Three Myths about What Customers Want - Karen Freeman, Patrick Spenner and Anna Bird. By Karen Freeman, Patrick Spenner and Anna Bird | 9:10 AM May 23, 2012 This post is the last in a three-part series. Most marketers think that the best way to hold onto customers is through “engagement” — interacting as much as possible with them and building relationships.
It turns out that that’s rarely true. In a study involving more than 7000 consumers, we found that companies often have dangerously wrong ideas about how best to engage with customers. Consider these three myths. Myth #1: Most consumers want to have relationships with your brand. Actually, they don’t. How should you market differently? First, understand which of your consumers are in the 23% and which are in the 77%. Myth #2: Interactions build relationships. No, they don’t. Of the consumers in our study who said they have a brand relationship, 64% cited shared values as the primary reason.
Myth #3: The more interaction the better. Wrong. Salvador Dalí's Real Masterpiece: The Logo For Chupa Chups Lollipops. Salvador Dalí, the wacky surrealist known for his signature pointy mustache and painting melting clocks, was also graphic designer behind the classic Chupa Chups--an enduringly sweet, bright rendition of a daisy. The Catalan lollipop made its first appearance in 1958, when the company founder Enric Bernat hatched the idea of placing a bonbon on a stick. He called the product "GOL," imagining the candy as a soccer ball and the open mouth a net.
It didn’t go over well. So Bernat hired an ad agency that renamed his product "Chupa Chups" (from the Spanish chupar, meaning “to suck”). All that was left was the branding. According to lore, the painter went to work immediately, doodling for an hour on newspapers that were laying around. Acutely aware of presentation, Dalí insisted that his design be placed on top of the lolly, rather than the side, so that it could always be viewed intact. What would induce the famous artist to take on such a project?
[Image: p4nc0np4n] What We Can Learn From Japan's Top Brands. BrandJapan 2012 is an annual tracking study that measures perceptions along 20 dimensions of 1,000 Japanese brands. I have been an advisor during its decade-plus life. There are a few brands at the very top year after year. Why? The answer will vary by brand and by category, but there are some generalizations. Innovation/energy, relevance/involvement, personality and relationships all play a role. One big innovation/energy story in BrandJapan 2012 is the charge of Apple to the number one position from number 11. The innovation/energy and relevance/involvement story appears throughout the top 10 high-tech brands that make up 40% of the 25 brands.
Innovation and relevance are also apparent in retailing and fast foods, which were represented in the top 25 by Uniqlo at three, McDonald’s at six, Daiso (a 100 yen store) at nine, and MosBurger at 23, with Muji and Starbucks just missing the top 25. Personality is more of a driver for top packaged goods brands. Wolff Olins Offers Branding Lessons For Would-Be Game Changers. For the last couple years, Wolff Olins has been globe trotting, talking to leaders at some of the world’s best companies and trying to learn exactly what separates the best from the merely good. Today, they’ve published their analysis of everything they learned, in a report called Game Changers. Recently, Co.Design sat down with Wolff Olins CEO Karl Heiselman to talk about exactly what they found and how it applies to businesses aiming to grow faster and do better. The report revolves around some basic ideals pioneered by today’s high-growth companies, ranging from Apple to Amazon.
No single business embodies them, but each one reveals a different tool that companies are using to carve out their own place among competitors. Let’s go over a few of the most interesting. Useful Ideally, every company should provide a service or product valuable enough that people willingly pay for it. In that sense, products aren’t finite and they might never actually be finished. Value Creative Boundaryless. Negative space in logo design. It’s hard to beat a clever use of negative space. Here are 35 or so logos that use white space well, along with the designers/agencies responsible. A.G. Low Construction logo By Rebecca Low Martin Newcombe Property Maintenance logo By buddy Nexcite logo By AmoreVia Blair Thomson American Institute of Architects Center logo By Pentagram Ogden Plumbing logo By Astuteo WWF By Sir Peter Scott, modified by Landor FreemanWhite logo By Malcolm Grear Designers The Brand Union logo By The Brand Union Egg n Spoon logo (same day couriers) By Thoughtful Human logo By Social UK Dolphin House logo By Ico Design Eaton logo By Lippincott (thanks, Brendan) Elefont logo By Logo Motive Designs USA Network logo By Sean Serio CultureBus logo By Pentagram Carrefour logo Original design examined by Miles Newlyn (thanks Rianna) Henri Ehrhart monogram (shameless) View the design process on David Airey dot com Sinkit logo By smashLAB Guild of Food Writers logo By 300million ED logo By Gianni Bortolotti Conception logo By The Chase.