steelcase blog

Mass AND Customization…

… why is that ‘AND’ stuck in the middle of a fairly common business term ‘mass customization’ (coined by Stan Davis in his book Future Perfect)…?  Because it is the key to the concept, and often overlooked.  But that’s not usually the case.  A firm tends to be more ‘mass’ (greater efficiency) or more ‘customization’ (greater individuality),… but a few have optimized for both.  Take for example GNC, the vitamin company.  They package and ship a Vitapak just for you.  More green vegetables, they can do it,… help for allergies, no problem.  And a combination of Vitapaks or specific other pills can be built into a personal profile called ‘my regimen’,… and remind you when it is time to reorder.  What makes it work is that they have developed and produced a number of different vitamin modules,… that can be combined in many different ways to match the demands of any one consumer.  Any company that has componentized the various elements of their offering in a way that reduces cost and waste (mass), and then tailors the final packaging and/or assembly based on a particular customer order only after the order is placed (customization),… earns the ‘mass customization’ badge of honor.

The above has huge implications for experience design.  Customizing a good creates a service opportunity,… customizing a service makes for a compelling experience.  If you get exactly the same good or the same service the previous customer got, where’s the positive impression, where’s the memorable encounter…?!  There is none.  Companies that don’t take the time to engage  each customer to identify what they value, and instead focus on making a good or providing a service at the lowest possible cost,… have actually sown the seeds of the own demise.  Due to their lack of tailoring, what they offer will be based on price alone.  And the next time they buy, the customer will expect to pay less.  It’s a never ending downward spiral to commoditization,… and the opportunity for profits spirals down as well.  Commoditization or customization...?

Zig or Zag…

… I’m sure he didn’t come up with the phrase,… but Marty Neumeier uses it in his marketing how-to book ZAG.  This easy-to-read book follows naturally on his previous bestseller, The Brand Gap.  In The Brand Gap, Neumeier talks about the importance for brands to effectively bridge business strategy and design.  Then in ZAG his message is one of differentiation, what Marty defines as radical differentiation,… when everyone else Zigs, you need to Zag.  To succeed, brands must stand out from the clutter (or the glut) of the many similar brands out there.  If they fail to be distinctive in some or many ways,… they will likely not be noticed.  And if they are it’s not much better, as they will need to match the best price from all the other look-a-likes out there.  In the book, a brand is defined as ‘a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.’  So much for expensive ad campaigns,… it’s not what you say about your brand, but what the customer ‘feels’ about your brand.

So how do you change a person’s feeling about your brand,… you delight the heck out of each and every experience they have with your brand.  From how they hear about your brand, how you help them decide, where they have access to your product/service (to kick the tires or test the service),… to how they continue to be delighted by your brand after that first experience.  I have an Audi TT coupe,… and even though it is 8 years old, I still get a thrill running it through the gears from a dead stop.  This serves to strengthen my feeling about Audi as a brand, and specifically the TT as a sports car brand.  I’ve also noticed that when others notice my car, it reinforces those good feelings.  I especially love to see little boys noses pressed against the back windows of their Mom’s minivan, looking down at my little bubble of a car.  “Wow, look at that”, I can see them saying,… as if it were the only sports car they ever saw.  I even have flashbacks to when I was a teen,… looking out the window of my Dad’s Chevy Nova,… wondering if I could ever afford a Camaro, or better yet a Pontiac Firebird.
What I really like about this book is the emphasis Neumeier places on the importance of not following the leader.  I see it all the time,… a new watch looks like all the other watches; one restaurant's value meal has a new name, but it’s the same stuff; once one soda goes to ‘zero’, everything is ‘zero’; nothing stands out.  But it’s not just about being different.  The baseline requirement is that it has to be good if it’s going to have lasting brand value.  Back to cars, the Edsel was different, but not a great car.  I know, because I joined 4 other fellas in investing in one, a pink one, back in 1975,… thinking we could polish it up, get it running, and make a fortune on resale.  It didn’t work, and in the end no one wanted it parked in their drive,… and it was almost impossible to get rid of.  So I get being good.  The author uses the Mini as an example of different and good,… and the brand is a rising star.

One proven way to be different is to uncover a new need: the book talks briefly about this.  Many successful companies employ user-centered or human-centered approaches to identify these needs.  We do this at Steelcase,… by observing users in real work situations (ethnographic studies), to determine behavioral patterns that represent opportunities for innovation.  These could be work situations that cause users extra effort or forces them to work-around a situation.  It could be a struggle or a frustration the user has with using a particular function/feature of a product.  Or in the best of situations, we correlate these user stories with a series of work-related trends,… and create an entirely new category of solution.  We did this with a product that’s about to be introduced called media:scape.  It redefines how information assets are brought into a group collaboration.  It uses a new table shape, an innovative new data switch from IDEO, and a dramatic shift in the way information displays are fully integrated into the furniture setting.  It’s really good, it’s really different.  Zag, you think…?

Recession Proof Brands…

… when the going gets tough, the tough get going,… I recall my Dad using that line more than once.  It usually was associated with some weekly chore which I didn’t want to do, and thus complained that it was really, really hard.  In the end it was always a waste of time as my appeal for mercy never did work,… it merely caused a delay in completing the task.  No one can deny that we are in the midst of a ‘going gets tough’ period,… every day the news reminds us of just how bad it is.  People losing their jobs, with slim prospects of another,… banks going under,… foreclosures and bankruptcies,… tough, tough, tough.  As all this is happening, I’ve been watching closely how certain companies chose to respond.  Some get tough, and get going.  They focus on building talent, capabilities and hope for where they want to be ‘after’ the recession.  Others join the race to the bottom,… watching where others cut left and right, and try and exceed their cuts.  But it’s not just companies,… it’s happening to brands as well.

This past week I read that Starbucks, one of our premier brands, appears to have chosen to join the race to the bottom.  I can understand closing underperforming locations, and slowing their growth to a more reasonable rate.  But what I can’t understand is the news that they are considering coming out with ‘value-priced meals’ to compete with McDonalds…!  Talk about a blow to the brand,… this, for me at least, takes away a huge amount of the glow I’ve always imagined around this brand.  This is a move that screams ‘survive’, not ‘thrive’ or even ‘prosper’.  In Denise Lee Yohn’s piece on brandchannel.com, she defines a weak brand as one that “has little to draw from besides price reductions and desperate promotions to generate interest.”  Sounds like Starbucks.  Denise then goes on to point out what makes for a strong brand.  Two of her points in particular I believe are right on.  First, strong brands are meaningful,… they are “relevant and compelling to its target customer.”  And second, differentiating,… strong brands are ‘different/distinctive’, and different in ways that customers value.

So what does a recession proof brand do…?  They use times like this to focus with laser accuracy on those areas of their performance that fall short of their brand’s promise.  In so doing they create innovative ways to add value, refine service levels, and extend their brand.  It’s a time to become even more unique and in so doing, more desired.  Instead of dropping their price, they bolster their value, and build brand equity.  Another writer that speaks to this same subject is W. Chan Kim, author of Blue Ocean Strategy.  He states, “that tomorrow’s leading companies (brands) will succeed not by battling competitors (race to low cost), but by creating ‘blue oceans’ of uncontested market space ripe for growth.”  He appropriately labels such strategic moves as ‘value innovation’,… I like that. The key is to be recognizably different,… like Cirque du Soleil, Southwest Airlines, or Apple… like Starbucks used to be in its early days.  Don’t follow the others down that slippery slope of marginalized value,… build ladders, bridges and zip lines to new, higher levels of perceived value.  Another Happy Meal…?