The Empty Whitecoat

Brand development for customer co-creation: mind-map

"Together, the rise of active and knowledgeable customers, the growth of online consumer networks, the development of personalised and experience-based forms of customer value and issues of declining trust are challenging the traditional concept of the market as well as established marketing and brand management practices. In the emerging view of markets, where the focus is on consumer-company interaction, the roles of the company and the consumer converge. The firm and the customer are both collaborators and competitors in co-creating value. As a result, the market becomes a “forum where dialogue among the consumer, the firm, consumer communities and networks of firms takes place” (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004: 122). In such markets, the ability of company-created and managed brands and advertising to communicate a consistent corporate or product image is steadily declining in effectiveness and relevance.  As traditional mass media is overtaken by word-of-mouth and peer review dialogue as the primary driver of consumer attitude and brand choice, consumers are more able to challenge a company’s marketing claims as well as seek out alternatives (Urban, 2004)."

The image below is work-in-progress of a research question mind-map that explores the problem, core influences, responses, barriers, methods, tools and options for the the firm-customer co-creation of brands. (An Xplane version without bullet points would be better!)

Click on the image to view the full-size map. Then download, steal, critique, add bits, make a paper airplane - do as you wish.

Any problems, here is a .pdf version.

The above passage is an extract from a draft academic paper which I am refining and will post-up soon.

Visualising Value

Often, the way that an idea is presented can have a big influence on how we assess the idea's value. When describing an innovative opportunity or proposing a new initiative for example, whether to fellow colleagues or to a potential client, people usually rely on a written business plan or a set of powerpoint slides and bullet points to get across the key message. But although these methods may be the easiest to complete – they fit within our comfort zone - they do not always capture the essence of the idea, the key points of the proposition or the customer benefit. Nor do they articulate the process and people changes that managers must grapple with to push a new innovation through. Nevertheless, there are signs of change. Recently, we came across one firm that is trying to alter the way we might “visualise value”....

The bullet-point point

When Edward Tufte critiqued Powerpoint as a medium for conveying ideas and information, he had a point. In fact, his main point was about the way we organise and analyse ideas using a series of bullet points.

“In corporate and government bureaucracies, the standard method for making a presentation is to talk about a list of points organised onto slides projected up on the wall. For many years, overhead projectors lit up transparencies, and slide projectors showed high-resolution 35mm slides. Now "slideware" computer programs for presentations are nearly everywhere. Early in the 21st century, several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint were turning out trillions of slides each year.

Alas, slideware often reduces the analytical quality of presentations. In particular, the popular PowerPoint templates (ready-made designs) usually weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis.”

Overcoming Powerpoint myopia

One company trying to change the current powerpoint fixation is St Louis, Missouri-based, Xplane which calls itself a “visual thinking company”. They help companies to communicate complex issues, new value propositions or complex processes to achieve support and buy-in from key execs, particularly those that may be affected by any change initiative.

 

To do this, they have created a highly innovative and powerful visualisation technique called PictonicsTM, plenty of examples of which can be viewed on their website at www.xplane.com. Yet Xplane is not just a sophisticated presentation design company. Rather, to create their XPLANATIONS as they call them, they take their customers on a journey through the communications process itself.

As they explain, first they ensure that there are clear linkages between business goals and communication goals. They then develop a set of communication metrics to test comprehension and communication effectiveness. Next, they examine ways to visualize complex issues in group sessions, primarily so that individuals build up a personal investment in the success of the initiative and are more ready and willing to execute. They then examine ways to eliminate the "unnecessary and irrelevant" to determine what information is "need to know" (essential for success) and what is merely "nice to know." This provides the final input to the visualisation of the process, problem or opportunity.

      

Check out Xplane at www.xplane.com. (sorry, I cant get the link on the "After Image" above to work - use this instead, http://www.xplane.com/clients/employeematters/) In fact, there are a host of other downloadable examples of this fascinating approach. Who knows, if they can provide a desktop version of the technique, then maybe we can predict the slow demise of the bullet-point.

 

[This article was first pubished in The OMC Group newsletter, Customer Create. Click here to register to receive future editions.]

Mercedes addresses dealership customer compromises

When looking to purchase a new car, most customers will be required to make some compromises at various points in the search and buying process. Whilst the internet helps prospective buyers to determine their purchase criteria, compare prices and features and to narrow their decision to a few models, when it comes to the crunch part of the buying process – i.e. viewing and comparing selected models in the right colour with the right engine size – it is usually impossible. Often, not all car dealerships will even have a particular model in stock and buyers either have to wait for one to be brought in or are required to take a test-drive in a model with the wrong specification. Also, if we have narrowed down our choice to a few cars from different manufacturers, we are unable to compare each on a like-for-like basis on a test-drive across the same route and conditions. In short, the physical step of the buying process forces consumers to compromise certain factors in their purchase decision and even to take on board an element of risk when making the final choice. In fact, there is a stark contrast between the internet experience – making people empowered, knowledgable, active and savvy – and the dealership experience – making us feel disempowered, compromised, uncertain and risk-taking.

Thankfully, some car manufacturers are beginning to recognise this problem by investing substantially in the dealership experience. For example, Mercedes is building the world’s biggest car showroom in the UK (of all places!) (reported in The Sunday Times, March 13 2005). Costing £45m, they plan to “revolutionise the way people buy cars” by creating a Mercedes brand experience that changes many of the industry’s assumptions about car dealerships, the buying process and the customer offer. The site in Surrey will have 100 cars on display (as opposed to 6 to 12 in most UK showrooms) featuring all colours, options and body styles. But there is much more than just the cars. The main building will cover 725,000 sq ft and will include exhibition space for 250 people, a 120-seat cinema and six simulators that can recreate being in a Formula 1 car going round Silverstone. Customers will also be able to learn how the cars are made and then take them on one of three test-tracks or an off-road course before they buy them. There is also a wet circuit for testing features such as anti-lock brakes and improving drivers skid-control. To top it all off, the showroom also boasts a five-star hotel, restaurant, crèche and Mercedes-Benz museum!

I thought this was really interesting because not only are Mercedes seeking to recreate the dealership customer experience but also they are challenging long-established industry assumptions about the inherent value provided by dealers to buyers. In effect, they are eliminating the trade-offs that customers have had to make and that dealers have for so long taken for granted. Whereas most dealers focus on incremental improvements – for example, providing a more pleasant environment, a few child toys, a free coffee, a seating area, a reception desk and a bouquet of flowers when collecting a new car, Mercedes are saying “forget all that” - how we can create entirely new sources of value that the industry has never offered? Then, how can we fold them all into a powerful brand experience that provides the best service and solution for our customers to address their unmet needs?

When the super showroom opens in 2006, it will be interesting to see just how far customers will travel to visit. Suddenly, buying a car becomes a day-trip for the whole family…

I think there is a lesson here. Most dealerships fall into the trap of benchmarking themselves against other competing dealerships. In doing so, they take the basic assumptions about customer value provided by dealerships as a given – a mindset that drives them (pardon the pun) to compete around the edges of the dealer experience and customer offer rather than look outside to find new ways to deliver fundamentally different sources of value.

(P.S If anyone from Mercedes reads this – now that I have plugged your new showroom, I’d like a Metallic grey E-Class estate, 3.0 litre diesel with black leather and built-in wireless…OK, I'll settle for a test-drive in one.)

PixelGasoline 3D Website design

I received an email from Simon Tessier at Montreal-based PixelGasoline promoting his company's superb 3D website design skills. Check out their site at PixelGasoline.com and be amazed. I just love that whole 50's Americana feel...