Valuable learnings from the 2011 book,

What do you think is harder:  generating a supply of new products or generating demand for those products?  Given the large numbers of great new products introduced every year, and the much lower number that achieve their year-one and year-two sales goals, demand appears to be the greater challenge.  If you need to raise demand for your brand (and who doesn’t?), check out this highly readable book.  It provides six steps to help you open up the demand floodgates, illustrating each step with case studies from brands like Amazon Kindle, Zipcar, Netflix, and Nespresso.

The book starts with one simple fact – that there are usually significant gaps between what people buy and what they really want – and shows ways to use those gaps as the springboard to design products that create new consumer demand.

Here’s a quick overview of the six steps that are key to “opening the taps” of the consumer demand pipeline:

1)   Make it Magnetic. Keep developing the idea until it generates excitement among consumers and an irresistible desire to have it.  Great functional design contributes to magnetism; in fact, the emotional appeal is partly created by the beauty and functionality of the design.  It’s not the first mover who wins the race, but the first to create and capture the emotional space. Slywotsky wisely reminds us of a remarkable truth about demand and human nature:  We let little things govern big decisions. Zipcar’s research showed that they could unlock significant incremental demand by reducing the distance from a customer’s home to an available car from 10 minutes to 5 minutes – just 5 minutes made a big difference in the number of people willing to sign up for the service, despite the fact that Zipcar usage saves their urban customers thousands of dollars per year.

2)   Fix the Hassle Map. Map out every way in which your current product is less than 100% easy to buy and use – rooting out those characteristics of your product that waste your consumer’s time, money, and energy – and then figure out how to eliminate those hassle factors.   For example, Netflix experimented with many versions of their mailing envelope until they came up with the best design to turnaround movies within 48 hours.

3)   Build a Complete Back Story (the supporting infrastructure).  The Sony eReader initially failed in Japan because it didn’t have the right supporting infrastructure:  they didn’t make enough books available, and the device required a PC and connecting cable to acquire new books.  In contrast, the Amazon Kindle’s wireless connectivity gives users anywhere/anytime access to a huge selection of books.

4)   Find the Triggers. The trigger is that product’s feature or benefit that converts interest to purchase.  Ask yourself:  what does my product do so obviously well that it will cause consumers to tell their friends about it?  To find a trigger, talk to people who’ve bought similar products and find out what really satisfied or dissatisfied them about those products, and what they get emotional about.  When you discover a problem, you discover a new source of demand.  For example, Nespresso triggered demand by redesigning its espresso machine to better align with consumer emotions about espresso, with TV ads that vividly demonstrated the elegance of the machine.

5)  Build a Steep Trajectory. Your brand’s trajectory is the rate of product improvements and extensions after its initial release.  You have to keep investing in innovation to make current customers happier, attract more new customers, and deter more competitors.  Take a “yes, and” or “plussing” approach to keep building on your core concept.   This is evident in both the Amazon and Nespresso product lines.

6)  De-Average the Market. If you have a high rate of customer churn (or low satisfaction and recommendation scores), consider that you may need to de-average the market.  Your product may have too many features (and thus too high a price) for some people, and not enough features for others, pleasing none.  Breakdown your customers into sub-groups and refine your offering for each.  Zipcar, for example, has expanded their service from urban individuals by targeting new groups:  corporations and university students.

The book’s bottom line:  Don’t take a “lottery” approach to innovation, i.e., focusing on the quantity of launches.  Instead think quality and use these guidelines to refine your product or service until the floodgates of demand fly open.

Action Steps for Marketers:

1. Create the Hassle Map for your brand/category, relative to your competitors.  Where could you unlock demand by eliminating these hassles?
2. Consider your Brand Trajectory.  Do you have a process for introducing continuous improvements and extensions?

When it comes to shopping for baby products, moms have great online and offline choices.  This article will focus on the leading specialty retailers — Babies”R”Us and Buy Buy Baby — but we can’t forget that they face off against mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart and Target as well as online-only retailers like Amazon.  And no discussion about kids’ products in America could be complete without mentioning Disney.  So … how are the baby experts reinventing the baby products shopping experience?

Babies”R”Us:  The Mainstream Mega-Store

Stores. Babies”R”Us is the nation’s leading retailer specializing in baby products, with their first store opened in 1996 and their website launched in June, 2000.  They aim to provide a unique value to shoppers by carrying a variety of popular name brands from Evenflo to Peg-Perego, plus store-brand, value-priced necessities like food and diapers and chain-exclusive offerings such as the new Truly Scrumptious by Heidi Klum line of “affordable luxuries for little ones”, including apparel and room decor.

Website. Their website encourages browsing and buying via options like the Top Rated section, which lets you scan items top-rated by moms.  Their solutions focused Grandparents’ Corner helps the grands prepare for baby visits with a selection of items for baby’s “home away from home,” suggestions for craft projects to do with the little ones (sponsored by Crayola), and of course a full selection of toys and gifts organized by age, gender, price, and favorite cartoon character.  Hot deals are prominently featured in the top half of the home page.

Promotions. Babies”R”Us “takes the cake” when it comes to loyalty building promotions.  For example, sign up for Geoffrey’s Birthday Club and your child will receive a birthday card and gift every year through age 10; and there’s a whole Birthdays”R”Us set of web pages to help with party planning.  For everyday savings, there are a Rewards R Us program; the VIB (Very Important Baby) reloadable debit card which gives a 10% savings on essentials like diapers and food; and a prominent CLEARANCE section on their website.  Overall, their website maintains the fun feel that you’d expect from the Toys”R”Us legacy.

Buy Buy Baby:  The Upscale Upstart

Stores. Fans of parent company Bed Bath & Beyond (BB&B) seem to love Buy Buy Baby (BBB), citing its high quality products and customer service.   Though their store count (64) makes them only a fourth the size of Babies”R”Us (260 stores), that’s a big expansion from the 8 stores they had back in 2007 when they were acquired by BB&B.  Buy Buy Baby stores look very similar to BB&B stores, with ceiling-high vertical product displays organized into “boutiques” by product type,  a seasonal products section right upfront, and lots of carefully selected impulse items attractively displayed near the check-out.  While Buy Buy Baby carries many brands in common with other retailers, their strategy is to be more upscale than their competition, in particular keeping more ultra high-end items in stock ($1,000 stroller, anyone?).  Managers receive product training so they can help parents select the best stroller or car seat, a further point of differentiation from other retailers.  Completing their premium image, stores feature a lot of organic products, have a free gift wrapping station, and even have a private feeding room for moms’ use.  Further showing their concern for moms, BBB has partnered with HealthyWomen.Org to provide trustworthy health & wellness advice specific to pregnancy and other women’s health issues.

Website. In sharp contrast to the more value-oriented features of the Babies R Us website, BBB’s website features links for Special Occasions (leading you to a $129 French lace christening gown), Seasonal products (such as a $69 play pool for summer), and Mom & Dad (mostly mom, with items like a $78 skincare giftset from upscale brand basq).

Promotions. BBB sends out coupons to their customer mailing list only about every three months – and they ask for a lot of information to join, including the age and gender of children you’re buying for — but those exclusive offers are reputed to be high value ($5 off or 20% off).  This exclusivity and limited distribution is helping BBB create a valuable list of motivated customers.

Disney Baby:  The Latest from Mickey to Mom

Disney Baby is a line of licensed products launched in February, 2011.  It is being introduced to new moms in hundreds of hospitals nationwide via an arrangement with Our365, a business that pays hospitals for exclusive access to sell bedside baby pictures and simultaneously promote products for their clients.   A representative visits a new mother and offers a free Disney Cuddly Bodysuit, a variation of the classic Onesie.  In bedside demonstrations, the bilingual representatives extol the product’s bells and whistles — extra soft! durable! better sizing! — and ask mothers to sign up for e-mail alerts.  Top manufacturers licensed to produce Disney Baby products include Beech-Nut foods baby foods, Graco furniture, Huggies diapers, Method handwash, and NUK pacifiers.  Disney Baby products can be purchased at the baby specialty retailers as well as Amazon, Target, and other retailers.

Take-Aways for Marketers:

1. Make it easy for your target shoppers – and their loved ones – to buy appropriately positioned products. Both baby specialty retailers offer gift registries and online wish lists, but each site is uniquely customized to their respective target audiences.

1. Differentiate and add value for your shoppers through carefully selected brand partnerships.  Follow the baby retailers’ example of partnering with names moms will recognize, like Heidi Klum, Disney, and Crayola. 

1. How much innovation can you handle? Prior to diving into an innovation project, it’s important to clarify to your team, and to yourself, if you are looking for incremental or disruptive innovation solutions. If you are in the chocolate business, for example, an incremental innovation would be a new flavor (a chocolate bar filled with strawberry cream) or a new product form (chocolate sticks instead of chocolate bars). A disruptive innovation, on the other hand, would be a much more radical departure from your current product offering. In our chocolate business example, an actual disruptive innovation, which launched a few years ago, is Le Whif Chocolate – a breathable chocolate product that is meant to be inhaled, not eaten. Knowing how far along the innovation continuum you’re willing to take your brand will help you and your team focus better and produce more actionable ideas.

2. Are you going after a new or an established consumer? Before you begin brainstorming or any other innovation work, make sure you know whom the new product is meant for. Targeting your traditional consumer would be the default. Sometimes, however, you may decide it’s time to stretch your brand and go after a new consumer segment. One such example is Dove skin care, a brand known for celebrating women’s natural beauty, and which launched a skin care line for men in 2010. Don’t wait to see where the innovation project will take you – instead, let your choice of consumer segment determine the direction.

3. Are you satisfying a new or an old consumer need? Do you know what consumer need your new product will cater to? You should. Much like the choice of a consumer segment, you may decide to go after the consumer need your brand has been traditionally linked to, or venture into a new need-state territory. Be careful though. Brands are often defined by the need they meet. Snickers is hunger satisfaction. Volvo is safety. Gatorade is athletic performance. Should you choose to innovate around a new consumer need, make sure it’s compatible with the one your brand has been satisfying, and be open to introducing a sub-brand.

Innovation is a way to look at your brand with fresh eyes and to entertain new ideas. Some ideas will add more meaning to your brand while others may compromise your brand equity. As a Brand manager and keeper of everything your brand has achieved and everything it means to your current consumers, you know best where to draw the line.

Take-Aways for Marketers:

1. Understand the role and desired outcome of innovation prior to initiating a project.
2. Consider, discuss and come to a definitive answer to these 3 questions.

Before we look 40 years into the future, let’s look back 40 years to see what’s changed about the face of aging, to get some ideas for what new issues we might face 40 years from now.

Past. In the 1970s, Americans over age 65 enjoyed more financial security than ever before, thanks in large measure to the benefits of Social Security income and Medicare health insurance — often supplemented by employer-provided pension plans and health insurance — along with other support programs stemming from the 1965 Older Americans Act.  But physical disability was on the rise among older people, as there were few good treatment options for many of their serious medical issues.

Present. Thanks to improved pharmaceuticals, better diet and exercise practices, and other medical interventions, the rate of physical and mental disability among the elderly has generally been reduced — though the larger population of adults over 65 (due to increased longevity) means the absolute number of disabled individuals is still rising.  However, there is concern that rising obesity levels may create a new threat, as obesity increases the risk of disability from diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and some forms of cancer.

Future. Scientists are already developing more and better tests to identify those at risk of different types of disability, as well as studying the best ways to prevent and treat these conditions.  For example, to predict the onset of physical mobility limitations, researchers have identified markers such as grip strength, walking speed, lung function, and levels of the protein IL-6 in the blood.  Scientists are also studying the effects of exercise intervention to prevent mobility disability and of social engagement intervention to improve both mental and physical health.  But some areas remain underfunded; for example, experts predict an increasing incidence of neurological disorders in the coming years, as dementia afflicts about 5% of those age 71-79 and 24% of those age 80-89.

Innovation Opportunities. One of the greatest challenges for age-related innovation is convincing consumers to take preventive actions, the benefits of which are in the future and thus are hard to see and measure.  Any marketing initiatives need to include a strategy to help consumers perceive some kind of measurable benefit.

Self-testing. This represents a great area of opportunity, to identify risk factors in time to take preventive or at least remedial action.  As a nation, we’ve already grown comfortable with self-diagnosis and self-monitoring of conditions ranging from pregnancy to high blood pressure.  And aging Baby Boomers are expected to be sophisticated consumers of healthcare.  There are myriad age-related health issues for which self-testing and/or self-monitoring systems could be created.  Self-testing can also take many forms:  a single-purpose device.  A blood pressure meter, a multi-purpose device that could be expanded via add-on modules, blood tests by mail, in-store kiosks.  The Dr. Scholl’s Custom Fit Orthotics Center, or even a video game like the Wii Fit Body Test.  Manufacturers could further encourage aging consumers to self-test with positive marketing messages like “the sooner you test, the healthier you’ll stay.”   Pharmacies and other retailers can obviously play a role here as well; notably, Sam’s Club now offers free brain-health screenings along.  Offering a full-circle solution of testing, preventive/remedial product or service delivery, and follow-up monitoring could help to reinforce the value delivered.

Nutritional supplements and fortified foods. These offer another sizable area of opportunity.  We’ve already seen waves of supplements geared toward specific age-related health issues such as heart and joint health from brands like Centrum and Flex-a-min, but there is plenty of room for further development and refinement.

Tools and technologies that support aging-in-place. Like their parents, Boomers also have a strong desire to remain independent while living in their own homes.  “Tele-medicine” — leveraging videoconferencing and wireless monitoring devices  liked the MedMinder electronic pillbox — will allow health professionals to remotely monitor patients in their homes to ensure compliance with prescribed health regimens.  Computer-controlled “smart homes” with motion sensors and other passive monitoring systems will help impaired individuals maintain a greater sense of independence while reducing the need for expensive round-the-clock nursing care.  Research is even being conducted to develop automated systems for monitoring speech and email to detect cognitive decline.

Universal Design. Lastly, all manufacturers should be thinking about designing a product to be usable by the broadest possible spectrum of users:  young and old, male and female, and those with special needs such as reduced vision or dexterity.  For example, OXO Good Grips kitchen utensils — originally conceived for a woman with mild arthritis in her hands – can now be found widely in American homes because they are so comfortable to use.

Take-Aways for Marketers

1. Consider Sarasota as a test market for new products or packaging aimed at seniors.  Another similar resource to consider is the Orcatech Living Laboratory in Portland, Oregon.
2. Seek out partnerships with or endorsements from leading government agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) who are leading efforts to address the issues of aging, such as the National Institute on Aging, the Administration on Aging, or the AARP.

Whether you need to enhance the value proposition of an existing product or market a brand new one, try exploring the range of wellness expressions for new ideas.  Consider these examples of brands that have successfully and profitably made a connection with a particular aspect of wellness, either as the core brand promise or as a secondary mission.

Physical wellness is more than the absence of disease or disability; it encompasses personal responsibility for all choices that affect your bodily health, from wearing a seatbelt in cars to exercising and eating a healthy diet to appropriate use of the health care system.  Many food brands include physical wellness as part of their value proposition by promising to help us maintain the health of our heart, digestive system, weight, and so on.  In a more unusual example, Goodnighties sleepwear is made from fabric treated with negatively charged ions and promises to neutralize body stress and promote better sleep.

Intellectual wellness requires lifelong learning, creativity, and problem solving. As our population ages, finding ways to maintain our mental acuity is a growing concern.  Activities from video games to weight training are being touted as beneficial for intellectual wellness. Dietary supplements like Focus Factor and Procera AVH have successfully tapped into our desire for intellectual wellness by promising to help you concentrate longer and focus better.

Spiritual wellness means that you’ve developed a personal set of deeply-held values and beliefs, and that you are able to act purposefully in harmony with those values.  One company that includes spiritual wellness as part of their corporate mission is Hobby Lobby, a U.S. arts and crafts retail chain.  Their stores play mainly Christian music, carry a variety of Christian-themed products, and are closed on Sundays.  The chain also buys full-page newspaper ads to publish Christian messages on major holidays, partners with other organizations for evangelization efforts, and contributes over 10% of after-tax profits to Christian ministries.  Faith-affiliated schools and retirement homes, kosher and halal foods, and yoga studios are other examples of products and services that make spiritual wellness part of their value proposition.

Emotional wellness means that you’re able to recognize and manage your own feelings, cope with stress, and enjoy your life.  Products that promise to help you relax are abundant, from mass-market bath salts to high-end spa resorts.  For years we’ve turned to energy drinks like Red Bull to boost us up, and now there is also a growth market for relaxation drinks like Vacation in a Bottle, Just Chill, and Drank to soothe our stress.

Social wellness means having good, meaningful relationships with other people; it includes having a support network of close family and friends and also contributing to the broader community. .Shared traditions –the special ways we celebrate holy days, national holidays, births, and marriages – play a key role in social wellness.  Pillsbury refrigerated dough is a great example of a brand that emphasizes the building of family connections and memories. For May, their cookie page declares, “Sweet moments with the family is a happy Mother’s Day for all!  Pop premade Pillsbury®Holiday Shape® Cookies in the oven and make time for more memories!” Hallmark is another brand that promotes social connectivity through greeting cards.  For May, they remind us that “every mother has something she needs to hear.” They encourage us to tell our moms how they’ve inspired us and lifted our spirits, and promise that, by making this effort, we will make her day.

Financial/Occupational wellness means having work that is both personally satisfying and that provides sufficient income that we’re confident in our ability to meet our financial needs.  Brands can appeal to our need for financial wellness with a “low price” strategy like Walmart, or a “protect your assets” strategy like Allstate.

Environmental wellness requires that we live in clean, unpolluted surroundings, from our home to our town to the whole planet and atmosphere.  How many brands (especially those owned by a global giant like Unilever) have a top-of-home-page link titled ACTIVISM and a genuine reputation among consumers for their respect for the environment? Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is one notable example, acting out their mission through initiatives such as more earth-friendly freezers and buying paper from suppliers that practice sustainable forestry.  Aveda, a maker of hair and beauty products, is also well-known for their mission of caring for the earth.  “Green” isn’t the primary brand promise (tasty treats and good looks are), but it helps differentiate these brands in a crowded marketplace and creates a powerful emotional connection with LOHAS consumers (those practicing Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability).  Brands like Seventh Generation take it a step further, putting “good for the earth” at the forefront of their brand promise.  Implicitly, these brands are communicating that “good for the earth” is also “good for your personal wellness.”

These are just a few examples of the ways to connect brands to consumer wellness.  Now it’s your turn to apply the Wellness Wheel to your brand.

Take-Aways for Marketers

1. Ideation. Use the full range of wellness expressions as a jumping-off point for a marketing ideation session to make sure you consider all the ways in which your brand might contribute to consumer wellness.
2. Competitive Assessment. Use the alternative notions of wellness when evaluating your brand’s strengths relative to competitors. For example, how well does each brand communicate its environmental attributes, and how could they strengthen their emotional connection with consumers using these attributes?
3. Marketing Tactics. Look for partnerships or endorsements related to a specific aspect of wellness, to strengthen the consumer’s perception that your brand cares about and delivers on this, and to give you a needed point of differentiation where appropriate.

Sephora: Trusted Advisor for Fashionistas

Traditionally, Americans have shopped for high-end, or prestige, cosmetics and fragrances at department stores like Macy’s, but when Sephora entered the U.S. market in 1998, they completely reinvented the prestige cosmetics shopping experience.  They now have over 500 locations in the U.S. and significant market share.

In the traditional department store, each brand is isolated at a separate service counter, staffed by a salesperson who only sells that brand, and all products are stocked in closed cases.  This creates a rather high-pressure selling environment, can lead to long waits for service, and makes it very difficult to explore and experiment across brands.

In contrast, Sephora has a low-pressure environment which encourages exploration and experimentation.  Open shelving allows Sephora shoppers to touch, smell, and apply any product.  Sales staff are trained to probe for the shopper’s needs and then recommend appropriate items from any of the 250 brands they carry (including some “exclusively at Sephora” lines).   Their newest New York store even features a mobile payment system so that staff can process customer payments on the store floor (skipping the checkout counter, the least enjoyable part of the store experience for most shoppers), as well as in-store iPads that allow shoppers to scan QR codes to access product information, ratings, and reviews (see also: Using QR codes To Speed Customers Through the Purchase Decision Process).

Once consumers experience the freedom of Sephora’s open selling environment, they are reluctant to return to the restrictive department store environment.  

In combination with their open selling environment, Sephora aims to be a trusted advisor to prestige beauty consumers, who like to keep up with the latest fashion trends, and that is evident in every aspect of their stores, website, and marketing.

In-Store. Just like department stores, Sephora staff will demonstrate the use of specific products, but they go above and beyond this basic sales tactic.  For example, Sephora stores also offer free 10-minute Express Services – a makeup application and mini-lesson on how to achieve the season’s most coveted looks, such as a pouty lip or smoky eye – as well as 60-minute makeup sessions with a minimum purchase.  Larger stores regularly offer special events featuring consultations with visiting industry and brand experts.

On the Web. The Sephora website builds on the advisory approach of the stores in several ways.  For example, when you look at the Sephora website, the home page features the Latest Looks and Editor’s Picks.  If you choose to shop by brand name, you won’t just see a list of items, but two types of recommendations:   “Are you new to the brand?  Make these products your introduction.” and “Must-Haves – Your Perennial Favorites.”  Sephora is also ranked a leader among prestige brands in the fast-growing area of mobile marketing and shopping.

Marketing. Sephora encourages shoppers to join their Beauty Insider rewards program.  Shoppers collect points with every purchase (which can be redeemed for designated items) and also receive a special gift on their birthday.  Twice-weekly emails and social media posts feature the latest beauty trends with links to instructions and products; recent emails featured Spring 2012 Trends, Hot Now products, enticing luxuries and helpful solution-sets.  Specials are designed to both entice and inform.  They are typically presented as “$8 (a $30 value)” or as a gift with purchase, with product benefits and quality clearly prioritized over price.  Again, all of these elements combine to reinforce Sephora’s image as a trusted advisor and provider of exclusive, top-tier products and the latest cosmetic innovations.

Ulta:  A Candy Store for Women

Ulta aims to bring a unique value to their shoppers by providing one-stop shopping for a wide range of prestige and mass market beauty products, along with lots of money-saving deals to help shoppers feel they are being smart spenders.  Their success at delivering “affordable indulgence” is evident in their numbers:  nearly 400 U.S. stores, annual sales of nearly $1.5 billion, and 20% annual growth from 2006-2010.

Products. Ulta is the only U.S. retailer which offers a full range of beauty products that includes both mass and prestige brands.  They carry many of the same prestige brands as Sephora, but also a complete selection of mass-market brands.  This enables consumers to trade up and down between price-points without the hassle of shopping multiple stores to find their favorite beauty products at prices that feel smart.  In addition, shoppers can immerse themselves in Ulta’s enormous product assortment, which is seeded with “testers” to encourage interaction, offering shoppers both an escape and entertainment.

Stores. While Ulta store staff are not as numerous and highly trained as Sephora staff, they are a big step above the drug/mass stores which offer no shopping assistance.   Ulta stores uniquely have in-store beauty salons offering hair styling, skin treatments and, most recently, gel manicures as well as Benefit Brow Bars where you can get your eyebrows waxed and shaped.   Unlike the typical salon which only offers one brand of products, Ulta offers a full range of products to help you replicate your salon style at home.

On the Web. When you visit Ulta’s website, you’ll be hit with lots of money-saving specials first, with product benefits and fashion trends second.  It’s a “something for everyone” candy store, versus Sephora’s more selective advisory approach.  Ulta partners with mainstream magazines like Glamour and Lucky for fashion trend reporting, reinforcing their image as inspirational yet approachable.

Marketing. Ulta’s shopper rewards program has over 8 million active members who collect points (redeemable for selected products) and receive special offers via twice-weekly emails.  Loyalty member transactions represent more than 50% of their annual sales.  Weekly specials focus on cost-savings for the consumer while driving traffic and volume for the retailer.  Typical deals are coupons good for $3.50 off any $10 purchase and buy two, get one free specials on hair care products.

Take-Aways for Marketers:

1. Remove Shopping Barriers.  Sephora draws prestige brand buyers away from the traditional department stores simply by eliminating key “hassle factors” like long wait times for service, the difficulty of shopping across brands, and the high-pressure sales staff who control access to the products.  Make it more fun to shop, and more shoppers will come.  What hassle factors can you remove to increase your sales?
2. Differentiate Through Partnerships.  Follow Ulta’s example in partnering with magazines (or blogs, or special-interest organizations) relevant to your brand and your consumers.  How can you differentiate and strengthen your brand image through partnerships?
3. Leverage the Power of Touch. Neuromarketing expert Martin Lindstrom reports that “the more sensory impressions a brand conveys, the more likely we are to remember it.”  Both Sephora and Ulta leverage this insight by giving shoppers multiple ways to interact with their products, including open shelving, testers, samples, and demonstrations.  How can you make your brand more touchable by consumers?

Actionable marketing tips from neuromarketing expert Martin Lindstrom’s new book, Brandwashed.

Brandwashed purports to reveal the ways in which marketers manipulate consumers into buying more.  But it also gives us several good ideas for upping the effectiveness of our own marketing communications.  Based on Lindstrom’s extensive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and observational research on how our brains respond to various images and messages, this book recommends several powerful ways to tap consumer demand, including appeals to fear, love, nostalgia, and peer approval.

How does it work?  When these emotions are triggered, our brains release “feel good” chemicals.  When we encounter these emotional triggers in combination with a branded product, our brains form a positive association:  get brand, get good feeling.  We want more of that good feeling, so we desire more of that brand.  And since the human brain is the result of millions of years of evolution, it reacts pretty consistently to these triggers, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or other individual characteristics – so a great campaign idea can be effectively extended to multiple target audiences.

Fear. Whether it’s fear of death, disease, poverty, or social isolation, fear is a powerful motivator.  Further, by uniting us against a common enemy, fear brings us together.  We actually enjoy spreading news about possible dangers.  Just think about how often we talk about infectious diseases and germophobia.  Examples of brands that have effectively connected to the fear trigger to drive sales:  Allstate’s Mayhem campaign and Lysol disinfectant’s campaign against the flu virus.   Is there some deep-seated fear that your brand can assuage?

Love. Perhaps “strong attachment” might be a better term than “love” to describe our cravings for certain products, yet an fMRI study showed that the brain response of iPhone users to their iPhone ring was quite similar to a feeling of love.  To paraphrase from the book:  “After 5 to 8 hours of network deprivation – also known as sleep – people are increasingly checking their smartphones immediately upon waking, even before getting out of bed or attending to biological needs.  When we get a new email or text, our brains release a shot of ‘feel good’ chemicals, and we associate that pleasurable feeling with the act of checking our phone.”  Thus, says Lindstrom, smartphone usage creates a powerful positive associative memory which causes us to crave that activity again.  What sensory aspect of your brand (the look, feel, scent, sound, taste) triggers this kind of attachment and pleasurable feeling?

Nostalgia. Humans are prone to nostalgic yearnings because, scientifically, basking in memories elevates our mood, increases our self-esteem, and strengthens relationships.  In particular, we seem to derive the most pleasure from our first experience of something (e.g., your mom’s cookies), and our brains seem wired to recall past experiences as being even better than they actually were (e.g., family holidays, vacations, bar-hopping with friends).  Now think about the benefit of getting consumers to connect your brand with one of those pleasurable past experiences.  When reminded of that special moment in time, they’ll remember your brand, and vice versa, thereby boosting consumer attachment to your brand.  Examples of brands who’ve done this successfully:  the Vicks VapoRub memory of mom taking care of you when you were sick as a child; Mountain Dew Throwback.  What “oasis moment” do consumers associate with your brand?

Peer Approval. We are a social species, wired to notice and imitate the behavior of others.  We don’t want to miss out on something our peers are doing, and we feel better about our choices (those feel-good brain chemicals again) when we choose items highly rated by peers.   Over half of Americans say they read online reviews before making a major purchase, so make sure your new product immediately gets positive reviews on all the top shopping and review sites.  Getting your product onto “bestseller” or “favorites” lists is also a powerful marketing tool:   Grey Goose vodka’s success (it was sold to Bacardi in 2004 for $2 billion) is attributed to its being named the “world’s best tasting vodka” by the Beverage Testing Institute, a fact the brand advertised heavily to liquor distributors, retailers, and bartenders as well as consumers.  In advertising, show a group of product users laughing and having a good time, because this makes them appear popular, and laughing makes us physically feel good – two powerful motivators.   Are you leveraging the power of peer approval  in your marketing?

Action Steps for Marketers:

1. Consider how these neuromarketing findings can be best applied to your brand, to strengthen your emotional bond with consumers.
2. Consider whether your key competitors are employing any of these strategies and how you can counter them or differentiate yourself, perhaps leveraging one of the other strategies.

1. Define the Parameters. Are you looking for an incremental or a disruptive solution? Where are you aiming to take your brand? The clearer you are about what you want to get out of the partnership with your consultants, the better chance you have to receive it. It’s not a good idea to expect your consultants to outline your priorities for you. Regardless of how many parties you involve in the innovation process, you remain in charge of the project, and need to set the direction. With this big responsibility also comes ultimate veto power – if at any point of the project you feel that you and your consultants are not absolutely aligned, it’s essential to voice your concerns, and to work together to regain the necessary equilibrium.
2. Don’t Hold Back. Some managers, when working with innovation consultants, feel that they should hold back their own ideas so that they don’t overly influence the consultants. But to withhold existing ideas is to refuse to give the consulting team a fast start. Because you live and breathe your business, the chances are that your ideas include the seeds of the winning solution. That’s why the consultants’ ideas will be much stronger if they are built upon the ideas your team already has.  Sharing your ideas is also helpful when your team has already started working in a certain direction but needs a little help from the outside to take the project the whole way. While more ideas are always better for the innovation, it’s also critical to recognize that ultimately getting to intriguing ideas is often the easiest part of the process. Moving ideas into successful optimization and commercialization is the true challenge.
3. Keep it Collaborative! Collaboration with your consulting team is key to the success of any innovation project. Contrary to what some companies believe – or perhaps even want – innovation consultants don’t do innovation “magic” behind closed doors, away from the realities of the business. Any innovation project requires a lively and continuous discussion between the client and the consulting team. Innovation solutions are best developed when combining the brand team’s deep understanding of their business and the consulting team’s cross-industry expertise and fresh ideas.
4. Transparency delivers Clarity. Despite the fear of “airing dirty laundry,” it’s essential to be as open as possible with your consulting team about your organization’s inner workings – sharing the successes as well as the failures, the strengths along with weaknesses. Be candid about any “sacred cows,” or sensitive “political footballs.” Define the organizational landscape in terms of what exactly it takes to get the top managers in your company to “buy into” an idea – and then engage them to be part of that internal (or in many cases external) sell-in. While certainly one of the precise reasons that a consultancy is engaged in the first place is to effectively cut through internal politics, it is perhaps naive to ignore these business realities. Ultimately, winning innovation requires a balance of idealism with pragmatism.

What has been your experience working with innovation consultants? What approach led to the best project results? Please use the comments to share your story.

Freshening Our Homes:  Clean Environment, Wild Luxury

Home air fresheners are the obvious place to start, and the April 2012 issue of Real Simple magazine provides a great example.  An ad for Air Wick air fresheners entices us to “bring home the vibrant scents of nature,” as they’ve created a limited edition of four new scents inspired by America’s great national parks, including Yellowstone’s Wildflower Valley and Alaska’s Glacier Bay.  A beautiful picture of Yellowstone Park is overlaid with scent, encouraging readers to “rub here to experience Wildflower Valley.”  While scratch-and-sniff spots are familiar, having one right on a magazine page is rare, making the Air Wick National Park product line seem even more special.   At the bottom of the ad, consumers are encouraged to go to their website to join the Fragrant Homes Club for exclusive coupons and to enter a sweepstakes to win a trip to one of the parks.

When it comes to scents for household products, Procter & Gamble scent experts say that fragrance megatrends seem to surface every decade or so. Following the rise of cucumber melon in the 1980s, scents evoking rain were popular during the 1990s, followed by clean linen and lavender vanilla.

For 2012, scent experts name the spicy-fruity Pink Pepper (from the rose-colored berries of the Peruvian pepper tree) and the tropical-floral Ginger Orchid as top scents we’ll see in everything from candles to perfumes.  According to Euromonitor, these scents can be considered part of two broader trends that favor scents with links to nature and a clean, healthy environment, and secondly, more exotic, “wild luxury” scents.

Perfume Sales Stagnant, As Other Personal Scents Take Precedence

While consumer interest in scent remains high in general, sales of perfume in particular are actually declining in the U.S.   According to a recent report by Euromonitor, this trend is driven by multiple factors:  declining interest in celebrity-branded scents (a trend started in the 1990s by Elizabeth Taylor), younger consumers preferring to spend on electronics rather than cologne, and the pervasive availability of a wide range of scents in products ranging from underarm deodorants to fabric softeners.  For example, Downy fabric softener now offers more than a dozen scents.  The traditional line features the ever-popular (since its 1960 launch) April Fresh scent plus 5 similar “clothesline fresh” scents.  Simple Pleasures is a premium line launched in 2004 in a fancier bottle with more exotic scents which have been rotated and updated nearly every year since.  Currently, this line offers 5 aromatherapy scents like Lavender Serenity, Sage Jasmine Thrill, Orchid Allure in a black bottle, and Citrus Spice Glow which is based on a dual-scent technology that lets you experience citrus and spice at once.  These scents promise to last from wash to wear, and they contain Renewing Scent Pearls that create fresh bursts of fragrance during wear.  Downy’s newest product, launched in 2011, is called Unstoppables — you add these perfumed beads to your wash in addition to one of the Downy liquid softeners for a super-boost of scent, either Fresh or Lush.

At Retail:  Reducing Anxiety, Enhancing Brand Image, and Increasing Sales

Retailers and other businesses are increasingly using scent to enhance the customer experience and generate positive emotions and memories — and to drive higher profits.  Florida’s Seaside Imaging Center, seeking to reduce patient anxiety during CT and MRI exams, implemented a seaside-themed environment with coordinating scents, which cut appointment cancellations by half and the incidence of patients needing sedation by two-thirds.  Westin Hotels & Resorts developed a signature fragrance that welcomes their guests in a uniquely memorable and consistent way at all of their 120 locations, and they even sell the scent on their website along with other components of their Heavenly Experience.   Appliance retailer H.H. Gregg integrated mild scents of home cooking (apple pie, sugar cookies) with carefully selected colors, lighting, and layout in their stores, increasing sales by 33%.

Take-Aways for Marketers:

1. Regardless of what type of product you sell – from phones to fruit snacks –  grab a package and give it a good sniff.   Was that a positive ( brand image enhancing) experience?   If not, consider how you might improve your product’s sales by improving its scent.
2. Scent is a key variable for virtually every food, homecare, and personal/beauty care product, even if you don’t think of your product as “scented.”  When was the last time you asked consumers whether they were turned on or turned off by the scent of your product?  It could be a key satisfier or dissatisfier and you don’t even know it!
3. Make scent a key consideration in the development of your product and packaging!

Myth: Innovation is purely spontaneous, unpredictable and difficult to manage.

Fact: Some people tend to think of innovation as a bunch of ideas that occurred to a few creative individuals when inspiration hit. In its essence, this image is not too far from the truth. Except that, in the world of business, an organization can prescribe what problem the ideas should address, which individuals are on the innovation team and by what date inspiration should have hit. In business, companies can, and should, put a framework around innovation in order to get things done. Adding structure to the otherwise abstract art of innovation is what helps ideas materialize. Company managers should realize that and stop thinking of innovation as an elusive and mysterious process which is outside of their control.

Myth: Innovation is important only for long-term projects.

Fact: Yes, innovation can involve new technologies and groundbreaking products that require time. But innovation can also be as casual as thinking about a problem in a different way or finding a practical solution to an everyday challenge. A quick way to infuse innovation into an organization is to encourage employees to think critically about the job they do every day and to look for easy, practical ways to shave off time and money from current processes. Innovation, done this way, can impact not only an organization’s future but the way business is done today.

Myth: Creativity is the most important attribute for innovation work.

Fact: Creative thinking is, without doubt, a key trait for successful innovators. But it is in no way the only one that matters. The ideation phase of an innovation project, which most heavily relies on creative thinking, is usually over pretty quickly. After that the new ideas need to be sold to management, refined and implemented – all tasks that require many other qualities besides creativity. Ultimately the innovation process demands a balance of creative and strategic skill sets, both right-brain and left-brain thinking – within the team composition, and, in many cases, within individuals themselves. This is why it’s important to strive for diversity in innovation projects, defining teams that include not only creative thinkers but also great presenters, technology geeks, talented negotiators, detail-orientated analysts, disciplined project managers, et al. The members of such a diverse innovation team will know their roles and will be able to tackle every challenge the team is bound to face in the innovation process.

Myth: Marketers make the best innovators.

Fact: Marketers are experts in their brand and in their target consumers. But this knowledge alone doesn’t necessarily make them innovative. One could argue that a marketer is too familiar with the consumers’ preferences to come up with a unique solution, and too concerned with preserving the brand equity to dare to innovate. Can marketers be innovative at all? Sure, some can. But the same is true about scientists, engineers, IT specialists and sales people. This is important to remember when staffing an innovation team – the members should come from a variety of jobs and backgrounds.

Innovation is, perhaps more than anything else, about challenging expectations and existing conventions. As such, these and other “myths” about the process can likely be refuted or reconsidered.