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Maximalist or Quiet Luxury?

People purchase luxury goods for a variety of reason, these change depending on what segment those individuals fall under. There is the absolute, aspirational, and accessible segment. There are two ways to think about fashion trends, there are trickle-down and trickle-up trends. The trickle-down trends are those were wealthy and famous individuals create them and then they filter down into mass markets. A good example of trickle-down trends are trends that show up at stores like Zara which are heavily inspired by fashion shows across the world. Then there are trickle-up trends, which originate from lower classes and then are spread upwards to the elite class. An example of this would be jeans which were originally made for the working class and now have become a staple item in every price point.

Now if we focus on Burberry because it considers itself a luxury brand it aims to have its trends fall into the trickle-down category, where all segments that are purchasing Burberry aim to be like the absolute segment. The issue that Burberry is facing is that an out group, the Chavs have taken a liking to the loud Burberry pattern. This is because of the obvious association with the pattern and wealth. Trends have since shifted from maximalist fashion to quiet luxury, where patterns are not as visible, and quality has become much more important. One was that Burberry could get away from this is by reinventing the way they use the pattern, instead of having it be the main element of its design it could be quieted down in forms of stitching on piping, so it still holds true to itself whilst minimizing its loudness. The other aspect that they could consider is going away from accessories, these are the items that the outgroups are more likely to purchase because of the lower price point, this includes hats, belts, and scarves. By removing the heavy pattern from those accessories and focusing on its target customers Burberry could modernize itself to stay current.

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Product Prediction and Diffusion

When looking at the four different products we can rank them by probability of adoption and try to understand what characteristics are causing them to be successful. There are pros and cons to all these ideas with differentiation in their designated target markets. It is important to understand who these products are serving and what the target customers journeys and what their pain points are. Below are the ranking and reasoning for those decisions.

Sliced Peanut Butter

Characteristics Pros:

Convenience – The product offers extreme convenience for a person to be able to make a quick sandwich. It involves less dishes as the person does not need to get a knife out to spread the peanut butter on the toast. It also eliminates the need to mix the peanut butter before spreading it, as the oils often separate. Additionally, it makes it a good on the go snack as one can make and pack it quickly. The quality of the sandwiches will also go up because of the even spread that is achieved with the sliced peanut butter. Gone are the days of cold peanut butter being too stiff to spread and causing tear in the toast. Lastly, with the additional products on the horizon, like the crunchy peanut butter they are sure to reach many customers.

Characteristics Cons:

There are some issues with the new product. Seeing as the peanut butter slices will be individually wrapped there will be more waste, think plastic wrappers, that will need to be thought about. Although they are likely to reach many customers with the different flavor variations, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches remain an American snack. This means it will be hard to reach customers worldwide as those customers do not have a palette for that snack. An interesting thing to note here is that one of the main competitors could be uncrustables, which already offer a premade sandwich. One approach here would be to sell the peanut butter slices directly to them which could in turn grown the market.  

Target Customer:

The target customers here are people with limited time that want a quick snack for on the go. There are two specific segments that come to mind. You could imagine busy parents as well as college students being good targets. The parents want to be able to quickly make a snack for their kids. On the other hand college students want to make a snack without needing to do dishes.

Polytrack

Characteristics Pros:

The polytrack is safer for horses which in turn can lead to better returns for owners and track owners. Seeing as there are less injuries associated with the horses and jockeys riding them, this means there are more races that a horse can run. These horses are extremely valuable assets that people would want to protect. The track is also more sustainable in terms of impact on the environment, by allowing water to dissipate faster it is less invasive than traditional tracks. Lastly, the track allows for less downtime which gives rise to more betting for the track owners. It is also noteworthy that because it is a good innovation there are limited competitors in this market.

Characteristics Cons:

One of the issues is that the horses race slower making it difficult to beat previous records, this could be an issue for breeders and horse owners. There is also a difficulty with the number of potential customers, once all tracks have been converted to polytrack it might be hard to find other applications. Lastly, it is expensive to convert existing racetracks which might make some hesitant to upgrade.

Target Customer:

The target customers include racetracks around the world. There might also be some breeders and owners that set up their own practice racetracks that could be interested. There might be potential to use technology in other applications which could expand the market.

Collapsible Wheel

Characteristics Pros:

It facilitates commuting by removing certain pain points for the average commuter. The wheel is light and compactable which could be a plus for people working in big cities with limited space. It could be interesting if integrated with other bike manufacturers so that customers could by it as part of an off the shelf product, instead of having to retrofit a regular bike.

Characteristics Cons:

The wheel is expensive and requires someone to retrofit bikes. It is also limited to a specific demographic, people that commute on a bike and see a need to space saving. Especially now when many cities are implementing bike parking requirements for new office building, there might not be as big of a need for this. Because it is just a part of the bike it requires collaboration with establish bike makers who are hesitant in creating new collapsible bikes.

Target Customer:

The target segment would be commuters who bike to work in big metropolitan cities.  

Stave Puzzles

Characteristics Pros:

This is a unique, luxury item which makes for a great gift for people who have everything. There is a difficulty level associated with these puzzles which might be hard to replicate with conventional puzzles.

Characteristics Cons:

These puzzles are extremely expensive and therefore have a relatively narrow target segment. They do not signal luxury like other luxury goods do, in a way it takes one to know one, unlike a Hermes throw which very clearly states luxury. What makes the puzzle exciting is the scarcity of them, so if it were to become more common, they would lose their appeal.

Target Customer:

The target segment is a limited group of customers which are people with plenty disposable income. The other target could be puzzle lovers looking for a new challenge.

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Auto renew the vicious loop

When it comes to removing friction, some companies have gotten extremely good at it. However, becoming good at it does not mean higher customer satisfaction. Think of all those amazing membership auto renew deals we have gotten sucked into. Yes, those are extremely frictionless, but they mostly benefit the company, not the customer. There is one examples particularly that comes to mind of a membership that sounds great but is extremely difficult to exit, leading to endless hours on customer service calls just to make the monthly draining of your account stop.

Occasionally, I treat myself to a pampering session and get a facial treatment done. On one of these experiences, I stumbled across Skin Spa New York. They are a skin care clinic with various locations in major cities in the US, which provide various treatments. After my treatment, as I was checking out, the receptionist informed me of their membership offering. In theory it sounds great, a discount on a monthly facial, sign me up! The benefits include a monthly facial (from a choice of five treatments), a free treatment on your birthday, various discounts on further purchases and even discounts for friends.

However, what they fail to inform you of, is the terms and how difficult these can be to keep up. Ultimately making it extremely difficult to end the membership. Membership fees are automatically billed on the 1st of each month, cancelable at any time they say, however, you must email them to request a cancelation before the 20th of each month, after 3 months of membership. Unused Membership treatment can be rolled over up to 60 days but no refunds or credit for unused months or lesser value service will be issued. The list goes on and on about policies you need to follow to be able to qualify for the promised services. This just shows how what is frictionless for the company is an actual added pain point for the customer. If you read some customer reviews, they discuss the difficulties for refund on services they were mischarged for. The automatic payment system does indeed remove friction for some parties but adds it for others.

What ends up happening is that once you opt into the membership it can be extremely hard to exit, creating that lobster trap scenario: easy in, hard out. This leads to the monthly payment and accumulation of credits that are never used. Finally, when one wants to cancel one is faced with the option of either canceling and losing all credits or trying to fit multiple treatments into one month. A process that seems frictionless for the customer is only frictionless when it comes to aspects that benefit the company. On the other hand, the aspects that the customers care about are riddled with friction; think back and forth emailing to cancel the membership, difficulty booking and rescheduling appointments. When we think of automation and erasing of friction, we must remember for whom we are removing that friction and for whom might we be creating a lot more friction.

The introduction of new technologies will only further increase this discrepancy if we are not attentive. We can all agree that the process of paying for a service is time consuming and can be seen as a pain point for both company and customer. But when introducing a technology to streamline that process, we must be very attentive as for who it is benefiting. We could also think of that pain point of a great opportunity to change the narrative. Why not make this a last impression touch point? Imagine instead of a simple paying transaction, you are given an infused water and a warm towel for your hands as you exit the establishment. Instead of simply trying to remove pain points, we must focus on the customer experience and look for ways to translate those pain points into memorable experiences.

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Architecture as a form of nudging

Having a background in corporate architecture means that I have spent a lot of time thinking about people’s behaviors and modifying the built environment to nudge individuals towards better behaviors. The important thing to note here is that those behaviors were already disclosed by many as something that they wanted. To be able to identify these, we would often have focus groups were we listened to various perspectives and goals people had in term of their workplace. This was a way for us to map the context in which the choices made lead to the behaviors they wanted to modify.

The pandemic forced many people to work from home for a prolonged period. Finally, after around two years many companies came to us to try and encourage people to return to the office. It turned out people were very reluctant because they had already gotten use to a different reality. First, we conducted surveys to understand what their pain points were and what positive reasons to returning to the office were. One of the big pain points that surfaced was that people felt the office was now too loud and distracting for focus work. Many desks were placed with felt dividers between them for a sense of privacy. The issue here, was that those dividers were creating a false sense of privacy, encouraging people to take calls from their desks and having louder conversations than usually because they could not hear themselves properly through their headphones. After finding this out, we removed those dividers and created open desks where people would sit side by side and see each other. The other feature we added was phone rooms, which could be used for calls. Additionally, we also created many break out rooms where groups of people could work together in a non-disruptive manner. These nudges lead to people feeling like there was better division of loud and quiet spaces, allowing for different forms of work to coexists.

Another example that comes to mind is how active people are at work. Many people find that they are stationary when they go into the workplace, which goes against their goal of leading a healthy life with enough physical activity. One of our clients mentioned this to us with the added issue that during peak hours, ie between meetings, the elevators were often full and took people way too long to move between floors. This is something we can all identify with if you have ever tried taking the elevators in E62 between classes. As we were developing the project we realized that people were taking the elevators because that is what they first saw when they walked through the doors. So, when we were tasked to design their new building, we switched this around. We placed their main staircase right in the center of the building making it a true feature, where people would meet up and socialize. By removing the barriers to using the staircase and making it more inviting than a typical dark fire stair, it became easier for people to choose the stairs over the elevator.

As a side note this begins to indicate as to why the elevators in E62 are often so packed. Does anyone actually know how to get to the third floor and above using stairs?

The built environment that surrounds us often nudges us to behave in all sorts of ways. These nudges are most successful when they are focused around an inherent goal we already had. We often do not think of the built environment as nudging us, which again just proves that it is a well-executed as it makes us feel like we are in control and doing something we wanted to. These nudges work well because they follow the framework of activating a desired behavior, being externally imposed, they make us mindless about the decision and encourage or discourage particular behaviors.