Think Design: Brand-Consumer Interaction On A Whole New Level
After interviewing Donald A. Norman, author of Emotional Design (and other great books on the topic) for my 9 Minds On Marketing eBook a few years back, I was sold on pursuing a more design-oriented way of thinking and writing. A recent BusinessWeek article by Jeneanne Rae about how P&G and “design thinking” shows that, now, even the biggest traditional brands are learning to approach business with more innovation and creativity as well. Let the celebration begin…
If you, too, are curious about how design thinking might fit your business – give the article a read. Included therein on the more women-specific front, Rae cites a quick personal case study about how P&G’s www.olayforyou.com site changed her whole experience with the confusion of skin care. But, there are also quite a few ideas from P&G’s example that have cross-industry applications worth consideration.
In particular, a couple of sentences in one of the final paragraphs of the article reference broader consumer research possibilities. Rae quotes P&G’s soon-to-retire Vice President for Design Claudia Kotchka with this observation on how some in-house design workshops really changed the minds of participants in huge ways:
“Participants get scared using such rough prototypes to elicit consumer feedback at the beginning, but they are won over when the see the benefits of co-creation. We have found that the more finished a prototype is, the less feedback people will give you. When you give prospective users something half-finished, they think you don’t know the answer. They know you need their help – and really open up.”
In reaching women, the goal has long been to figure out the anti-focus group way of gathering input and involving consumers. The traditional guided question method, in all its scientific and rational form, can often be too finished a prototype. Participants in any such research (both off- and online) want to get the sense that you are really listening and honestly in need of their help. Presenting a new wine bottle label when it is 85% complete or a new packaging development that is just about to launch likely doesn’t inspire a lot of engagement from the women or men you’ve gathered to “help.” They see no point or authenticity in the process.
Design thinking, on the other hand, involves a more wide-open launch point with a few less parameters to generate whole new perspectives. Whether that is via an in-house marketing meeting or a research interaction with customers (way before the wine label is 85% complete, by the way) – humans (and not just female humans) like to feel needed and “heard.” As many of us may recognize, that can be a powerful reward in and of itself, but the outcome of such an open and free-form process will likely become self-perpetuating.
Each time a more design/participatory experience is “practiced,” the humans involved get that much better and braver at it. Design thinking may need to be forced a bit at first, through workshops and serious corporate commitment as per P&G, but the new freedom it generates may well create brand-customer synergies that go much beyond the success of your next product launch.
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