The Big C's: Creativity, Consumer Research and Collaboration.
The digital landscape as we know it is no longer an emerging trend- it's here and now and not going away anytime soon. Digital technology was predicted as much as 50 years ago, although the most simplistic in my opinion was by cartoon called the Jetson’s. In a recent Ad Age article that looks at how much of the Jetson’s futuristic world has become a reality, many of the eccentric advances have are alive due to digital technology– from robots to flying cars and video chats to floating cities. It’s amazing what the power of an idea, investment in technology and sincere determination can do! While mobile technology wasn’t mentioned in the cartoon, it is an aspect of this digital phenomenon over the past decade that has shaped human interaction. Digital behaviors have shaped the way in which we interact with co-workers, friends and family members. It is now a common language, like Spanish, French or English.
This is forcing advertisers and business owners to focus on the Big 3 C's - creativity, consumer research and collaboration (to make sure ideas come alive). The more creative in connecting with their customers as well as being useful, purposeful, entertaining, playful, responsible, social, more value is created and long-term profitability. Oh, and don’t forget about actually providing high-quality services and focuse on maintaining a distinct strategic competitive advantage! All of this is no easy fete. According to the authors of “This is Service Design Thinking”, they mention several essential concepts about marketing orientation (versus a product orientation) and the importance on trying to understand what customers might actually want and then produce products and services to attract them. Understanding the real value and nature of relationships between people and other people, things and organizations are keys to being a long-term profitable organization and core to designing services around people. Service Design, as discussed in length in this book, is the key to ensure that the interactions between the business and customer have utility (what your service does), usability (how easy it is to get the offering) and pleasurability (how the situation makes you feel). Bing!
Quite often, marketers and businesses do not take in to account the actual interaction between the provider and customer, yet it is the sole way that customers relate to a company’s services! How can this be missed? As marketers, isn’t this the goal? Marketers, with the help of companies like the Rockwell Group are however becoming more creative in service design and digital interaction – an area is that is central for service delivery and creating points of differentiation.
James Tichenor and Josh Walton, Co-Chiefs at the LAB most recently spoke at a PSFK Conference in London about the value of creating a story through interactive and social designs. They showed this through an example of the renovation of the Cosmopolitan Hotel lobby, and how digital technology can transform a building into an interactive playground and mystical environment. First impressions count and can impact loyalty long-term.
Marketers, agencies and the users have to be collaborative to achieve true service design, and with this takes time, involves extensive research and a commitment to investment. Marketers have to create desirability in these interactions which in turn forms trust, builds loyalty and makes people want to talk about the product to others. Desirability in interface design is essential because of the strong emotional dimension attached to it. Utility, usability and pleasurability are key success factors in desirability.
As mentioned earlier, digital devices to some may be seen as a connector or a divider, but to the truly clever advertisers, they have to understand first what is driving people’s needs and use digital to connect needs to products and services. They have to view their service through the customers’ eyes and design their service in such a way that customers receive consistent experiences over time that they think are valuable. Being creative in this context is important, but being knowledgeable and really determined to uncover their motivations and unmet needs is vital to long-term success. Above all, having a brand purpose and anchoring all experiences in this demands great value and coupled with an entertaining, playful or integrated platform, allows advertisers to create “communication” products rather than just vehicles.
After reading this book, I started to look at my own experiences with brands and companies and wanted to just shout, focus on interaction and social design! Brands can be very powerful in creating this desirability factor. A marketer’s winning formula is creating a good cocktail mixed with collaboration, real consumer research, and creativity in interaction to deliver real value to the most important person in the story, the main character – the user.
