TibetanTailor

Yesterday. the WSJ wrote about Burger King and how they were successful for the last couple of years focusing in on their “super fans” but lately Burger King has been falling in sales, perhaps the article suggests because BK ignored mothers and kids while the “super-fans” changed over time.

From a UX point of view – how long do we want to do our research impacts to last? How long do we expect our customer segments or personas, like “super fans,” to last?

How long do we go until we need to go back and re-examine? What is the half-life of our recommendations?

In a proposal to a client last year (successful won too) – I wrote up three different variant of the proposals. The more expensive option had a longer half-life. More research allowed finding “deeper-patterns” and the deeper patterns have a slower rate of change and thus opportunity build on those would last longer too. The straightforward logic was if you invest more time in research looking deeper, you will find deeper patterns, the insights and the opportunities that come out of those will then last longer and your payback will last longer. It is a better amortization schedule of research over a longer quantum of ROI.

For most of the work I am involved in and the usual research phases I see it possible to have good ROI for 8-12 months out. WIth more involved research, a few of the projects I can see about 18-24 months. My goal is to push for 5 years of impact. But that is quite a stretch goal.

What is your intended quantum of impact? Have you ever had a conversation with your clients about how a deeper research dive can result in longer ROI. Yes, it complicates the ROI calculations, but I think it is more honest and takes the conversation up a level to where we should be talking. When you are doing a project for a client, do you tell them up front how long you think they can wait until they need to look again at the customers, the experience, and the match between those two. If BK would have had and followed such advice it is possible they might not have found themselves in the situation they are in.

Reference
“As Sales Drop, Burger King Draws Critics for Courting “Super Fans”” by Julie Jargon
Wall Street Journal, Monday, February 1, 2010, Marketplace section, Page B1 & B2

Happy customers are the secret to success.  By putting out good products and services that people like and are willing to pay for is the most direct route to corporate success. Here are two diagrams that show that visually.

In the above diagram the customer experience starts off with the “?” circle which in the potential customer has an experience and becomes either a “happy” customer or a “sad” customer. After that initial experience the customer can continue being a happy or sad customer, or they can switch from “happy” to “sad” or vice-versa.  Then they can be a ex-customer, though one who talks about their experiences with your products/services.  Of course it is possible that the ex-customer can once again become a happy or sad customer.

In the above diagram. You can see three types of value/feedback from the customer that go down the left side..  You can earn there money right now in exchange for a product or service. They also have money in their wallet which is the potential for you to earn their money in the future. And lastly, they can talk/write about their experience with your product/service, aka word of mouth. Across the top are the 4 stages of customer experience. These related to the previous diagram, a “potential” customer, a “happy” customer, a “sad” customer, and an “ex-“customer.

Lastly, above is another diagram that also visually explains “Happy Customers.” This was done by Livia Labate. It is about happy customers leading to happy employees and how that creates a virtuous cycle that creates profit for the organization making the shareholders happy.

References

For more about how focusing on your customers, making and keeping them happy by providing things/services they value see my post on the Age of Customer Capitalism

See also How to measure the happiness of customers

Reflections on “The Age of Customer Capitalism” by Roger Martin

A great article on the different kinds of capitalism. 1932 with managerial capitalism, 1976 with shareholder capitalism. And now the third era: customer-driven capitalism which aims to maximize customer satisfaction.

He writes about P&G and J&J being customer focused and doing better than GE and Coca-Cola.

Martin says Drucker had it right “that the primary purpose of a business is to acquire and keep customers.”
The biggest implication for user experience professionals when Martin calls for “determining what your customers value and focusing on always pleasing them . . . ”

He concludes with “if more companies made customers the top priority, the quality of corporate decision making would improve because thinking about the customer forces you to focus on improving your operations and the products and services you provide, rather than on spinning lines to shareholders.”

References
“The Age of Customer Capitalism” by Roger Martin, Harvard Business Review January-February 2010. It was brought to my attention by Michael Simborg.

See my HAPPY CUSTOMER diagram about the customer experience life-cycle and how it “earns” money for the business.

Last week we had a book club meeting down in the local Argo tea (located on the first floor of the Sears Store.) In attendance was Pete Simon, Fred Leise, Nina Bieliauskas , Rod Rakic and myself Dennis Schleicher. The book was Shoptimism by Lee Eisenberg.

Here are some of the things I wrote down from the discussion

• The big difference between the act of buying and the process of buying.
• That people buy things for so many different reasons.
• The aspect of buying as a social process and that sometimes we buy something just because other people buy it.
• We talked about Syd Jerome’s  in Chicago as a great buying experience. Fred talked about how much they know about you and why you bought what you did, even if it was a year ago.  We thought it contrasted with companies today that try to buy that information and build that profile on the fly rather than earning it. Online it is so hard to know why someone bought something. One person reflected on for all that big online companies know about me/us – why isn’t it a better experience. Gift-buying really throws it off.

Here are some of the highlights from the book

(p12) “An anthropologist …  asks of a woman buying a new dress, say, what self do you take up with this dress, who will you now become?”

(p28) “Shopping has melted into everything . . . “

(p70) “The hard part, he said, is helping stores configure data into passkeys that actually open our credit card cases and unlock our spending through improved store layout and sales training. It’s not that a guy walks past a fancy display. It’s how do you use the captured video to come up with a display that will stop him, you, me, cold in our tracks.”

(p70) “Seventy percent of what people spend in a mall, or a grocery store for that matter, they had no intention of buying when they walked in the door.”

(p88) “retailers [need to] define themselves by the customers they serve, not by the products [they sell].”

(p131) On the ton of UGC product reviews and forums where potential customers can ask questions – “This all represents a turning point in Sell Side history. We have become valuable selling assets.”

(p168) “The Internet, as O’Guinn later explained to me, is the ‘backyard fence’ across which we and fellow tribe members toast the brands we like and roast the one’s we don’t.”

(p173) On American Girl Place – “The observers saw something close to brand quintessence here. There’s interaction: an environment charged with energy and activity, a destination that exemplifies a successful “brandscape,” …”

(p194) On the supermarket as the great retailing change of the 20^th century – “self-service, the ultimate death of the salesman . . .”

(p211) “How do we decide – when we resolve to clean out the attic and garage – that certain items are “junk” and others are collectibles . . . “

(p242) “… exploring the notion that it’s the buying process itself, not what is bought, that drives the compulsive to the mall.”

(p254) “… shopping online is both like and unlike shopping in a store. One thing they have in common is that what we say we do when shopping isn’t necessarily what we do when shopping.”

(p255) “Optimally . . . we want maximum flexibility of choice and ‘minimum decision complexity.’”

(p288) “the celebrated anthropologist Mary Douglas declared in their classic The World of Goods “It is extraordinary to discover that no one knows why people want goods.”

(p294) On McCracken and home visits to find out what’s important to people – :They should invite themselves into other people’s homes and ask about the things best loved, the things people keep on their walls and on the mantel. Ask where those things came from, how folks came to own them, and what meaning they hold in their lives.”

(p300) “So these things you didn’t buy but were attracted to, or the things you bought and didn’t return – they offered what, exactly? I asked Williams. She thought about that for a second. ‘I’d say they offered a sort of hopefulness.’ Aha, shoptimism!’ However momentarily,’ she added, ‘the things I bought and keep turned out to be somehow enhancing.”

References
Shoptimism The Website for the Book

Chicken Chorizo with roasted mixed peppers $6.95

Mango-lime agua fresca

The tacos were good. but it seems like it was mixed together too well. I’m starting to think that the best food I’ve tasted so far are those that the ingredients aren’t too small or too mixed together. The chorizo was spicy but could have been a bit hotter. The chorizo was so good I wanted to have it served for breakfast as eggs & chorizo. Or perhaps used in a chicken tinga dish where schredded chicken would gave given it more body. In terms of mouth feel the tacos reminded me of a sloppy joe. Sometimes they overcook the tacos and the tortillas get chrunchy on the edges, that would have been a welcome accident for this plate in order to add more texture.

And I was able to confirm that they put cheese between the two tortillas that they make the tacos with. See the video for proof. Acording to my “Subject Matter Experts” on Mexican street food, this is not common.

My dinning companion, Jim McNally, made a really insightful comment in the mango lime agua. He said when you first take a swallow it starts off sweet, but then finishes with a strong sour taste. A really unique tounge experience.

PART 2: Visual Merchandising: Storefront Window Displays & Online Promos

I was lucky to be able to take the promotions group on a field trip down State Street in Chicago to look at different window displays and to see if we could get any ideas for web-based promotions.

Visual Merchandising Field Trip Group

Our fieldtrip started off as we gathered at the elevators. One of the promo team actually was trained and had worked in visual merchandising before and she talked about some of her experiences.

Interior Display in Sears

Then we went downstairs and out through the Sears Store that is below our offices. As we walked out we looked at the interior displays, such as the one’s from Land’s End and discussed how the role of interior displays and exterior window displays differ. The primary role of the exterior is to grab your attention and then get you in the store. The interior displays are to get you to put the merchandise in your shopping cart even if that item wasn’t originally on your “shopping list.” The interior display had merchandise for sale and the top of the rack had a colorful sign on it. The main technology for attention getting in use was the placement of the rack in the middle of a walk way. We saw that people actually had to maneuver around the rack to move throughout the store. It reminded us of an interstitial ad, interrupting the most direct path of the walkers.

Sears' Land's End Window Display on State Street Chicago

The exterior window display of Land’s End was really interesting. The display is surrounded by branding messages.  One message called out “Save” while another told you there were 10 types of gift ideas you should look at. The other windows then took you through each of the 10 gift ideas.  One thing we noticed was that the window display did not let the observer see into the store.  There was a solid background. Also the items in the display were not all for sale. Some of the items were props, such as the sled and the little evergreen trees.  We wondered how does one make a promo so that the “props” are not confused with the item we want people to be attracted to and to buy.  IKEA is one store that seems to make large displays in which almost every single item is an item that one can purchase, including the pictures that are on the walls. As we watched the people walk by the windows, they seemed to not notice the windows until they were directly in front of them. Their angle of sight was very severe and not until the passerby was right on top did they look at the display.

Window Display from H&M on State Street Chicago

When we looked at the H&M window it was very different. There was a display, but there was no background so one could easily see the racks of merchandise. Also the display had groups of items, outfits. If you look near the bottom of each outfit you can see a price placard. But interestingly, they don’t sum up all the individual prices to show the price of the outfit. The H&M display was very effective at catching people’s attention. On the right side of the image you can see the 20% sign. The sign was at an angle and thus very easy to see while walking along. We even saw people stop to read the sign.  This window display also allowed the passerby to look continuously to the side and not have their line of sight broken by window frames of structural wall supports.

Window Display, Nordstrom's Off the Rack on State Street Chicago

Lastly, the Nordstrom’s window display was nonexistent. They just had the racks of apparel right up to the windows. Interesting in that the product itself is the display. It did appear that the labels of the different brands attached to the top of each rack were oriented so that a passerby can easily read them. Even though this display was the most visually full it didn’t seem to catch people’s attention. Perhaps it was just too much so that people didn’t know what to look at.

Some of the Issues or Problems we discussed that might be analogous to web promotions

• How much product is too much product?
• Should promos allow you see product (or just say Free Shipping)?
• How to let people know what items are props only and not for sale?
• How to use products at different angles to get interest?
• Should the promos on interior pages of a site be different than on the homepage?
• How to handle “outfits” of apparel in terms of prices and sums?
• Should you show all the different colors that an items comes in with a stack of sweaters one in each color?

“DO NOT BUY THIS. AFTER 5 YEARS IT WILL FALL APART.” 65,842  people see this every day.

I see this big car advertising billboard at the Cleveland stop of the Blue Line CTA in Chicago. Look at the red writing “DO NOT BUY THIS. AFTER 5 YEARS IT WILL FALL APART.” Someone wrote that on the billboard.

Billboard on the Blue Line to O’hare. I’d estimate 65,842  people see this every day.

Some people in the office said that near the college campuses this writing on the billboards is rampant.

Thought 1: How to leverage behavior public commenting

I thought, wow, if people are going to write on this. What kind of campaign could you have where you put blank links or dotted lines and pens hanging on chains to encourage people to write comments. Why haven’t they put in Borders Bookstores little post-its for people to write their own comments about a book and post it beside the book. They do do that with store employees comments on a small selection of books.

Thought 2: How does this go virtual

I showed the photo to Rod Rakic and he said, that people are probably doing this virtually with things like google sideshare. I think the value here could be that the company could “look” and see what customer feedback is and perhaps change their ad to address it.

References

Viewership is based on the fact that 658,524 ride the system every day, 10 spokes feed into the city, this is one spoke therefore 1/10 of total.

At a recent Forrester event one of the presenters used Wordle to do a before-redesign and after-redesign analysis of their page content. I have been using Wordle to do quick quantitative analysis of content. Here is a quick one of uxSEARS blog and another of tibetantailor.com.

References

Wordle