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Using diverse data toolkits to get into the heads of customers

When the topic is thorny, it’s important to get into the heads of customers to rely on a diverse set of the data toolkits. For beauty products, can you observe customers shopping? Can you ask customers to report what is in their beauty cabinet? Can you ask what aspects of their appearance do they spend the most time, money and concern on? Additionally, this would be an interesting place to use a netnography. What are people saying in reddit channels focused on beauty? What do the top beauty YouTubers have to say? With a thorny issue like this, it would also help to understand what are beauty interventions that turn customers off and why. Additionally, what are brand associations that people dislike? The answers to all of these questions should be weighed against what are the values of the brand and are playing into different beauty trends or ideals in line with the value of the brand.

This made me think of how Pinterest decided to ban weight loss ads. This decision was made in response to the danger of these products and the promotion of unobtainable beauty ideals.

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Rogers Factors for the not-timeshare timeshare

Applying Rogers’ Five Factors to Vivla provides clarity to the issues the company has faced gaining traction

Relative advantage - For prospective customers who already fully own multiple second homes and are looking to downsize to partial ownership of these homes, Vivla offers the competitive advantage of access to multiple vacation homes at a lower price with built-in home management. For those looking to acquire a second home, it offers a cheaper avenue to the prestige of owning a second home

Compatibility - Here is where Vivla needs to show that they are incompatible with timeshares. Timeshares have a negative connotation, and Vivla needs to distance their brand from this association. Vivla also needs to be thoughtful of hwo they frame the compatibility of their product with airbnb or hotels. They offer some of the advantages (e.g., managed properties, ease of booking), but they are fundamentally different in that this product offers ownership

Complexity - This is the most challenging factor for Vivla. Vivla's website has over 50 FAQs. Vivla is a new type of home ownership and so consumers have trouble understanding it. For example, splitting up available days for booking a group-owned beach house:

Trialability - Vivla is easy to trial in that you can spend the night easily at one of the homes that is for sale. However, testing out ownership of the homes is inherently difficult to trial.

Observability - Observability is tricky. It's difficult to differentiate from the outside if someone owns a home, rents it, or is a partial owner (the Vivla model). Some consumers may also want to obfuscate the fact that they are only a partial owner and instead put forward an image of full ownership

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SIA lead the way

In terms of nudging for the customer experience, SIA already has made some strides here. With the idea of tracking customer’s preferences for drinks and serving the customer with a past order, they are reducing effort and using a customized default option for customers. The customer is presented with an unsolicited default option for refreshments that aligns with their past preferences. Where I see room to innovate is with finishing strong. SIA could consider contracting with on-ground transportation services (e.g., private cars). These car services could be booked when booking the flight. The driver would know exactly when the flight landed to ensure punctual pick-up. Additionally, the driver could be informed of the appearance of the customer’s bag and also pick up the bag for the customer from the carousel. 

In asking ChatGPT for ideas to reduce friction separately for low-budget and luxury airlines, it suggested the following:

There are many ideas for reducing friction from air travel, and they can be implemented in different ways depending on the airline's budget and target audience. Here are some ideas for both low-budget and luxury airlines:

Low-budget airlines:

Streamlined check-in process: Implementing a self-check-in process with mobile apps or kiosks can reduce long lines and wait times at the airport.

Priority boarding for frequent flyers: Low-budget airlines can provide priority boarding to frequent flyers or loyalty program members to create a sense of exclusivity.

Comfortable seating: Adding more legroom, comfortable seats, and adjustable headrests can improve passengers' comfort during the flight.

In-flight entertainment: Low-budget airlines can provide free access to movies, TV shows, and music through passengers' mobile devices or tablets, reducing the need for expensive in-flight entertainment systems.

Luxury airlines:

Personalized service: Luxury airlines can offer personalized service to each passenger, including pre-flight drinks, customized meals, and dedicated flight attendants.

Private suites: Some luxury airlines offer private suites with a fully-flat bed, a personal entertainment system, and a private bathroom, providing passengers with complete privacy and comfort during long-haul flights.

On-board spa: Providing an on-board spa with relaxing treatments such as massages and facials can make passengers feel refreshed and pampered during their flight.

Gourmet dining: Luxury airlines can offer gourmet dining options, including premium wine and champagne, and customized menus prepared by renowned chefs.

Technology-enhanced experience: Providing cutting-edge technology, such as virtual reality headsets or augmented reality windows, can create a unique and immersive in-flight experience for passengers.

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Nudging and PSAs

While reading “A Practitioner's Guide to Nudging”, I reflected on my time working at the Ad Council during college. The Ad Council is a non-profit that produces, distributes, and promotes PSAs, essentially their role is to nudge behavior. Some of their most famous are Smokey the Bear and the Rosie the Riveter “we can do it” poster. I worked on a campaign called “I am a Witness” that had the goal of reducing online bullying. This campaign was a nudge to activate a desired behavior, it was externally-imposed, it was a mindful nudge, and encouraged behavior of one party to discourage behavior of another party. The campaign’s goal was to prompt the use of emoji that teens could easily use to call out on-line bullying. In designing this campaign, the company relied heavily on focus groups with teenagers to understand how they reacted to the details of the campaign. The company also had a research department devoted to using external survey vendors and other sources to best measure how campaigns influenced behavior. In researching the success of the campaign, the ads themselves seemed to do well (i.e., they won some advertising awards). The actual behavior change though seemed to fall flat. The emoji didn't seem to catch on. It's a strong idea -- promoting a small action of posting an emoji to call out bullying. The idea, however, I believe was limited by the fact that the term "witness" has a connotation of seeing something and doing nothing. Additionally, designing a campaign to affect teenage behavior is particularly difficult.

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Fun Corona and Serious Heineken

Heineken’s vulnerability is that the brand’s touting of its own high-quality could be regarded as arrogant. This could be protected by making the branding less about the quality of the beer and less advertising disparaging other beer brands. Heineken wants to be seen as better than the rest but doing this too much directly leads to customers being perceived as snooty. Heineken’s brand means more of a high-quality, expensive, serious, imported beer to consumers, whereas Corona's brand is seen as a cheaper, imported beer that takes itself less seriously. Corona is focused more on an image of fun. The advertising campaigns reinforce these messages. Corona’s ads show tropical places. They focus on fun and sun. Heineken ads focus on the beer itself. In Exhibit 8, you can see nothing else in the Heineken ad besides the beer. Additionally, Heineken tries to disparage Corona in different advertisements. Heineken disparaging Corona adds to the idea that drinking Heineken is an inspirational brand. It’s not just for fun yuppies but serious beer drinkers. 

It’s interesting how these images have now been extended to each brand’s non-alcoholic lines of beer. Heineken touts that their non-alcoholic beer has superior taste, and Corona’s alcohol-free beer leans into the “fun” and “sun” brand image by adding Vitamin D to its alcohol-free beer. 

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