Alan M. Siegel's Blog, page 8

AI: transforming work in the fourth industrial revolution

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) signifies the current stage in the industry’s digital transformation. Propelled by transformative trends, 4IR emphasizes the interconnectedness of machines, real-time data exchange, automation, and intelligent systems to enhance efficiency, productivity, and innovation across industries.  

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a pivotal role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Fully understanding – and then leveraging – the power and potential of AI will take some time, but many professionals are already integrating it into their working world. There is curiosity about how best to use AI and concern about the current-day job functions that it may largely – or entirely – replace.  

 As The Simplicity Company, we focus on leveraging AI to enhance team efficiency and effectiveness – to cut through the noise and help simplify. Within the creative realm of branding, opportunities are abundant, yet distinct roles within the industry have different concerns and applications regarding this revolutionary tool.  

We speak to Harriett Hindmarsh, Chief Marketing Officer, AECOM and Nicholas Jenkins-Smith, Design Director, Siegel+Gale, about the role of AI in their everyday working lives. Both use AI in different ways, with the same objective: to enhance their day-to-day roles – and those around them – as working professionals.  

 What excites you the most about AI? Anything to be mindful of?  

Harriet Hindmarsh: Undoubtedly, AI presents as an exciting game-changer for AECOM. While we are, like most organizations, relatively early in our journey of understanding AI’s power and potential, our focus on accelerating the adoption of digital-enabled project delivery approaches (like automated design) offers the opportunity for AI’s gradual, seamless and strategic integration across much of our operations – to improve our teams’ efficiency and elevate the standard of our client service.  

 Internally, within our Marketing and Communications team, AI has the potential to transform our roles, liberating us from mundane tasks and allowing us to work more efficiently and collaboratively. But there are two sides to the coin: AI, even at this point in time where the hype is in overdrive, has somewhat leveled the playing field. Competitors are developing their own AI strategies and leveraging Large Language Models for content generation to improve organizational productivity. We know we need to develop creativity and differentiation in our AI strategy. Therefore, I am focused on empowering a team that can think like a robot can’t —a team that uses AI to boost efficiencies and engages its intuition and T-shaped thinking to achieve stand-out results.  

AI is a means to support our clients in solving their complex issues and make a real difference. Indeed, genuine excitement lies in AI’s potential to elevate sustainability initiatives to create and deliver a better world. We’ve initiated a dialogue with leadership to harness AI’s potential to streamline our services, particularly regarding sustainability data. ScopeX, our approach to reducing carbon on our major projects, utilizes AI to predict how a project impacts the environment. Through AI, ScopeX scours vast databases for historical patterns, providing invaluable insights. This new mode of harnessing data has ensured we can deliver truly transformative results for our clients; ScopeX enables decarbonization across all our workflows, and helps our clients progress their own NetZero agendas. 

Nicholas Jenkins-Smith: We are seeing the extraordinary potential and influence that AI will have on the full gamut of commercial creative that we offer. Some of the most exciting aspects of the technology lie in how it will revolutionize our approach to the planning, production, tracking, management and implementation of the brand experiences that we create.

 Good, simple design is the distillation of intelligence, critical thinking and discernment in an appropriate format and, while AI offers transformative tools that we can use today, it is important not to be content with being ‘masters of syntax-based image generation’, but to continue to be ‘masters of craft’. Essentially, you want ‘the sharpest tools in the box using the sharpest tools in the box’, and so for now, a hybrid model will be the difference in alleviating a sea of soulless, generative images that do not appear to possess an attachment to a brand’s story.  

 While I am excited by the prospect of using more AI in our creative work, my reservations escalate to concern with the inevitable misuse of AI technology in visuals and video content, particularly as we approach elections in the UK and U.S. There will always be ‘bad actors’ with an adverse agenda for how these tools were intended to be used and the ability to manipulate video content and mislead a voting public could undermine the very essence of democracy. Will protocols like C2PA standards be effectively implemented within AI-generated content, at scale, to safeguard against such instances? – only time will tell.

 It is imperative that we find a working balance to sensibly govern how we utilize AI in critical domains without stifling innovation and the ability for creatives to imagine a world beyond their heads, foster transparency and authenticity in our brand expression and communications. 

How is AI simplifying your creative process/business?  

HH: Simplicity is integral to our Marketing, Communications and Operations strategy—I see AI as an enabler of that simplicity.

 Our clients value our global reach and innovation, and AI will progressively play a crucial role in allowing us to focus on innovation and differentiate ourselves in an increasingly level playing field. We are a “complex integrator,” adept at combining various service offerings across industries to craft bespoke solutions for clients.  

We also recognize the need for collaboration and efficiency internally. Technology is a key enabler, and we are closely monitoring advancements in data management approaches to help simplify our ‘day-to-day’. Currently, our data is, to some extent, stored in silos across various teams, be they Finance, Sales or Marketing. We are exploring tools that can integrate these silos, ensuring a consistent approach to data and knowledge management. Microsoft Co-Pilot is noteworthy in this regard, promising to knit together multiple systems, contributing to our goal of easily accessible, consistent and high-quality data. This approach aligns with our commitment to providing a unified knowledge base for all teams, enhancing our collective market strength as a listed company. 

NJS: We are trialing a few different tools that we hope will help our clients to better-define future pathways to successful brands and enable our teams to continue to drive simplicity in our work. For example, during the Discovery phase of a project, AI tools like Otter help to reduce repetitive, ancillary tasks, freeing up more of our time in finding a brand’s compelling truth and enable us to develop simple, creative ideas more efficiently.

Platforms like Runway and Midjourney have influenced the way I might approach the composition and development of visual assets/moving images in digital spaces and the ability to train the models on a given image allows us to be exhaustive in how we manage consistency and find new creative opportunities.  

AI, in some instances has helped to augment our creative process, much like a ‘syntax-sounding board’ that can generate persona types, entire scenes and virtual environments, all while bringing our creative references to the fore. We also use AI as an ‘anti-tool’, enabling us to push our outputs beyond what has been generated and really interrogate the authenticity of what we have created.

However, saving time by generating quick ideas does not make for better ideas. We are in an interesting space with AI usage in our sector, but, to what (long-term) cost to self-expression, a sense of ownership and agency over the work. That will be determined by the creatives that wield the tools at hand.

 

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The formula for irrational love

Amid the 2022 baby formula shortage, I discovered a lifelong ally in a brand – a bit ironic, isn’t it?

My son, a hefty bundle weighing over nine pounds, arrived right in the chaos of the formula recall. Breastfeeding felt less like an option and more like the only path forward, and I dove in headfirst. From upgrading pumps to stocking up on lactation bars, if it promised a boost in supply, I was all for it. I was so committed that just a week postpartum, despite being sick with COVID, I was masked and feverish and still making sure never to miss a feeding.

The conversation around maternal mental health is louder than ever, yet still not loud enough. Conversations about postpartum depression are gaining traction, yet they often overlook the daily stresses and tolls of motherhood. When your baby arrives, you’re engulfed by their needs, bombarded by countless people trying to sell you things you’re told you need, yet there’s little guidance on how to navigate it all.

Even as an experienced mom, I was overwhelmed by the set of circumstances when my son was born. While my older daughter was a formula baby, the day I realized breastfeeding might not work for my son felt like stepping into uncharted territory. Our first hunt for formula was a reality check. Confirming all my fears, it took five stores to find a single can, our supplies always teetering on the brink.

Every day in my work, I emphasize understanding as the cornerstone of connection. For a brand to build a relationship, it must first understand its audience’s needs, feelings and circumstances.

I was incredibly frustrated by the marketing of parenting brands at that time. Formula companies inundated me with emails and social media posts, emphasizing the benefits of formula and comparing it to breast milk. While I understand this has long been a challenge for the formula industry, all I wanted to shout was, “Read the room!” I was solely focused on feeding my child. The more I got from them who didn’t recognize this, the more I felt disregarded by them.

I first learned about Bobbie from a neighbor when we urgently needed formula one night. A quick text brought a can of Bobbie to our door, easing our stress and piquing our curiosity. Initially, I was skeptical about the brand’s subscription model; it seemed too good to be true that a baby company would prioritize helpfulness over sales pitches. But the more I investigated it, the more Bobbie stood out for understanding.

The first communication I had with them wasn’t an automated, templated marketing email but a genuine message from a real person. A person who took the time to address my barrage of questions and made me feel—for the first time—that someone cared.

Bobbie went beyond being just a supplier; they became a comforting presence during a vulnerable time. Thoughtful gestures, like the care packages and fun stickers on their formula, made me feel truly understood as a fellow mom. While many brands are solely focused on pushing their agendas, Bobbie stood out by listening, responding and delivering on their customers’ needs in a way that was true to their mission.

I sincerely hope Bobbie continues to grow and evolve, staying committed to supporting families and advocating for crucial policies like universal paid family leave. I also hope they maintain their genuine approach and continue finding innovative ways to assist parents, such as creating a parents’ room at events (with amenities like a pumping area, postcards for the kids, a quiet space for a video call and speakers discussing various aspects of working parenthood from finances to bedtime routines) or developing an AI system for late-night parenting questions. Bobbie has set a high standard in my eyes, and even though my son no longer requires their current products, I’ll always remain a devoted fan.

 

Jenna Isken is Group Director, Experience.

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AI, brands and the importance of simplicity with Philip Davies

Philip Davies, President, EMEA took the stage at The Economist’s 4th annual Business Innovation Summit, “Harnessing AI: from Fear to Fortune,” to deliver a keynote address on artificial intelligence, brand building and why simple is smart.



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As M&A rebounds, ‘it all hinges upon the CMO having a seat at the table’

This article originally appeared in Digiday.

This year, dealmaking is expected to make a resurgence after a slowdown in recent years.

There’s already notable activity. Last week, Capital One announced plans to acquire Discover. Earlier this month, online sports betting company DraftKings made its plans to buy lottery games company Jackpot public. Meanwhile, Comcast and Paramount reportedly held talks about potentially combining their streaming services Peacock and Paramount+, among other deals.

“There’s a lot of pent up demand for mergers and acquisitions from C-Suites, boards and Wall Street,” said Michael Khoury, president of global branding consultancy Wolff Olins in New York. “There’s a lot of chatter that later this year and next year as the Fed lowers [interest] rates businesses are going to be increasingly looking to join up and scale up.”

As C-Suites look for growth through M&A, questions, of course emerge for marketers at those companies: What happens to the brands? Do they become one? How do you choose the name? Does one name remain while the other disappears? Do you create a new name? How do you market the new brand? To understand the M&A process and the second order effects for marketers, Digiday caught up with branding executives at brand consulting firms Wolff Olins, Siegel+Gale, Landor and Interbrand to get a rundown of the process as the M&A market begins to stir.

While the process and the length of said process varies based on the companies and the deal, typically there are a few phases that occur throughout. Ahead of an M&A announcement, C-Suite executives at the companies looking to strike a deal will enter into a due diligence period. Best case scenario, according to the brand execs, chief marketing officers have a seat at the table at this time to start running brand equity analysis studies and have a hand in the business vision and strategy conversations to get the ball rolling on what the brand will look like should the deal go through.

That said, CMOs often don’t have that influence until the next phase — after the deal has been announced. Once the news is out, the businesses with posture that deal will get regulatory approval so the job of setting the brand strategy, name and brand vision will often kick off in earnest during this phase. Brand consultancies will work with CMOs and C-Suite executives to evaluate and measure the value of a brand as well as solidify the brand strategy. The vision for the brand going forward as well as the purpose of the M&A plays a significant role in the choice for the brand identity post-M&A.

“All of that depends on what they’re trying to communicate to the marketplace with this deal,” said Jason Cieslak, President, Pacific Rim at global brand experience firm Siegel+Gale, when asked about how companies choose between two different brand identities amid M&A.

Should the deal make it through the regulatory process, the next phase will be the launch day or “legal day one,” as Andrew Miller, chief growth officer at Interbrand explained. “Sometimes, depending on the state that you are incorporated in, there are some legal requirements that you have to have in place by legal day one. … [For one brand], because they decided to do a new name, we had to accelerate the naming process and then we built the brand after, which took another couple of years.”

The length of the process varies by the deal, according to brand execs, who said that working with companies to manage the brand amid the M&A process can take three to six months between announcement and legal day one but on average it’s often a six to 12 month process to legal day one with continued brand work for the years following.

“If you’re a serial acquirer and especially if you’re a technology company, you’re buying lots of technology, maybe eight to 10 months, you’ve transitioned what you bought into something else or you’ve at least begun that transition,” said Louis Sciullo, executive director of business development, financial services and markets at Landor. “Sometimes it can take years depending on how much value there is in it and how careful you want to be around preserving that asset.”

As for the cost, that also varies by the companies and the deal. For brands with a retail presence of footprint in the world the added cost of signage often has companies taking longer to roll out the new brand identity over time to avoid dealing with the cost all at once.

“Having done lots of M&A, we’ve been privy to seeing how it works best and how it doesn’t work best, right?” said Siegel+Gale’s Cieslak. “And it all hinges upon the CMO having a seat at the table when those conversations about a deal are happening. … When marketing has a seat at the table, the the brand evolution that subsequently happens tends to be really sharp and super focused.”

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Digital innovation in hospitality makes for simpler customer experiences

This article originally appeared in The Drum.

Running a hotel business isn’t a walk in the park. The challenges of the COVID-19 years and the cost of living crisis have added fuel to the fire, bringing further layers of complexity to a beleaguered sector. The industry is rebounding, but it’s not out of the woods just yet. Despite promising signs of recovery, the sector still faces challenges related to guest experience – perhaps the most important hurdle hoteliers must keep an eye out for.

How are hospitality companies still getting it wrong? Once again, we’ve gotten down and dirty to look at how brand experience can be improved with a focus on simplicity, and we’ve crunched the numbers that matter in the latest iteration of our World’s Simplest Brands study.

Hospitality has bounced back – and has a bright future

According to our research, there’s been good improvement in the sector globally: out of 25 industries, hospitality and hotels ranked 13th in terms of the ability to deliver simple brand experiences to customers. Just two years ago, the sector was ranked 20th, reflecting the chaos of the pandemic at the time: travel bans, health and safety restrictions, and new sanitary requirements made nailing the perfect hospitality experience a moving target. It’s only natural that the sector became increasingly complex to navigate.

After the dark comes dawn, and our study shows how hoteliers have adjusted to capitalize on pent-up demand for travel. The sector made notable improvements in both the check-in and check-out experiences, through investing in mobile apps, artificial intelligence and virtual reality to help save time and cut costs. The next time you crave late-night room service, you might find yourself ordering through an always-on chatbot. These improvements were felt particularly by those 55 and older, a cohort that grew up before the digital age and tends to find technological innovations to analog processes more of a step change.

Generation Z proves a tough nut to crack for the industry

Unlike the older generations who are able to notice how the sector is progressing relative to how they traveled in the past, 18-24-year-olds provide most challenges to hoteliers. This demographic has a different stance on the world, placing importance on sustainability, unique and local experiences, and active engagement through digital platforms. Their high appetite for technology means they will tend to compare experiences across industries and have less patience for processes that lag behind. These form base-level expectations still unmet by most hotel brands.

When analyzing the guest journey for our ‘World’s Simplest Brands’ study, we found that Generation Z struggles most when planning their trip and understanding how loyalty schemes work. How can hotel brands provide focus and tailor relevant information to help streamline the planning of a new trip? I’m sure you’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of information when researching a last-minute beach getaway. We’ve all been there. Countless review sites. Inconclusive customer ratings. The fear of making a bad decision, only to let our travel buddies down again. Yes, planning can be dreadful.

Loyalty schemes are no different. Hard-to-understand policies on how to accrue points, where and how to redeem them, what to do to keep them, and when you actually get to spend them. What’s worthy of a guest’s loyalty? And how flexible can these schemes be to cater to the different needs and expectations of a wide range of guests? With so many hospitality alternatives available, achieving guest satisfaction is perhaps the biggest step towards loyalty. So before thinking of the nuts and bolts of reward programs, hotel brands should focus on winning guests’ hearts and minds first – creating memorable moments that surprise, delight and engage. All aspects of simple brand experiences.

Smart improvements win customers and boost profits

We’ve proven time and again that simplicity pays. According to our research, brands that simplify see the impact on their top line: 13% of hospitality customers are willing to pay more for a simpler experience when traveling. That means, all too often, money’s being left on the table by hotel brands.

But global juggernauts like Hilton and Hyatt are listening. Both companies made a quantum leap since our last global ranking, moving up 34 and 32 places, respectively. In Hilton’s case, the company introduced a ‘digital key’ enabling guests to bypass the front desk and select and unlock their rooms directly from their smartphones. This not only makes the check-in experience easier but also frees staff to focus on in-person interactions, further enhancing guest experience.

Simplicity in hospitality can lead to improved guest satisfaction, operational efficiency and savings. Regardless of demographic, simplicity reduces frustration and dissatisfaction for guests, contributing to hassle-free and enjoyable experiences – an essential ingredient for the long-term success of the hospitality industry.

 

Patrick Kampff is a Senior Strategy Director

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How to pick a name for your AI startup

This article originally appeared in .

What’s in a name?

A name starts the story of your company or product. A great name won’t make a lousy product soar. And a terrible name won’t necessarily drown fantastic technology. But in this world of exploding innovation in the AI industry, a great name paired with a great product will make your technology rise above.

Before naming your AI technology or company, you should consider several key factors that may help determine the right naming strategy:

Is this technology front and center with its users or powering an existing brand or experience?How early in development is your AI, and when will it be genuinely differentiated from others?Where should you be driving brand attribution and awareness long-term?Should you use “AI” in your product or company name?

Let’s start with “AI” itself. In this world of exploding innovation in the AI industry, a great name paired with a great product will make your technology rise above.

The acronym AI is used in many of the new names in the market, from established frontrunner OpenAI to Elon Musk’s newly launched xAI. This term is less likely to be a naming fad that will fade out of fashion because of its tangible nature.

“AI” will likely follow a similar trajectory with another trending tech term thanks to its tangible nature: “cloud.” At first, many naming experts feared the term would eventually sound dated and overused — but more than a decade after it began spreading as a naming word-part, “cloud” has proven it’s here to stay. It is still used in creative and descriptive product and company names (just read any tech product press release!).

Incorporating “AI” into your technology or company name can be done in a few different ways. For example, you may integrate it more creatively into your name (e.g., Clarifai, AEye). While this creates more distinctiveness and is a clever approach, it can also be tricky to create a word that is pronounceable and relevant to your value proposition.

Another option for using “AI” in your product or company name is to append the term to another word or your existing brand (e.g., OpenAI, Shield AI, SAP Business AI). This naming style is, admittedly, less distinctive but accomplishes a lot for you and your brand — signaling to your audience that you have an AI technology or an expansion of your existing brand, and they can expect to experience AI-powered features. What it lacks in creativity, it more than makes up for in clarity and brand strategy, which is often half the battle.

Should you name your AI technology something more evocative?

Whether or not to create a branded term (e.g., Bard, Lensa, Einstein) for your AI is a more complex question to answer.

Briefly put: You should create a brand for your AI if it suits your parent brand and is at the right time.

If you want your parent brand to accrue the benefit and brand equity that AI features deliver, use a descriptive name like [Parent Brand] AI. But if you want your AI to grow and evolve as a separate product and entity, you may name it something cleverer, as Google did with Bard.

However, Google’s early launch of Bard is a fitting example of the consequences of launching a creative name too early.

Google launched “Bard” as a brand when the technology was still in beta mode. The overall user reaction was that Bard is not as good as ChatGPT. It thus accrued brand attributes of not being as powerful as competitors. While still considered in beta and to be an “experiment,” the initial perception tied to the Bard name and brand will take time to shake. Google could have avoided these early negative associations if they had launched their beta mode as “Google AI” and launched the Bard name
and brand when it was more fully functional.

If you are initially launching an AI technology in beta or simply enhancing your existing features, using a more descriptive term might be wise. It tells your audiences that you’re also in the game and offering AI-related functionality, much like your competitors. However, suppose you are ready for your AI technology to be a unique and interactive user experience that might be differentiated from competitors. In that case, it might be a suitable time to consider developing a more creative or
evocative name for your AI technology.

Which path is best for you?

There is no single correct answer for everyone. Your decision on when and how to name your AI technology will be influenced by many factors.

How are you connected to or extending an existing brand or tech experience?

New technologies are often named or branded without first considering how they fit into the larger landscape of the parent company or brand context they will live within. Ask yourself: What user experience do we want to promote long-term? How can this AI technology help deliver on our parent brand’s promise to its customers? This may mean not creating fanciful naming or branding for the AI technology but instead using messaging or other marketing cues to signal the enhanced parent
brand experience because of an integrated AI.

Where do you want to drive brand attribution?

If your AI technology is a stand-alone experience and you want your users to build a relationship directly with the technology, then consider developing a unique name and brand. However, if the AI experience itself is not robust and distinct from the product experience it enhances, consider a more subtle ingredient branding approach, such as “[Product Brand] is newly enhanced with AI.”

How differentiated is your AI functionality?

Many companies will implement AI technologies to match the market trends and keep pace with their industry’s use of AI. As you get ready to implement a new AI technology in your user experience, consider whether it is on par with what competitors are doing as a baseline experience enhancement or truly differentiated from what other AI experiences offer. If the former,
there may be better opportunities for assigning a name to your AI, whereas the latter might be an opportune moment to consider branding your AI.

Where in the product life cycle are you?

As the world rushes to launch new AI products and integrate AI into existing products, another factor affecting your branding
decisions is how early in the development cycle your AI project is. If you are in the conception or development phases or planning to roll out a beta version, there may be a better time to settle on a name or branding decision. It is better to wait and launch an AI technology’s name alongside the whole product experience. Announcing an AI name or brand prematurely could lead to your users having a half-hearted reaction to its incomplete capabilities.

Whatever the case, remember these naming paths, as they tend to result in valid, tested outcomes that allow a product or technology to scale with growth (and likely eliminate the need for a costly, future rebrand). Which is right for you depends on your product’s or company’s unique circumstances.

 

Aaron Hall is Group Director, Naming

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How auto brands can transform the consumer experience

This article originally appeared in Automotive News.

In a world vying for consumers’ attention at every turn, the slightest inconvenience or misunderstanding can loosen a brand’s grasp on them. A clear, simple brand and product experience cannot be undervalued, and when 64 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for a simpler experience, every complexity is leaving money on the table. In the automotive industry, 16 percent of consumers say the same—the highest percentage of any industry, according to a recent study surveying 15,000 consumers and 25 industries worldwide.

Despite the automotive industry’s ranking as the 11th most complex industry globally, brands such as Audi, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Toyota strive toward a simpler consumer experience. These brands focus on telling a story beyond the vehicle—capitalizing on the digital ecosystem surrounding consumers’ car-buying experiences and tapping into personal moments of impact throughout the customer journey.

Audi, for example, leverages digitization to amplify the brand and streamline the customer experience across touchpoints—from marketing to point of sale to post-sale. The myAudi app is the consumers’ hub for simple vehicle data, customization options and on-demand booking to test different functions. Audi has also brought interactive moments on-site, with real-time, large-scale, 3D visualizations of vehicles and equipment from different dealership locations. Customers can also use Audi Live consultation to get expert advice from other locations. These innovations create immersive interactions with the brand that simplify consumer education, alleviating pain points.

Despite such innovations, challenges persist. In the same recent survey, customers ranked purchasing a vehicle as the most complex aspect of the consumer journey—second only to renting a car. Examining the touchpoints causing this complexity reveals a discrepancy: Engaging with the brand through hands-on experiences such as test drives and dealership visits promotes simplicity for consumers, but navigating and understanding specific features is complex.

The solution lies in merging experiential and educational moments, turning facts into feelings. There are three brand shifts companies can take to achieve this.

What is the story?

The first is to define a brand story that creates a clear thread linking your company’s purpose, the feeling your brand evokes and the way your products bring this to life—and then reinforce that story over and over. Too often in the automotive industry, brands rely on the products to tell their story, with features overshadowing benefits. Alternatively, Hyundai has defined its role as “driving progress for humanity,” connecting its vehicles’ functional benefits, such as price point, to a broader narrative of freedom. When consumers know what your brand stands for before they begin their journey to purchase, clear functional benefits become proof points for what they already know you deliver.

Ask Alexa

The second is to drive meaningful engagement, especially at consumer pain points. While consumers find simplicity and value in the dealership experience, learning about specific vehicle features from sales representatives proves to be a pain point. To solve for this, VW partnered with Amazon to offer test drives of their all-electric ID4 powered by Alexa. This allowed prospective buyers to test drive the vehicles and have their questions answered by a trusted source, Alexa. By removing the barrier of a salesperson, VW could increase test drives, optimize the customer experience and ultimately sell more vehicles. To find similar solutions, explore how experiential activations can remove barriers to make consumers’ experience with your brand seamless before, during and after purchase.

Making a connection

The third, and perhaps the most challenging because it requires the most commitment from across the business, is to create a strong connection to the brand beyond engagement. Toyota has consistently used the brand as a decision-making lens across everything it does. This has come to life through a sustained commitment to building a human-centered brand backed by quality and innovation. An example is SmartPath, a vehicle purchasing tool that lets consumers go through the entire vehicle purchasing journey, from browsing live dealer inventory to customizing pricing estimates to applying for financing in a hybrid, online or in-person experience. On top of simplifying the vehicle purchasing process, Toyota is putting the power back in the hands of the consumer, giving them more options to navigate the most complicated aspects of car buying.

There’s no shortage of factors for consumers to consider when searching for a vehicle; that journey lives on after purchase. But the steps along the way can be simplified through thoughtful brand moments. Find the intersection between the moments that reinforce your brand’s promise and the tools that simplify your consumers’ experiences. This sweet spot will engage them through the journey—and benefit your brand in the long run.

Miranda Wolf is Associate Strategy Director

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Brand promises, delivered: moments of truth

Setting the scene 

Imagine arriving at the airport, skipping the queue to check-in, being greeted warmly, and being given a free upgrade. Painlessly passing through security, boarding the plane before everyone else, a welcome drink waiting. Having an amazingly smooth flight, arriving at your destination early, and gliding through immigration—to find your suitcase has been lost. A representative from the airline chooses this moment to ask you to rate your satisfaction with the experience and you score it a zero. 

Now, imagine entering a boardroom to present your company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) alongside other customer satisfaction research. You stand up to share the figures, and this year’s score is unchanged from last year’s. You don’t have the information required to go from monitoring to management, you can’t connect the data to anything that happened in real life, and you can’t demonstrate ROI of any of your decisions to justify more investment.  

Two very relatable scenarios that both point to the importance of three things: 

Experience measurement is a means to an end, not an end unto itself. Perceptions or ratings in isolation, at a single point in time, do not always reflect the truth. Isolating the actual, real world impact that different distinct moments or touchpoints have can inform decisions and demonstrate ROI.Why does it matter? 

We know that brand is a powerful lever for transformation, growth and culture, but it’s powerless until it ‘shows up.’ How your brand is experienced is what wins you hearts, minds and loyalty. Through experience, brand shifts from an idea to a way for you to meaningfully connect with the world. 

You have to go beyond your promise to deliver a strong, positive, and memorable experience. Stand-out experiences put audiences front and center. They anticipate their needs. They deliver on and surpass their expectations in the moment. They turn a situation (like a lost piece of luggage) into a moment of connection (by offering a drink in a nice environment while they look into it and provide text updates and key essentials) so your experience is improved until a full resolution can be delivered. 

Driven by macro dynamics and technology, those needs and expectations have become increasingly critical. Business and consumer customers employ a more discerning mindset in their spending choices. A heightened sense of value-seeking drives preference, not for the least expensive option but for brands that consistently deliver on their promises. 

While where and why you show up are ever-evolving, the underlying principle of how remains the same.

Brands that deliver on their promise are winning, not just good feelings and intangibles, but in real commercial terms. Our World’s Simplest Brands Tenth Edition (WSBX) study surveys more than 15,000 respondents in nine countries and demonstrates that 64% of consumers are willing to pay more for simpler experiences. Globally, 25 industries and more than 800 brands were rated on their perceived simplicity. 78% are more likely to recommend a brand because it provides simpler experiences and communications. For WSBX, the study also explored the customer journey touchpoints within specific industries to better understand which aspects of the consumer journey are perceived to be simplest or most complex.

We don’t invent brands; we find them—more archaeology than alchemy. We believe that inherent in every brand or company is something extraordinary and unique, a truth, worth uncovering.

The second part of uncovering that promise is ensuring it’s delivered. If discovering what makes your brand compelling to your customers opens up the conversation, then delivering that competitive edge loud, proud and consistently across your customer’s journey can close it.

Take IKEA or John Lewis. Just saying the brand name is likely to bring your interactions with them to the forefront of your mind. These are hyper-empathetic businesses, obsessed with their customers, employees and partners. They are dedicated to consistently improving what and how they deliver for them and, as a result, have remained undeniably relevant as the world continues to change around them. They deliver their promise and purpose through real-world and virtual experiences in relevant and meaningful ways, making them beloved brands, category leaders and growth engines. IKEA, for example, has pioneered different ways to utilize AR—from in-store shopping to seeing furniture in your home before you buy. Leading technology not for technology’s sake but because they recognized new tools to solve the challenges and of their stakeholders in a way that is true for them. By adopting this customer-first, brand-centric approach, they can find, define and shape Moments of Truth.

Finding moments of truth

Although they remain some of the most common languages of customer loyalty, NPS, Retention Rates and Lifetime Value Measurement (LVM) do not tell us how to influence loyalty. The focus on measurement has actually come at the expense of understanding.

Metrics like NPS can be helpful as an overall summary, but if your goal is to improve it—it needs some help.

For example, following the customer journey through tools such as surveys, interviews, and/or ride-a-longs can become the foundation, then feeding this into a specialist model, we are able to not only derive the importance of each touchpoint (independent of both incidence and other touchpoints) to the NPS score but also to understand where the opportunities are to improve it.

By comparing Importance and Incidence, you can simplify a complex mesh of brand activity down to the prominent and important moments, providing a foundation for building and amplifying compelling brand signatures. Plus, you reveal the important moments that are not common and those closest aligned with your brand promise, representing opportunities for investment. By identifying and simplifying where your brand is working hardest and loyalty is being created, you can build an improved experience and focus your efforts.

Sample analysis for Private Healthcare provider

From there, you can diagnose each touchpoint’s performance through the lens of experience design. How simple or complex are we making it for the customer? How well is the moment achieving its intended purpose? To what extent is the moment positively impacting perceptions of the brand?

Your promise, delivered 

Back to the airport. We know a little bit about smooth flights. When Southwest Airlines, the US’ largest domestic carrier, approached us following a sizeable acquisition, they did so mindful that the thrill and luxury once associated with flying had been replaced by complexity and anxiety. A problem, especially when a key strategic pillar for the business was to extend their audience to target the more critical business traveler. 

Following a forensic audit of Southwest’s end-to-end customer journeys, segmented by profile and value tier, we revealed that following years of acquisition and disconnected innovation, there was little to no consistency in the experience put in front of fliers. There were over 30 different expressions of the brand identity across various channels. Fliers left to their own devices began to incorrectly assume and apply value to each of these identities. In doing so they were setting their own expectations, that Southwest was not aware of, in control of, and thus not able to deliver on. In other words, the consistencies were more than complex, they were setting Southwest up for failure. 

Using our proprietary research methodology, we analyzed 80 individual touchpoints to determine specific attributes that contributed to NPS amongst each customer segment. This analysis was cross-referenced with the incidence of each touchpoint–put plainly, how many times the brand was being served up to each segment at that given point of the journey. 

Interestingly, the most important moments for customers were all pre-departure. While Southwest was great in the skies, the experiences that provided the most value were the ones that soothed anxieties prior to take off. 

Building from the study, we generated 97 persona-based experience recommendations, stretching from the ability to change your flight in the app to an app-based in-flight entertainment to a small sign that desk agents could put out to indicate some upgrades hadn’t yet been sold. Many of these experiences have become hallmarks and profitable for Southwest beyond expectations.

Working with Siegel+Gale has allowed us to operate a complex business with extreme precision and reliability. That helps the company be more efficient with our assets and do what we say we will. —CMO, Southwest Airlines

So, what next? 

The case for investing in your brand’s experience to deliver your promise is a strong one. From a cohesive brand’s ability to garner and safeguard preference and loyalty to realizing growth benefits such as driving elevated LTV, the ability to deliver on brand with accuracy and impact really counts. 

To do that, marketeers need to consider that: 

NPS (and other traditional metrics) are not always the best tool for understanding what it is about your customers’ experience that drives loyalty. Identifying Moments of Truth is vital to increasing your ROI and competing in a crowded marketplace. Simplicity is a governing principle for distilling your brand’s promise to the moments that matter and amplifying those moments back to your customers.

Ironically, it’s hard for brand owners to talk about brand, let alone sell it in the board room. How do you make something you can neither see nor hear resonate in commercial decision-making? 

Get in touch to find out a little more about how we can help you lobby for investment in your brand’s experience, allocate it optimally and remove the guesswork by forecasting how that investment will impact your business in the long term. 

 

Ben Osborne is Head of Insights, EMEA

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In the news | World’s Simplest Brands Tenth Edition

From where they shop to how they communicate, people put a premium on experiences that are easy to understand; transparent and honest; caring for and meeting their needs; innovative and fresh; and useful. In short, simple. (To browse the full rankings by country and industry, visit worldssimplestbrands.com)



Digital innovation in hospitality makes for simpler customer experiences by Patrick Kampff, Senior Strategy Director

The Drum – February 2024

How auto brands can transform the consumer experience by Miranda Wolf, Associate Strategy Director

Automotive News – February 2024

Healthcare is complex, but patient interactions don’t have to be by Lisa Kane, Group Director, Strategy

The Drum – February 2024

Streaming services in the age of overchoice: finding clarity amidst industry complexity by Jenna Isken, Group Director, Experience

Little Black Book – January 2024

Navigating complexity is hard — talking about it doesn’t have to be by Margaret Molloy, CMO (Former)

ANA – January 2024

Simplicity: How to reverse the awful airline user experience by Amy Chen, Director, Experience

The Messenger – January 2024

Decoding the magic behind the World’s Simplest Brands with Brian Rafferty, Global Director, Business Analytics & Insights

Branding Deep Dive podcast – November 2023

Why simplicity matters in branding: The Lidl success story and global trends by Philip Davies, President, EMEA

Brands Journal – November 2023

Whole Foods, USPS, and Lyft have figured out the most overlooked secret to great branding

Fast Company – October 2023

Whole Foods is the simplest brand in the US, survey says

Morning Brew – October 2023

The Top 10 simplest and most complex brands—Whole Foods rises while X falls

AdAge – October 2023

Siegel+Gale Launches ‘World’s Simplest Brands’ Tenth Edition

Little Black Book – October 2023

Delivering simple experiences has never been more important

ANA – October 2023

Consumers Rank Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Lidl Among ‘Simplest Brands’

Progressive Grocer – October 2023

These restaurant brands are the easiest to use, consumers say

Restaurant Business – October 2023

Grocery giants Lidl and Whole Foods Market are two of the world’s simplest brands

Yahoo Finance – October 2023

Why simplifying might be the best decision you’ll ever make by Margaret Molloy, CMO (Former)

Little Black Book – October 2023

How Lidl became the world’s simplest brand by Philip Davies, President, EMEA

The Drum – October 2023

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In memoriam Gloria Siegel

We’d like to take a moment to remember Gloria Siegel, who passed away Sunday morning, February 25. Gloria was Alan’s wife, business partner and soulmate for more than 60 years. Her incisive creativity in naming so many iconic brands was surpassed only by the kindness, grace and consideration she had for everyone. Gloria represented the very best of us at Siegel+Gale, and we will miss her dearly. Our heartfelt condolences go out to Alan, daughter Stacey, son-in-law Michael and grandchildren Ruby and Leo.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the World Wildlife Fund in Gloria’s name. Gloria had a great affinity for elephants and WWF was one of the organizations she supported as they do the most work with them.

 

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