experiences are to be blamed for any of this dumbed down levels of  mass hysterics. In fact all of these products are known to duly stand up to or often out pace the consumer expectations giving them sheer pleasure of usage. However there is one thing that is to be blamed. And that ironically is..

Apple’s Minimalism!

This post, is one of the truly fantastic and insightful commentaries on why Apple’s gospel of minimalism could actually constrain the brand in the long term. The iPad 2 is a minimalist in its design and so was the original iPad. So for any subsequent relaunches of the iPad, given that Apple has an all encompassing design ethic that  spans across every single gadget, it would be a philistine to itself if it dramatically changes its fundamental design strokes that define and characterizes its products. Result: a set of design tweaks that are extremely conservative and again minimalistic in degree. Besides, given the prominence and the centrality that ‘the screen’ has (for good) in most Apple products, the actual real estate available for the designers to play around with is dramatically on the decline. The result: innovations that are mostly under the hood coupled with minimal physical changes that are often millimeters or centimeters in their definition. This had been the case with the iPhone 4S release too and could possibly repeat itself at different instances in the future.

I am very eager to see the ‘real next generation product’ launches from a brand like Apple as opposed these incremental improvements it makes riding on the Moore’s Law.

Bonus read: Speaking of minimalism and Apple, I couldn’t resist myself from posting this link. Check out the minimalist designs of the popular PIXAR Characters. Do read this nice piece of commentary here praising the genius of the designer Wonchan Lee.

A 100m dash to reach out to the consumers. And the winners are..

I am sure most of you would already know that Facebook has introduced a number of new features for brands which could potentially redefine the way they have been ‘traditionally’ advertising/reaching out/featuring their brand presence on Facebook.

(wow.. what everyone was doing till last week is now traditional!)

For starters,  since just 2 days (29th Feb 2012), brands are now allowed to have a ‘timeline’ kind of presence and hence they can re-layout their page using a cover picture. Click here to read about  the 6 major changes that marketers should know about changes in facebook.

Reading this I thought, there could never be a better time to identify which brands are really ‘tech savvy’ or lightning fast when it comes to rolling out a change for their consumers, than now.

So I spent some time today morning to manually search for most popular brands across categories and realized that only a handful of them have put in their cover picture on facebook (something that could be representative of how fast a brand reacts to change ‘digitally’)

Following is a  compilation of various brands that have proven to be very nimble on their foot by upgrading their pages to the timeline interface, representative of which is their cover picture.

And ofcourse, the brand facebook would also have it’s own timeline, and this is their cover picture.

What also struck me was the nimbleness of the Indian beer brand ‘Kingfisher’ (despite its promoters being stuck in …let’s just say an unenviable position). But way to go Kingfisher!

 

Note that for every brand you see, I have also searched for most of their competitors across categories, and it is a telling sign when their competitors are not in the list (for eg,. Nike updated its facebook page, but Adidas didn’t yet. Coke did. Pepsi didn’t yet. Jaguar did, BMW and Audi didn’t yet…). And to further validate, I pulled out a numbere of top 10 lists of brands on Facebook, and most of the above brands figure in them. No wonder they are so popular with their fan base.

This exercise was exciting as it was incredibly easy to see right in front of your eyes, evidence of how really fast brands can be and should be digitally. When you are on FB during the weekend, try doing this. You could soon lose track of time.

Note that this list is as of 2nd March 2012 1:45 PM (Sing time). I know that as we speak more brands would be jumping onto the new facebook bandwagon, and even the above brands could update their cover picture regularly.

Is your brand/ or you already on the ‘timeline’ bandwagon?

PS: Bonus read on ‘Brands as people: on facebook’, here

From Feeling Beauty to Capturing ‘Living Pictures’

I had always thought to myself sitting in a theater as the lights slowly fade out making way for the picture on the screen to come alive – “this is just brilliant!” I never knew why, but somehow I liked the idea of the lights slowly and pleasantly fading out, rather than getting switched off/on abruptly. This was and obviously still is being used in most cinemas around the world. Why am I writing about this here?

Because of Richard Seymour. The co-founder of Seymourpowell – A ‘global design & innovation company’.

I chanced upon his TED talk here and was reminded of this incredibly subtle and  pleasurable sensation of ‘warmth’, a feeling of ‘wow’ whenever I see the lights getting off slowly. And that’s exactly what he starts his TED talk with: BMW car designed in such a way that whenever the door is closed, as opposed to the lights getting on/off abruptly, it takes exactly 6 secs for the lights to get off…slowly. Exactly 6 seconds. Each time. And he goes about to deconstruct the fundamental set of feelings/responses it evokes and makes his main point. He brilliantly sums it all when he finally says ‘Form IS function’ and that, a new lens with which design has to be viewed is asking if a design is ‘emotionally functional’. This video along with these 2 key takeouts were incredibly insightful to me and set me thinking about so many brilliant things that we see, experience, feel, smell, taste etc that strike ‘that’ chord of rapport with us instantly and evoke responses and reactions that could sometimes be difficult to rationalise or codify.

On the same tangent, I discovered that there is a fast developing, parallel school of thought evolving in the world of design, something that taps into frontiers of neuroscience, behavioral economics, cognitive psychology and anthropology, neuro-marketing and neuro-linguistic programing. This is called as ‘Persuasive Design’. Though the concept of ‘emotionally functional’ design and ‘persuasive design’ can sometimes mean different things and can potentially go about serving different purposes, for me, it is clear that they all speak about very similar things: Of design speaking to our sub-conscious and making ‘that’ impact, evoking ‘that’ response/reaction in just micro seconds long before we even ask ourselves ‘why’.

A very recent example of a refreshing design is Lytro – a camera that introduces a paradigm shift in the way we look at photography.

Even for a moment, if we were to forget the fact that this magical camera enables re-focusing of photos after they have been shot, at a fundamental level, the very shape and design of this piece of optical machinery seems suddenly so commonsensical, so inuitive, and somehow evokes a ‘this-is-how-a-camera-is-supposed-to-be’ kind of response. While there is no doubt about the sheer brilliance and mastery of optics that must have gone into the conceptualisation and development of this game changing technology of ‘light field optics’, I am sure that the work that must have gone into the design/form of this piece of ‘optical magical cuboid’ could nothing be short of genius. A persuasive design example? I bet it is. Is it an example where ‘form Is the function’? I bet it is. Is it emotionally functional? Hell it is!

As cliched an example as it has become over time, Apple usually score high on these design ethos. Hence it is so refreshing to see, for a change, a horse from a different stable all set to rock the derby in the race to engage, delight and win over consumers. And perhaps also redefine an entire market on its way?

Warby Parker and its cool pair of glasses at $95

Delivering Happiness

It was this amazing book that introduced me to the zappy world of zappos.com a long time ago. What interested me was their ingenuity and ‘courage’ to make something as counter-intuitive (at first look) as selling footwear through the Internet happen. I mean, the very model of shoe buying starts with you going over to the store to try out footwear for yourself and see if it fits your size, shape, style etc. Right? So how on earth do you think you could replace this ‘last mile’ experience at the shoe store and go about selling shoes through the Internet like selling books or airline tickets? Tony Hsieh and his team at Zappos did it and did so through a journey of spirited entrepreneurship, passion, innovation and a purpose. Zappos didn’t just sell shoes, it did so with incredible profitability that Amazon had to think of acquiring zappos. And but out, they did for nearly 1 Billion USD. Despite this acquisition, Zappos still operates seeped in its own unique culture, cult and legend that’s been written about in a number of books.

Another retail concept that is extremely dependent upon the consumer trying out stuff physically and in person before making a purchase is the optical store. Just as trying out shoes is essential before making a purchase, trying out spectacles in person is ofcourse mandatory. The shape of the frame, the color, the weight and ofcourse the style need to be tried out before making the purchase. Added to this is the complication of the lens – the choice in them, the brands in them, the technical intricacies and finally the actual vision correction. So do you think we can replace all this fuss at the actual optical store with an e-commerce channel? Sounds almost heretical, isn’t it?

WarbyParker (WP) does it. It sells cool, stylish, high quality prescription glasses at just 95 $! Read here on how they do it. Profiled in Springwise, Bloomberg Businessweek, Inc, Fastcompany etc, the startup called Warby Parker (nearly 2 years ago) was founded by 4 Wharton grads,  ”with a rebellious spirit and a lofty objective: to create boutique-quality, classically crafted eyewear at a revolutionary price point”.WP’s website is clearly designed with a meticulous attention to detail, consumer requirements, their typical concerns and their worst nightmares when it comes to chosing the right pair of glasses. At WP, the whole experience of choosing and ordering a pair of specs is so streamlined and smooth, it just feels almost as a no brainer like buying an airticket albeit for your long awaited dream vacation! It asks for some basic attributes like, shape of your face (and also helps you out of you are unsure!), color preference and goes about populating your screen with it’s recommended models. And not just that, once you chose a likely frame, it gives you an option to upload your image or take your picture with your webcam so that it can overlay that with the frame that you have chosen! Not very convinced, just click on any other pair, you would see yourself wearing those glasses in a few secs!

There are so many noteworthy facets about WP including a cool way of using infographics to share its ‘annual report’,  it’s home try-on program, its do good initiative etc that it is hardly surprising to see its copy cats spawned up in a very short span of time! And now WP is ranked among the top 10 most innovative companies of 2012 by Fastcompany.

My take outs:

What is common between Zappos and WP is:

– These companies tried the nearly impossible to start with.

-They were willing to question the obvious with an incredible amount of attention to detail to customer service. They understood (and continuously seek to understand) their consumers and their pinch points while making the purchase.

-Zappos seeks to address the primary customer concerns (in buying a pair) by offering some innovative features as : Free shipping both ways, A 365-day return policy and a A 24/7 call centre

-On similar lines, WP service model has features like 5 pairs, 5 days and 100% free

-And lastly they have a purpose that is beyond just profits and dividends.

Any other examples where we have seen a disruption of the traditional model by an e-retail concept?

Of trucks, specs and monopolies

Buri nazar wale, tera mooh kala

Sounds familiar? It losely means:you with the evil eye, may your face turn black. Does this remind you of anything? I guess for Indians the question should be how many such phrases do you remember?

HORN OK PLEASE/AWAZDO/HUM DO HAMARE DO/and most common ‘JAI HIND’

I am sure that the list could be endless with a gazillion kinds of messages having tones that are quirky, humourous, funny, cunning, spiteful, romantic, ambitious, fanatic, patriotic and sometimes absolutely ‘WTF kinds’! And I am talking about the messages that are painted on the back of trucks in India

See here, for a good detailing of some history behind some of the most popular write ups on the back of trucks. A infotainment indeed.

Besides my realisation of the obvious ‘service’ that they do to the roads by lighting up moods, igniting conversations and sometimes even helping drivers stay awake, what was interesting for me is the phenomenal reach and the audience that each truck (or even an autorickshaw in a city) has in India.

It is in this context that I felt a creative to be hitting on the ‘desi cool’ theme.

Brand Titan Eye+ (clock here for a larger view of the picture below)

Though the creative is interesting and has a real ‘desi cool’ ethic, I am not sure how impactful or even relevant that would be for the kind of consumers that Titan Eye + wants to speak to (why? that’s a different post altogether). Unless this is part of a larger 360 campaign that spans across all relevant touch points, I am sceptical about its success (of this single medium) in delivering results as claimed above.

While reading about trucks in India, another interesting thing that I came across is this new ‘genre’ of monoploy game that the popularity of trucks has spawned.

Truckopoly, as the game is called as per the designer Shantanu Suman, is adapted and designed on the basis of the truck industry of India. The objective of the game is to become the wealthiest truck owner through buying, renting and selling property and goods across the country. The game involves various rules that have to be followed by the truck drivers while transporting goods from one city to another. The challenge is to stay on the top while incurring losses in the form of fines and penalties.

A cool idea that can be translated to the digital realm and marketed as the desi farmville’s of the world. Has there been any popular online Indian game that has captured the imagination of kids and adults alike in the new milieu? Good ideas, seeded through the right channels with decent funding and some innovative marketing is all that it could take to make it big. Hmm.. some food for thought there?

Books, books

Off late I’ve consumed the following. nice reads 🙂

Hegarty on Advertising

Made to stick

Black Jack Vol 1

Black Jack Vol 3

Many more are…WIP (work in progress) 😉

Evangelizing Envy: The power of ‘ONE’ + ‘STORY’

Exclusivity

Auction houses thrive on this. Get an item that is in limited (or a one off) supply and make people bid for it at the altar of exclusivity. Just the fact that this specific item is in short supply could potentially activate a ridiculous amount of (dormant) demand, trigger a desire, and then interestingly morph into a ‘want’ and before you pinch yourself to test your senses, manifest itself into a fanatic ‘need’ in people who are then psyched up into splashing obscene amounts of money just to own this story of exclusivity.

Marketers dealing in products across the entire spectrum from diamonds to deodorants try very hard to trigger this impulse of envy in the name of exclusive releases or limited edition products! But is exclusivity the only attribute required to ‘generate such value’ over night? Unlikely. I guess there is another side to the coin.

And that’s called a ‘story’. Weave an exquisite story around your product and create an exclusivity around it, and you would see yourself on the edge of evangelising envy!

Betabrand proved to be a glaring example to prove this. An online clothing story who are hell bent to offer you nothing but the newest clothing & apparell collection  that is always refreshed at an alarming pace. As part of this they released clothing along the seven deadly sins: gluttony, envy, wrath, lust, sloth, greed and vanity. I particularly loved how they executed ‘envy’.

They weaved a brilliant story of what went into the making of these pair of trousers. You SHOULD read the story here (click on story). + They made only one pair of such trousers. Obviously they auctioned this and they raked up nearly a GRAND for one single pant!