“No great marketing decisions
have ever been made on quantitative data.”

John Scully
Former PepsiCo president, former Apple CEO

The Tree of Knowledge

Marketers commonly use decision trees to assess features and benefits to determine what is most important to consumers. Quantitative results can be obtained by asking respondents a sequence of very specific questions that branch out using if/then methodology.

Unreasoned Response

In a focus group years ago, an outspoken man was asserting himself by speaking out of turn, disparaging the process, and scoffing at the premise that brand had any bearing on his buying decision, ultimately proclaiming, “I’m just here for the money.”

“Control” Group

Experienced focus group moderators realize if unaddressed, dominant individuals can establish control, affect the group and ultimately hinder true and useful input. The deft moderator began to ask a series of if/then comparative questions that challenged the man to reconsider his inherent assumptions. In essence, the moderator drove him through a decision-making process to help him formulate reasoned positions.

Once back on topic the naysayer became the moderator’s most vigilant and attentive advocate – offering considered and definitive feedback. The rest of the group followed suit.

“The only relevant test of the
validity of a hypothesis is comparison
of prediction with experience.”

Milton Friedman
Nobel Prize-winning economist

Overrated Ratings

Similar principles apply to common online qualitative tools such as the five-star, numerical value, or Likert scales used to value or measure a respondent’s level of agreement with a given statement. Although quick and simple for respondents to complete, unlike decision trees, these methods ask subjects to value an attribute or preference without any measure of comparison, which lacks objectivity and is prone to positive or negative bias when respondents rank nearly everything of high (or low) importance.

Minimize Error

In What Do Customers Really Want on the Harvard Business Review site, Eric Almquist and Jason Lee explore Maximum Difference scaling. An extension of the Method of Paired Comparisons where subjects select a preference from two choices, MaxDiff asks respondents to identify their highest and lowest preference from a subset of attributes or statements. Multiple subsets are tested as part of a series. Almquist, a partner at Bain & Company, talks through one MaxDiff study on the relative importance of restaurant attributes in this presentation.

Asking respondents to rate selections is helpful and informative, but requiring them to decide between selections forces them to weigh answers. It inspires considered input, and generates more defined, useful and valuable feedback while eliminating undecided responses and mitigating positive and negative bias.

Maximize Outcome

Qualitative research adds relevance and validity to quantitative findings. In brand marketing research, consider your premise and process carefully from the outset to limit risk and maximize return. Remember, research often drives strategy, strategy drives spending, and spending drives outcomes – both good and bad.

Let well-considered decision trees help you branch out in the right direction.

image: pkeyn

It’s about bringing content into the environment you’re already in, not creating an environment conducive to your content.

Introducing the iPad

The iPad has been highly successful since its recent introduction, selling 2 million units within 60 days. The iPad benefits from a growing base of Apple customers, software developers, partners and media relations, and builds on the functionality of Apple’s previous mobile devices, leading to their adage, “You already know how to use it.” It looks and feels like the iPhone with a larger screen. Apple has leveraged our familiarity with their existing products and added some innovative new steps. With a stunning design and an advanced multi-touch user interface, this larger-screen mobile device is hard to resist.

Balancing The Mobile Experience

The reach of mobile computing continues to expand as sleeker, more feature-rich devices enter the market. At the very least, these wireless smart devices serve as glorified PDAs that enable users to carry around their most important information wherever they go. At their best, they enhance and enrich the user’s lifestyle through a careful balance of convenience, transparency, relevance, connectivity, and flexibility.

Convenience

As mobile devices merged into smarter and more powerful devices they also got thinner, smaller and lighter and Apple is truly innovative in this area. But let’s face it, with the requisite learning curve, a new device can be anything but convenient. It has to be connected, configured, customized and protected. Data has to be transferred from the previous device and there’s usually some troubleshooting required, even for Apple’s easy-to-use products. And there’s the initial cost, too. But once those hurdles are cleared, we have a convenient device that simplifies and consolidates our personal effects.

Ease of use is also a must, because consumers will not use a product that’s difficult, unstable or uncomfortable to use, no matter how attractive it is. The device shouldn’t require the user to change their behavior in order to use it; it should adapt and complement the user’s existing lifestyle. It’s about bringing content into the environment you’re already in, not creating an environment conducive to your content.

Transparency

Of course, by transparent we’re not referring to a device that is actually invisible (or perhaps missing because it was left unattended a bit too long in a California pub), but transparent in that a user ‘forgets’ the device for the content it holds. Apple’s iPad and iPhone stay out of the way of the on-screen content. In fact, they are mostly screen—apart from a highly designed bezel and a few understated controls. The 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen dedicates much of the visible area to content, giving users a large frame for exploring and sharing their digital lives on the go.

Relevance

With the hardware and underlying software working in the background, content is the primary focus. What makes the iPad so desirable, like its iPhone and iPod Touch cousins, is the level of personal relevance for the user. There’s prestige in carrying a beautifully designed, cutting edge device, but even after the love affair over having the latest, greatest product fades by a few newer versions, it’s the ability to customize and fill the device with personalized content (photos, videos, music, contacts, files, apps, etc.) that makes it relevant, even essential, to our daily lives.

Connectivity

When you hold the iPad in your hands you’re actually holding the entire dynamic content of the Internet (minus the Flash bits, of course) and the bright, large display creates a rich, immersive experience. It gives users who spend time on social media sites the ability to update their status accordingly. Expect to see “Running on my treadmill with my iPad,” or “Laying on the beach with my iPad,” much like “Sent from my iPhone” email signoffs.

Flexibility

Software-based controls keep the device flexible and simplify the ability to adapt the controls for multilingual use. It allows Apple to dramatically improve the user experience through software-driven OS updates and has the ability to drive additional revenue-generation for content and software developers. As our world changes, the iPad will change and adapt to remain viable longer, making it a great investment.

It Just Fits

The iPad was released in January 2010 to mixed reactions. The biggest question revolved around whether there was a market for a touch-screen device that bridged the gap between Apple’s iPhone and laptops. The iPad’s early sales success can be attributed to the simplicity of use of other Apple products, or it could be that it’s a new kind of user experience that just fits.

In future articles we’ll look at some of the reasons that the iPad is destined to stand out and excel in an industry flooded with smart mobile devices.

“How much cheese do you take off the pizza until you have no customers left?”

Gordon Bethune, Continental Airlines turn-around CEO (circa 1994)

Defining Value

Financial results and brand experience – the two are inextricably linked in the equation of profitability. Whether or not they are completely understood and embraced, shareholder results and brand value are ultimately both the responsibility of the CEO.

CEOs who place a premium on brand design and brand experience realize the most sustained return on shareholder brand value. While task-oriented responsibilities for creating brand and shareholder value can be delegated, the final responsibility for valuation outcomes can not be abdicated.

“We push innovation
and design very strongly.”

Bob Ulrich, Target Chairman and former CEO

Particularly in an age of socially distributed messaging, if your product is faulty or lackluster in form and appearance, your service is sub par, or your price inequitable, your profitability, brand and shareholder value will eventually suffer.

A Brand-colored Vision

Withstanding the effects of business fluctuations is often dependent upon remaining true to a vision for your brand. Steve Jobs famously refused to relinquish the reins of Apple to an accounting-minded CEO after a product flop.

Investors and Wall Street alike have always recognized that Apple’s stock price is tied directly to Jobs’ final say and his dogmatic defense of brand design and belief in its business value. CEOs who focus on financial responsibility alone myopically neglect and erode brand value.

However, assuming a CEO holds and adheres to a vision for their brand, as filtered through the eyes of their customers, the resurgent moments can be something to behold as the visionary listens, refines, and launches the brand’s design anew.

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

Steve Jobs, CEO Apple

A History of Brand Design and Business Value

CEOs who embraced brand design as a means to brand and business value abound: Virgin’s Richard Branson; Yves St. Laurent; Continental’s turn-around agent, Gordon Bethune; Martha Stewart; Target’s Bob Ulrich; and Starbucks’ Howard Schultz, just to name a few.

From product design to packaging, usability to interface design, remain steadfast in your adherence to brand design and its importance to your institution’s value.

How do you rate your brand’s design, your customer’s perception of it, and your vision for where it needs to be?

Image: SixyBeast

“Let’s get small.” -Steve Martin

Get Smart, Get Small

While worldwide mobile phone sales slowed in early 2009, media-rich smart phone sales are on the rise both globally and in the United States.

In ever-increasing numbers, across a wide spectrum of demographics, people are plying the web primarily on mobile devices. If your site and digital strategies are not mobile capable and/or optimized to load properly – your brand, for many, may not exist.

“Smartphone sales surpassed 40 million units [in Q2 2009], a 27 per cent increase from the same period last year.” – Gartner

Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 269.1 million units in the Q1 of 2009 – an 8.6 per cent decrease from Q1 2008. However, according to Gartner, Inc., “Smartphone sales surpassed 40 million units [in Q2 2009], a 27 per cent increase from the same period last year.”

In three days Apple sold over a million iPhone 3G S smartphones and 6 million people downloaded the new iPhone OS 3.0 update after it released.

Add sales of the iTouch and other portable phone-less devices to these statistics and you have a significant emerging market for your brand messaging.

2008 Smart Phone Sales (US)†

† RCRWireless | .think Nov 2009

A Medium in Motion

Many early adopters are opting to invest in mobile applications first – desktop applications second. In fact iPhone Facebook application interfaces have been said to navigate better than Facebook’s own standard web version.

And mobile-based interactive media delivery is here to stay. Flash Lite, Adobe’s mobile-ready Flash player, is already deployed on over a billion mobile devices – with plug-in versions licensed to many popular mobile browsers and an Apple iPhone version rumored in the works.

Just this past week, at the Adobe MAX 2009 conference, Adobe demoed CS5–the next version of it’s widely popular creative suite of applications. Flash CS5 will soon offer customers the ability to export Flash-developed content as native iPhone applications to be distributed through the iTunes app store. Just one more reason why any excuse to avoid mobilizing your brand just won’t fly.

Small Interfaces, Big Variations

Whether developing a mobile app or formatting your current site for mobile delivery it’s important to account for a wide range of mobile screen dimensions to ensure proper readability.

Additionally browsers have greatly varying abilities. Modern smartphones like the iPhone and phones running Google Android have fully functional browsers – other smartphones, do not. As with any digital development testing is crucial. Online emulators can be helpful in assuring your media is suited for delivery vehicles – your audiences’ preferred mobile devices.

Mobile Watering Holes, Captive Audiences

If your customer, constituent, or product base is built heavily on affinity groups, or community, developing a smartphone application can prove particularly beneficial in terms of engagement and retention.

Developing a branded smartphone-ready application or tool, such as an Phone app, can help promote your brand messaging via promotion platforms such as AdMob (mobile ad medium), AdWhirl (mobile ad aggregator) and Mdotm (iPhone app promotion), help facilitate a mobile extension of your brand, messaging and campaigns – often to a new mobile-inclined user base.

Get a Move On

The confluence of exploding smartphone use, video, music and text sharing popularity, and the proliferation of every imaginable mobile game, tool and app means your audience can encounter your brand messaging or purchase your wares just about anywhere.

Assuming you are there to greet them.

Contact Brainstorm for more information on taking your brand mobile.

Image: Miss Karen

“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”

- Walt Disney

Uh Oh

Recently, the iSight Camera on my MacBook Air quit working. I’d purchased the three-year Apple Care program, but was hesitant to engage in the repair process. My past experience with technical support from other computer companies has been less than pleasant.

11:30 Sharp

From the Apple website, I learned the initial step is to call technical support to rule out any software issues. Argh.

Then I found “Ask an Apple Expert” on the website, with the option to have them call me at my convenience. I scheduled a call and at the appointed time on the dot, a very courteous technician called me from Northern California. She patiently walked me through the diagnostics, focusing only on my account—no interruptions, no multitasking. Within 30 minutes, she told me I’d need hardware diagnostics that could be done at my local Apple store. She even scheduled the appointment for me.

A Matter of Minutes

When I arrived, my name was listed on a plasma screen as the next customer at the Apple Store Genius Bar. After a 5 minute wait, I met my service Genius who apologized for the delay.

Within 10 minutes he’d performed the hardware diagnostics and confirmed the machine needed to be sent to a “repair depot” for service. He gave me an 800 number to call for a shipping box and told me the repairs would take approximately 4-5 business days.

This is where I started to get anxious. I needed time. Time to prepare myself to function without my laptop for 5 business days.

Next Day, 8:00 a.m.

I called the 800 number and by 8:00 a.m. the next day, a custom box with packing material, simple instructions—even packing tape—arrived at my office. I let it sit, procrastinating the separation from my laptop.

Finally, I ran Time Machine to back up my data, filled a thumb drive with recent docs, and prepared myself for 5 days without my computer. I packed up the MacBook Air, took it to my local Kinkos, and said my prayers for its safe trip to Houston.

Time Flies

The next morning, I logged into FedEx to track the package. It had arrived safely at 6:54 a.m. local time! Wow, a quick trip and an early start. Then I logged into the Apple site to check on the status of the repair. By 9:00 a.m. EDT, it was finished and pending return.

My laptop arrived via FedEx at 9:00 a.m. the next day. I pulled it out, tested my new camera, and crafted this post, amazed that my computer traveled 1,700 miles round trip, was repaired and returned to me—all within 40 hours.

Thank you Apple for great service and great tools to keep me informed all along the way.

Your brand’s reputation is established by your actions and interactions. The best example of customer retention management is the one you deliver today. Make it count and keep them coming back—and telling their friends.

Image: Marcin Wichary