Should we KISS our customers?
Wednesday 17 February 2010
TAGS: Usability
No that’s not a proposition, rather a thought about the non-romantic (and almost bluntly insulting) business acronym “Keep It Simple Stupid”. Client Service Manager, Emma Adcock, finds out if online brands are taking simplicity too far.
I’m inspired to write about this age old business adage and how it translates to the affiliate/online marketing universe after reading a rather refreshing rebuttal centring upon Zara’s new fashion application for the iPhone- termed as its look book.
For those yet to be in doctored into the world of iPhone and its myriad of applications, I will illuminate; an application (or app if you like your marketing slang) allows the phone holder to interact and integrate with lots of different fun and life-enhancing features, these range from the practical (sat nav if you’re lost), to the gimmicky (games and the like) and the lifestyle (news and hobbies.) Not forgetting a possible new digital frontier for retailers, Fashion Apps. Many brands are jumping on the fashion app bandwagon and offering their customers direct access to their products.
Back to the main plot and Zara. In December ‘09 Zara launched their own fashion app, a look book promoting their new 2010 ranges. The article I found re this app was entitled “Zara releases a pointless iPhone app.”
To put it into context and according to the author the app was a major disappointment and almost laughable to many marketers- they hadn’t included a list of stores or the main contact details; for goodness sake they hadn’t even included prices, sizes, materials or a product description! Simply product images- that was about it. I freely nodded along with the article shocked at the opportunities Zara had missed, and then for a lark I thought I’d read the comments underneath thinking every Digital Marketing Manager on the web would be mocking the app in every post……I was right the outcry and general hilarity at the app was fairly universal……then I stopped, blinked and read and re-read a really perspective-changing comment….
To give you the general gist of it this particular respondents remarks I’ve bullet pointed it for speed and emphasis:
- They didn’t need a store locator they already knew where the Zara stores are
- They are an existing customer.
- They didn’t need the sizes, they already knew the general Zara sizes
- They are an existing customer.
- They didn’t really need the prices (although they did mention that might have been nice.)
- They already knew the general Zara price points
- They are an existing customer.
The respondent said they liked this simple app, it got to the point and kept its promise- it was called a “look book” after all!
An important thing to remember here: existing customers don’t need a mass amount of information they already know. Zara had gone for the extreme KISS.
The next big thing to note is functionality. You have to actively download an iPhone app and select it, it isn’t like a piece of direct mail foist upon you, it’s ultimately the customer’s choice whether they choose to allow its presence. So therefore it is more likely to be your existing customer base (as long as they have an iPhone that is.) Ok yes potentially a new customer may download it and on that score you could miss out on sales opportunities by turning it into a drawn out information hunt on their part.
That aside this situation does raise a really pertinent question.
Do we patronise existing consumers with too much information?
Do we KISS or WAWI? Wilfully Attack With Information?
The rules of communication engagement have definitely changed. Online customers have become militant in their mission to extract necessary information with minimal time and fuss. Whilst they lavish extra time on their favourite sites and brands. As more and more methods of digital communication become integrated i.e. Facebook on your phone and Tweet decks- customers can customise the information they want and actively retrieve it at any time- omitting the information that doesn’t apply to them. Search personalisation is big news for the search engines too, meaning the search engine actively remembers the context of your previous searches and your favourite sites sending them higher up the rankings. For example- if we both searched for “ice-cream” I might get “Magnum” at the top of my search and you might get “Walls” at the top of yours. I get different results to you depending upon my brand affiliations and likes and dislikes. This is happening now.
So am I advocating information minimization? Hmmm I think extreme minimization is impractical and a chaos of information overload is indiscernible. Perhaps the bigger question is; should we start to group customers by preference, place, demographic …and level of brand integration?
Emma Adcock is a Client Services Manager at Silverbean. If you have any questions or would like to discuss how Silverbean can help improve your online copy through an online copywriting campaign; please contact our resident online copywriting expert using one of the following.