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Re-cut movie trailers seemed to be all the rage a few years ago (right around the time of Google mashups).  Thanks to affordable computers, editing software, Internet connections people have put their own personal spin on preview trailers of popular movies.

I watched a few trailers from a list of The 10 Best Movie Trailers and took note of how I felt while watching them.  It’s amazing what the right music, fades and cuts can do in a short-form movie clip.  For the most part the editors took a trailer of a popular film and make the new viewing experience exactly the opposite of the original, intended experience.  Toy Story is now a horror film and the object of Ted’s affection in There’s Something About Mary is now Mary’s brother, Warren.

Take a look for yourself. I suggest watching trailers of movies you’ve never seen to judge, as objectively as possible, what emotions the clips elicit in you.

And…
Design your customer experiences to elicit the emotions that drive desired customer responses.

A few years ago the MBTA (Mass Bay Transit Authority) replaced tokens with the Charlie Card.  My personal experience was that the Charlie Card rollout was poorly executed but overall I like the idea of using a rechargable card to pay my bus and subway fares.  No pocket change, no paper transfers - as long as your card has credit on it.

I got on the bus on Monday and swiped my card and found out that I only had 90 cents of credit left.  Luckily I had $2 cash to pay for the $1.50 bus fare.  I inserted my two singles and expected to get some actual currency as change.  Instead I got a card with a 50 cent credit.  I have no idea how to use the card and I think I probably threw it away.

And…
I’m not sure if this is good or bad design.  If the MBTA designed a system to make it difficult for riders to collect change for overpayment, then bravo Mr. Grabauskus. If the plan is to cut down on wasted paper and improve the rider experience, I say “boo.”  Based on the fact that the MBTA’s interest payments are equal to the amount it collects in fares every year and my bus home was either 30 minutes late or 30 minutes early I’m going to pick the former.  So congratulations, Mr. Grabauskus, I’ll drive next time.

An article about Ten Things to Demand from Design Thinkers in Fast Company (thanks to @adamdole) listed Good Design is Good Business as #4 (I would have listed it at #1) and brought my attention to Dutch Boy paint.

According to the article: “Rumor has it that Dutch Boy saw something in the neighborhood of a 300% lift after re-inventing its paint can to have a twist-off lid. 300% How many companies would be thrilled with a 7% increase in sales?”

I checked a few annual reports and have not yet found proof of a 300% increase but I did find proof that Sherwin-Williams (Dutch Boy’s parent company) has a good understanding of the relationship between innovation and customer empathy.  According to a December 31 2004 Sherwin-Williams 10k:

“Three years ago, we simplified the painting experience with our easy to open, easy to pour, easy to close Dutch Boy(R) Twist & Pour(TM) paint container. In 2004, we did it again with the introduction of our new Dutch Boy(R) Ready to Roll(TM) project sized paint container. This revolutionary new package holds 2.5 gallons of paint that can be tinted to any shade in the Dutch Boy(R) palette. It features a built-in roller tray, an easy-carry handle and a lid that’s a snap to open and close. The Ready to Roll(TM) container represents another break-through for our Dutch Boy(R) product line and continues to provide Dutch Boy(R) paint retailers with the most compelling, consumer-friendly, easy-to-use innovations in the paint category.”

The twist-off lid was the beginning of Dutch Boy’s Simple Innovations initiative.  The mission statement of the initiative: “Whether we’re developing a new product or a color tool, we always start by asking ourselves whether or not it will simplify your life.  If the answer is yes, then we’ve done our job, because it’s our goal to give you innovative solutions for all your painting projects.”

Kudos to Sherwin-Williams for identifying and eliminating barriers that prevent some customers from getting a job done and for recognizing that the experience, not the product, differentiated Dutch Boy from its competitors.  Extra credit for realizing that people are willing to pay a little extra to make sure their painting experience (and not necessarily the paint) is a little better.

And…
Rather than trying to improve the product quality (Dutch Boy is considered a discount brand) Sherwin-Williams improved the product experience.  People will pay a premium to participate in a better experience.  Are you staging a better experience than your competitors?

Recent Boston Globe article illustrated how well Ferrari manages every aspect of the Ferrari experience.  The word “Ferrari” evokes so many things: beautiful design, high performance, and price.  Owning a Ferrari sends a clear message to the world about your status socioeconomic status.

So this great recession is affecting people very differently.  For many peole in the world, even WalMart prices are too high and discount dollar stores are “…killing it because consumers are trading down.”  During a March business trip to Houston a manager at a Porsche dealership told me that sales of cars over $100,000 are actually up from last year.  And how are (a very small percentage) of consumers reacting to Ferrari’s 20% cut in production to maintain its exlusive two year waiting list for a new Ferarri?  They are paying premium prices for pre-owned Ferraris just to be part of the exclusive club of Ferrari owners.

Ferrari understands why people buy its cars and actively manages the Ferrari Experience to the point that people are convinced that spending up to $250,000 on a car is a good investment.  Sales of used Ferraris and Maseratis have been steady at between seven and 15 a month.

Some key quotes:
“I don’t consider Ferrari a luxury vehicle. I consider it exotic. It is beyond luxury.” - Ernie Boch, Jr. (said to convince Ferrari to let him be a dealer)
“You pull into a parking lot with this, and you are pretty much guaranteed to be the only guy driving one.” - Ernie Boch, Jr.
“It’s the one that has that sound you dream about.  That screaming sound.” - potential Ferrari buyer
“Because of the financial situation, this is an opportune time to buy.” - potential Ferrari buyer
“In these hard times, these are cars that can actually appreciate, and they hold their value.” - owner of 3 Ferraris
And…
Like Ferrari, understand what drives your customers to purchase your products.  Focus on helping them complete their job, be it saving a few dollars, or becoming a member of an exclusive club, and they will do their best to particpate in the experience that you stage.

It seems that the protracted demise of Detroit is finally entering its denouement.  Chrysler and GM are ending relationships with dealers nationwide and Ford executives must be repeating their own variation of the advice given to blitzkrieg-sieged Londoners as they “lie back and think of River Rouge.”  How did these former stalwarts of the American economy became shadows of their former selves?

The challenge for any company is to design products that people want to buy.  The author of “Cars that Wrecked Chrysler” thinks that poor design had something  to do with it.  Is it any wonder that GM is hearing its death knell after offering customers the Aztek?

Pontiac set out to create the car that Generation X wanted - a sexy, edgy, off-key head-turner - and instead created something that looked more like The Homer.  Steve McConnell uses the Aztek as an example of the dangers of design by committee.  Instead of build a brand-new vehicle category - “the crossover” - from scratch, Pontiac piled all the elements they thought users wanted in an SUV on top of their minivan platform.  This approach created two problems for General Motors management.

Problem #1: They made it visually unappealing. (straight from Wikipedia) In 2007, TIME Magazine called the Aztek one of the worst cars of all time, and in a poll in The Daily Telegraph in August 2008, the Aztek came first on the list of “The 100 ugliest cars” of all time.

Problem #2: They made it too expensive for the Generation-X target market.  GM had to sell 30,000 Azteks every year to break even.  Of the 27,322 sold in 2001, 50% were sold to actual customers.  The rest were used as fleet and rental cars.  From 2001 to 2007, the sales record, set in 2002, was 27,793.  In 2005 the model was discontinued and remaining inventory was sold.  The last 25 Azteks were sold in 2007.

The Irony: If the price, or the looks, or the combination of both, had not scared them off, potential buyers would have found that the Aztek was better than it looked.  Those who overcame the price and looks gave the Aztek a high Consumer Satisfaction Rating.  And J.D. Power named it 2001’s Most Appealing Entry Sport-Utility Vehicle.

And…
Beware the dangers of giving your customers what they need and forgetting what they want.

GM ignored Don Norman’s three emotional cues that a well-designed product must hit to succeed.

• Visceral: the Aztek was not visually appealing, and some considered it repulsive
  
• Behavioral: people were loath to participate in the total experience because of the negative visceral reaction the Aztek elicited
• Reflective: who wants to be known as one of the only people who actually bought a car that everyone else seemed to hate?

Additional reading
The Pontiac Aztek: GM Tumbles Again

In Defense of: The Pontiac Aztek

After reading Jack Welch’s tweets about leadership and reading Dale Carnegie’s advice on how to motivate people, I remembered the most creative panhandler I have ever seen.  This person created such a unique way to ask for money that I happily gave him all the coins in my pocket: he turned panhandling into a game of skill.

While walking along the Santa Barbara pier I glanced down at the beach and saw, about arm’s length away from the footprint of the pier, a white sheet with a 5 gallon bucket in the center.  The bucket and sheet caught my eye but the coins kept my attention.  The sheet was covered in coins and the bucket had very few coins in it.  This was a challenge presented to everyone on the pier and an opportunity for an entrepreneur to make some spare change.

I pitched close to 2 dollars worth of coins off that pier and saw every one of them land gently on the sheet, nowhere near the bucket (I blame the ocean breeze).  Because I was completely engrossed in the challenge to throw a coin in the bucket before my friend did I completely ignored the fact that I was literally throwing away money.  The act of asking for and giving away money was no longer an awkward, negative interaction - it was an experience staged by a true entrepreneur.  Rather than asking people for spare change, and likely getting rebuffed, he presented people with an opportunity to pay any amount they saw fit to engage in a game of basic skill.

And…
Give credit to this person by achieving his goal of collecting change from pedestrians by designing an excellent experience.  Rather than present all parties with a potentially unpleasant panhandling interaction, this person created an unobtrusive and enjoyable diversion, and collected what people were willing to pay.  This idea can be applied to make negative, neutral or positive services into memorable experiences.   Minimize  negative cues and maximize positive cues in order to design excellent experiences.  These experiences are more profitable for those who stage them because they are more enjoyable for those who participate in them.

While I can claim to be a burgeoning advocate of the business case for excellent design, I cannot claim credit for the frameworks I use to evaluate design.  Credit to that goes primarily to super intelligent people like Clayton Christensen, James H. Gilmore, Joseph Pine, II and Donald Norman.

In a 2003 TED Talk “3 ways that good design makes you happy“ Norman names the three emotional cues that a well-designed product must hit to succeed.

• Visceral design refers primarily to that initial impact, to its appearance
  
• Behavioral design is about look and feel — the total experience of using a product.
• Reflective is about ones thoughts afterward, how it makes one feel, the image it portrays, the message it tells others about the owner’s taste.

I evaluate the quality of design on a similar continuum

• Design conveys information - e.g. a map in the mall.
• Good Design conveys a sense of place - e.g. a map in the mall with “you are here” clearly visible.
• Excellent design elicits changes in behavior - e.g. how quickly people adopt a new way to complete their job to be done.

The quality of the design can be measured by how quickly the new way of doing something replaces the old way of doing something.  My best example is Tivo.  I was lucky enough to receive a Series 1 for Christmas in 1999.  Even with its minimal 14 hours of basic quality storage, it changed the way I watched TV in the following ways

• Conveyed information: Suddenly I could find out exactly what I was watching during the show (a reason I memorized a large percentage of Simpsons episode titles).
• Conveyed a sense of place: The Tivo interface showed me my place in the show I was watching, where I could have been prior to the show I was watching, and other places available to me now and in the future.
• Changes in behavior (immediate): I was able to watch the newest episode of the Simpsons on Saturday morning instead of when it actually aired.  For quite a while I tried to rewind and pause the radio while driving and reached for the pause button on other people’s remotes.
• Changes in behavior (long-term): I watch Hulu.  I was trained to exchange quality (the original Tivo was NOT high-def) for the ability to control time.  Now, to a certain degree, I can control the place and time I watch television.  Because I’m on my computer I exchange an even greater degree of quality for the ability to control the time and place for watching the Simpsons.

And…
When designing a product or service that is truly different from the traditional way of doing something, consider how well you engage your customers’ emotional cues.  If customer are fully engaged, they may decide that your products shortcomings (as seen through the eyes of a competitor, someone loyal to a competitor a person dedicated to the traditional way of doing something) are worth the tradeoff for adopting a completely new way of doing something.

Boston was founded in 1630 and has its fair share of significant, and unique, architectural landmarks.  One needs only to walk the Freedom Trail to see the highlights of Boston’s architectural and cultural history: the golden dome of the State House, the clapboard siding on the Paul Revere House, and the obelisk that is the Bunker Hill Monument.  All of these places are unique to Boston, but take them out of context and they lose some impact.  Erase the painted (or brick) red line and the Bunker Hill Monument could be in Charlestown, Washington or the Mount Auburn Cemetery and Paul Revere’s house easily becomes just another old house on the east coast.

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge (”Zakim Bridge” to some and “Bunker Hill Bridge” to others) was completed in 2003.  It is the most visible portion of the $14.6 billion Big Dig project.  And, to crib directly from Wikipedia “the bridge’s unique styling quickly became an icon for Boston, often featured in the backdrop of national news channels to establish location, and included on tourist souvenirs.”  Without even looking (and I wouldn’t know how to look) I found two companies that use the Zakim bridge as part of their brand or identity: Life-Cycle Services, LLC and StratBridge, Inc. And there are countless other uses of the Zakim bridge: cab companies, delivery companies and, of course, souvenirs.

It’s impressive that something could be so well designed, and so visually striking, as to overshadow hundreds of years of history, art and architecture and become an icon representing one of America’s oldest cities.

And…
Consider how much time you put into designing your customer experience.  Think about designing a product, service, or experience to solve the job your customers really need to get done (not the ones you think they need to get done).  If you do it well enough you may usurp an incumbent and become an icon in your industry.

Writing sample submitted as part of application process for a position at Aberdeen Group.  It is written from the Aberdeen perspective for demonstration purposes.  The opinions stated in the paper are my own and do not reflect those of Aberdeen Group.

Pressures at every point in the supply chain are forcing companies to re-examine “green” initiatives throughout their organizations. Companies now face increased raw materials costs, continued international competition and mounting pressure from customers and partners to embrace the triple line ethos of Corporate Social Responsibility. Management must now reconsider environmentally-friendly initiatives that, as recently as two years ago, were likely considered financially unrealistic. To discover the myriad ways companies can benefit from the cost reduction of green initiatives, Aberdeen analyzed supply chain pain points that will offer opportunities to turn “Green into Gold.”

Read the entire writing sample here.

At my last visit to the grocery store, I was surprised to see two different sized boxes of Quorn - my favorite non-soy chicken analogue -  in the same freezer.  I immediately went for the larger box thinking that it would contain more chik’n goodness than the smaller box.  Imagine my surprise, nay, chagrin, when I found that both boxes, despite being different sizes, contain the same amount of product: four cutlets at 69 grams each for a net product weight of 9.7 ounces (according to the boxes).

My hope is that they are phasing out the larger box in favor of the smaller box to save on materials and shipping costs.  However if they choose to use the bigger box in the future maybe they should consider doing something more than just making a bigger box.  Perhaps a recipe on the back of the box, or maybe just a little more delicious Mycoprotein (51%) per cutlet (with the commensurate) price increase would justify the bigger box