jjknox

[jjknox]

The Turban Cowboys ride on

The world is a tidy place when social and business interests align. That’s all fine - hats off to the purveyors of fire trucks, renewable energy, and sugar-free candy. But how should we judge businesses that respond to problematic, yet well documented consumer demands? Fair & Lovely plays in the Indian market and responds to an observed demand for skin-lightening skincare products. That demand drives millions of dollars in annual product sales. It is also rooted in centuries old discrimination variously traced to the Aryan invasion of the Indian subcontinent and cast-based color differences, undoubtedly exacerbated by the colonialism of the British Raj. A shareholder value purist would say companies like the Unilever subsidiary behind Fair & Lovely owe the society nothing. The managers of the company, they say, are beholden to its owners first and last. They should market products like Fair & Lovely so long as consumers want them, and they should advertise them in the way that stimulates the most demand - even if that means reinforcing problematic equation of fairness with beauty. With the rise of corporate social responsibility, more is lately expected of companies. On the opposite wing stakeholder value advocates would say not only is Unilever obligated to avoid reinforcing discriminatory patterns, it should work to be a part of the solution.  Ultimately government authorities seem skeptical of company’s altruism. In 2013, the above image bluntly depicting colorism aired in an American comedy series in an episode titled ‘Turban Cowboy’. Government backing of the ASCI regulations, at least on cable TV, ensures that future references to color are more oblique than the one depicted, but until stronger boardroom CSR pressure or legislation can be delivered, shareholder value seems poised to carry the day.

[jjknox]

Do you have that friend who’s always telling you about the latest, coolest thing? Are you that person to other people?

Rogers and Moore argue for a sequential progression of innovation adoption running from Innovators through Early Adopters to the Early Majority, then the Late Majority and finally the Laggards. They plot these groups on a bell curve. Personally, for many innovations, I’m quite comfortable falling into the neighborhood of the Early Majority. I don’t need to interact with cutting edge technology so much that I’m catching bugs for the dev team, but I fancy myself young and hip enough to avoid the label of being ‘late’ to the party. 

Fortunately, Rogers proposes a framework to help us consider how we might affect the rate of innovation diffusion. These factors, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability, are presented as the core  factors that might influence someone - bringing people like me into earlier phases of the process. Rogers criteria are interesting in that they seem to fall into one of two buckets - criteria related to how much better a given innovation actually is, and criteria related to how easy it is to trial a given innovation. They very much play to the idea of cognitive ‘inertia’ or laziness - that we are all more likely to adopt new ideas if doing so doesn’t cause us to deviate from our established patterns and we can do some in a low risk way. By paying attention to Rogers five factors we can help the innovations that we care about overcome the Larrys of the world and diffuse a little faster.

[jjknox]

On one of my earlier international flights, I was landing in Europe after an overnight flight. We’d just hit that time when the cabin lights are brought up to call everyone out of sleep, and the plane was full of the sounds of groggy passengers. Suddenly a wonderful smell washed over me from the forward galley. The flight attendant had just removed the cloth covering a basket of delicious croissants. I still remember the flakiness of the pastry, and its one of the best I’ve had at any altitude. In today’s airline market where we stereo type premium seating as getting ever more plush and economy seating as ever closer to a sardine can, it’s obvious in hindsight to say that providing strong customer service is a brand differentiator in the airline industry.  Though the core ‘Singapore Girl’ message is painfully objectifying, the extensive training and investment that accompanied the broader campaign underscores the dedication of Singapore Airlines to customer service. Indeed, by focusing resources on differential customer service, the firm was able not only to attract its target customer, but to build a brand as well. What’s more they gave birth to a legacy that has shaped the industry and paved the way for delicious high-altitude pastries.

[jjknox]

Nudges are interesting tools of decision architecture - changing something about the way your audience makes a decision as a means of influencing the decision itself.  This intentionally subtle, jedi mind trick of an influencing technique has been written on extensively, but often relates to influencing the mindfulness of the subject in making their decision. We put up ‘children at play’ signs to increase the mindfulness of drivers as they choose how fast to drive by a school. We move the desserts close to the cafeteria checkout to reduce the time and energy associated with giving into sugar cravings. By influencing the amount of thought the audience put into evaluating a message, we can create a significant impact on outcomes

[jjknox]

Free with purchase of small slice of lime

A bar I go to in Boston carries an interesting beer list. It’s curated by the bartender - a gruff fellow beloved by some loyal regulars and probably not a single visitor passing through. His list carries three or four pages of lovingly selected beers, grouped by style, with his own tasting notes included. The final page is titled ‘all the other shite’, and in lieu of tasting notes it includes sarcastic one liners. The entry for Corona reads ‘free with purchase of small slice of lime’. Sarcastic as the line might be, the fact that it still captures Carona’s intended brand persona highlights the degree of the marketing team’s success. If the goal of marketing is to connect products with concepts, feelings, and experiences, Carona has succeeded by winding ‘sun, fun, and beach’ into their product so tightly that even someone looking to deride the product references that mythology.

Going forward, the Corona brand equity seems too valuable to entirely give up. Expanding into other markets, the experience of looking to escape the drudgery of life seems universal enough. Carona’s task should be to align themselves with the sunny escape that speaks best to new audiences. By building off their existing equity, they can succeed in influencing even the sourest bartenders.