The Key To Creating A Compelling Experience

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Scott Gould

Branding used to be all about market differentiation. When I saw your logo, read your brand promise, and used your products, the idea was that I felt different about your offering than I about your competitors offering.

That’s the way it used to be.

Today, we switch on the TV, and it’s often a hard job remembering what goes with what. That car advert that was great, but was it Ford or Citroen? Look online and place two recruitment companies next to each other, and what’s the difference between them, other than the logo? Both promise me work, both claim to be specialists, and both offer me the same service.

Essentially, they are offering the same products and the same services with different wrappers.

As my friend Joe Pine says, the next economic offering is now experiences – a customised service that is so compelling, so unique, so distinct, that the customer cannot help be caught up in the experience of it. This is what consumers want (see the video about it here), because gone are the days of appealing to need, and here are the days of appealing to emotion.

This of course is all well and good but a tad unpractical, because ‘create an experience’ is not the most useful of instructions, not is is obvious what an experience is, not what the word even means for varying industries. It’s easy to know what an experience is in the realm of theme parks, but what about online shopping or publishing?

Creating An Alternate Reality

The key to creating experience is in creating an alternate reality.

The virtue of most experiences is that they are different to our normal life. Most memorable experiences were memorable because they were not regular events. It stands to reason then that if by engaging with you I experience something that is not the norm (in a good way, preferably), then I remember it – and the more compelling, innovative and relevant to me it is, the more of an experience I have.

The way that I do this is figure out what the norm is, or what “the world” is that most people are living in with the particular industry I’m focussing on. Then, I create a world where all the negatives of that don’t exist, or where the positives are accentuated. So, if I wanted to be controversial: “ScottGould.me is a world where blogs have deep discussion, in a world where most blogs have no discussion.”

More examples

Geek Squad: th:e alternate reality that they create is a world where any computer problem is no problem, in world where most computer problems are big problems.
iPod: the alternate reality that it creates is a world where music is anywhere you are, within three clicks, in a world where music is on a CD, in album, on a shelf.
Disney World: the alternate reality that it creates is a world where happiness is everywhere, in a world where happiness is not everywhere.
The River Dream Centre: the alternate reality that we create is a church that you feel at home at, in a world where most church services are alien to people.
Amazon Prime: the alternate reality that it creates is a world where you get any book in the world tomorrow, in a world where you have to wait.

Some of these are experiences that are reliant on you being at that juncture in space, time and matter, and others are not, which is why I added Amazon Prime in. We’ll get into this more in the coming weeks, but remember what we’ve already discussed about the best experiences often being the ones that you don’t experience directly, like the anticipation for a movie or Apple product release.

Next time you reasses your products and services, consider if you shouldn’t start standing out by customising them into an experience that creates an alternate reality.

Your Leading Thoughts

You might well already create alternate experience realities. I’d like to know what they are…
How do you think this translates into social media and mobile technology?

Lessons in Experience from 1000heads

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Scott Gould

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgxVsxbhYhs

If you can’t see the above video, click here, or watch it directly on YouTube.

My friend James Whatley pointed me to this exceptional peice of work that he and the team at 1000heads did for Nokia. In the video above, you see the execution of a master plan of word of mouth creation and experience planning, in which they surprise a group of Nokia fans around the world by arriving on their doorstep or flying them to London and then giving them gorgeous sports cars to drive to fulfil a challenge that involved using various Nokia products like OviMaps and their phone.

Two things to say here. First of all, I hear people slam Nokia a lot (mostly Nokia fans) for not having Apple’s marketing machine. But I don’t see Apple hiring WOM planners like 1000heads and doing incredible things like this, or this, or partnering with Like Minds, for their fans on a regular basis.

Second thing: this takes us right back to our discussions on experience and expectation management. Remember this diagram below from Managing Expectations:

Suspense Curve with Trailers and Films

If we break this video down, the trailer (the front loading of the experience) is when people get the cars in the first place. It surprises people, it delights people, it’s completely unexpected. But what it now creates is suspense.

Suspense is the experience of anticipating an experience, and when you create one great experience, people will begin expecting another.

The real beauty of this video and work by 1000heads is not the cars at the beginning, it’s the fact that they exceed the expectations and deliver a better experience after that.

To put this into a metaphor, as per the diagram above, the film was better than the trailer.

Expectation Management for Event Planners

Here’s a quick note to the hash of people creating events around the world: you need to understand suspense and how to front/back load your experience to make sure that your marketing doesn’t exceed your delivery. I’d have you start by reading about the Expectation Pyramid, and then the Basics of Expectation Management.

If I was in a fighting mood I could list event after event where it sounded and looked far better than it actually was. The days of these hacks getting away with this won’t last much longer in my opinion.

Your Leading Thoughts

If we were talking about a purely digital experience, when have you had your expectations exceeded?
What can we draw from that experience to learn more about digital suspense?

How Apple Created a New Level of ‘New’ with the iPad

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Scott Gould

We all know that Apple’s marketing and buzz machine is one of the best in the world. So when the iPad was announced, there was every expectation that there’d be the same buzz as always: some people love it, some people hate it, but for sure, everyone is talking about it.

There’s only one problem with Apple’s model, and it’s an issue of anticipation and expectation. Namely, it is this:

Apple do such a good job of hyping and showing the new thing off, that when I get my hands on the new thing, nothing is new anymore.

You know what I mean here. I remember touching the iPhone for the first time, and as cool as it was, the demonstrations on the website had done such a good job of showing the device to me, that physically holding it had little new about it. Continue reading →

Wax On, Wax Off: Headfake Marketing, Without Marketing

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Scott Gould

Jim offers a great idea. He knows it’s good, but unfortunately a lot of people just don’t quite get it and therefore aren’t buying it. Jim is frustrated day after day when he sees how his ideas could be used by people in his community, but because he can’t communicate it, and because the community aren’t sure of him, his idea isn’t selling.

One day, Jim decides to stop trying to market his idea, and instead decides to show his idea in action. Rather than trying to promote his idea, he lets uses his idea to promote an entirely different idea altogether. The result is that in doing so, people got to see Jim’s idea in action.

Ok, so Jim is Me.

In fact, Jim is a lot of people. Headfake marketing – the method of using one thing to teach another thing – is as old as, well, the Karate Kid. Remember Mr. Miyagi teaching his young student to ‘wax on, wax off’? By teaching him how to clean windows, Daniel actually learns to block punches. We can use the same techniques today when articulating the ideas that we have.

This mechanism is used a lot in sales. When people ‘sell through’ rather than ‘sell to’, they are pulling a mild form of this (you know, the old “You might know someone who needs this”, rather than saying “You need this” trick.) Or how about getting kids to eat food by pretending it’s a plane flying into a tunnel?

The headfake above means you are selling to someone while giving them a safe way to exit, which is generally more pleasant. But there’s more to it than that.

How To Wax On, Wax Off

The reason why you have to pull a headfake is because, unfortunately, when people are too familiar with you they often won’t learn from you. That’s why Jim (and the rest of us) get annoyed when people suddenly ‘get it’ when someone says what we’ve been saying for ages already. So here’s how to start going about it:

You need to create some kind of distance, or magic curtain. You can’t let people see how you put it together, because that breaks the transformational effect when they see what you’ve done that finally shocks people into admiring what you do. Remember when Daniel realises that ‘Wax On, Wax Off’ was the actual moves? Thats the transformation you want.
Transfer your passion into the headfake. If you’ve ever visited HSBCreviews.com, you’ve seen the headfake in action. The lesson we learn from thrudigital here is that the headfake needs to be around a passion or a pain in order to provoke emotion. It can’t be bland, else people don’t get it, and don’t want it.
Make the headfake a mindshift. Do it to such a high standard that people are hungry for the next thing you have. You can do this most powerfully by making mantra and creating a phrase that people start using. If everyone in your proximity is using your language, then you are the master of that language, and can do with it as you will (just don’t abuse it.)
Tell stories. This makes it memorable. People forget what was said but they remember what they felt, and stories create feeling because we use our imagination to put ourselves in the story, rather than passively just listening.
Followup with by packaging the idea to take home. After the headfake (if you do it well), people will want you idea. You need to have a simple, clear packaged idea that they can take home with them. After you’ve worked so hard to make your idea clear, don’t make it unclear again with your amorphous mist of services. Present a clear, packaged productised idea for taking home.
Convert it. You have to master it, close the deal, and convert the headfake into your idea. This can be uncomfortable, but people are hungry for it. If people are complimenting you, then you need to just decide to have the confidence and go – stop worrying over whether people will buy into your idea or not – and stop waiting for people to come to you.

A Living Example

Randy Pausch carries out his famous last lecture here on the subject of “Achieving your Childhood Dreams.” What follows is an hour discussion on headfakes, before the final revelation that the whole talk is a headfake itself. It has passion, the magic curtain, stories, mindshifts, language and wholly converts the headfake into the idea.

Watch it here.

Your Headfakes

I want to hear about the headfakes that you’ve pulled, and the best ones that you know of. Let’s get a list going in the comments.

Photo with thanks to tico24.

The Basics Of Expectation Management

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Scott Gould

Yesterday we went through The Pyramid Of Expectation, and understanding how providing compelling experiences (or failing and providing awful ones) is based on your ability to meet expectations. In actual fact, we discussed that it’s no longer enough to meet customer’s expectations (this is merely customer satisfaction), you have to move into the arena of exceeding expectations (which is customer surprise.)

Today I’m going to layout how to go beyond even exceeding expectations and begin to get into the realm of managing expectations. This is ultimately your ability to control what people expect from you – and controlling those expectations means you are able to exceed them every time.

Pyramid of Expectation So first, to refresh your memory and provide a frame of reference, here’s the diagram from yesterday. When it comes to managing expectations, we can do it on all these levels, as we went through. If you under promise and over deliver, you will give customer surprise. It’s a hack job, but you’ll do it. What we need, though, is something more than this, and something which has more sustainability and long term strategy – and we find it is in customer suspense where expectation management really flourishes. Continue reading →

How Apple Creates Suspense, Why Satisfaction Doesn’t Matter, and A Lesson From Star Wars

Posted on January 12, 2010 by Scott Gould

I spoke a while ago on the idea of what I’m calling ‘brand mystery’ – we looked at JJ Abrams’ TED Talk and Lost, and how he tells a story by suspense. He never provides the complete picture, and this is what keeps you hooked. This is contrary to what one copywriter thought when he said “every advertisiement should tell the complete story” – to which I wholeheartedly disagree. Discovering a brand, and unravelling its mysteries, is such a rich experience (and one that I’ve been enjoy since childhood) that it ties you emotionally into it for years to come. Continue reading →

Sucker For A Story. A Bigger Sucker For A Mystery

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Scott Gould

This image enthrals me. Why? Because it doesn’t just tell a story. It also doesn’t tell the story: are these two people talking, or have they just met? What are they meeting for? What is that moon-like thing? What does this image mean and stand for? By mentally filling in the gaps, I look at this longer than I would at an image that told the whole story.

I’m sucker for a story. I’m the type of guy who watches the trailer, and wants to watch the film just to find out what happens. Hence I often save myself money by jumping on Wikipedia. I just have to find out what happens, to the point that I almost don’t care about the acting and special effects.

But I’m a bigger sucker for a mystery – and I think that really, that’s just what a good story is full of – continual mysteries, twists and nuances that when you discover and work out what they are, provide an incredible sense of satisfaction. No wonder that Lost is so engaging – it’s so full of mysteries that you just have to know the answers too – and it keeps you hooked week in, week out. Continue reading →