Brand Is Action

Image: Flickr user Michael Goodin

JCPenney has been in the news a lot lately. Although still a beloved brand with millions of Americans, it’s a brand that has become a little dusty and tired. In fashion, it seems like all the brand love and energy these days is for specialty retailers like J Crew and H&M, while department stores struggle to define their unique difference and their relevance to consumers.

Last year, JCPenney hired Ron Johnson, who previously had help transform Target into an ‘affordably chic’ retailer, as well as defined Apple’s retail experience (while redefining retail for many). As CEO, he’s recently spoken about the changes that are coming from JCPenney. And although the recently communications have involved the creation and launch of a new visual identity for JCPenney, the change plans for the brand are much broader than that. His plan for change has made it clear he’s brought with him several lessons from Apple as well as learned a few lessons from watching other retailers struggle. Here are three lessons JCPenney seems to have gotten right from Apple…and one learning from Gap’s failure last year.

1. It’s More than Just A Marketing Change

JCPenney is talking about a full-scale transformation of the experience of shopping, changing their strategy for regular sales (eliminating most of them), simplifying their pricing structure (into three tiers), transforming the in-store experience, adding services to their mix of product offers, upgrading or enhancing their merchandise and what seems to be a new more consumer-centric philosophy about making shopping simpler and more enjoyable. Clearly Johnson understands that transformation doesn’t start on the surface with communication. It starts inside with a simple point of view and a change to everything (operations, experience, merchandising, pricing, communications) based on that point of view.

2. The Experience IS The Brand

In his most recent announcements, Johnson has talked about how he wants consumers to feel when they shop. How he wants JCPenney to be a place shoppers like to come and hang out (knowing full well that hanging out will most likely lead to browsing and then buying). Although to some it may be counter intuitive to not push products on consumers as fast and hard as possible, and not stuff the store with as much merchandise as it could hold. But with its clean, inviting low-stress stores, Apple has certainly been successful at creating an in-store experience that is welcoming and exciting to be a part of, whether you’re in the market to buy something or not.

3. You Must Manage The Company You Keep

Brands today are not just defined by what they stand for or what they offer, but by the company they keep. J Crew sells Red Wing Boots. Target has a relationship with Paul Frank. Brands get some of their energy and excitement from ‘hanging out’ with other energetic and exciting brands. JCPenney is following suit. Relationships with Martha Stewart, the Olsen Twins, Charlotte Ronson, Nicole Miller and Nanette Lepore have been announced. And JCPenney’s success with their Sephora ‘store-within-a-store’ concept is being embraced, as they transform into a one-stop series of in-store boutiques.

4. It Isn’t Just A Logo Change

The one lesson JCPenney has clearly learned was one that left Gap in hot water last year. Although JCPenney has announced a new red, white and blue logo, the focus of the communication about the ‘new’ JCPenney hasn’t been about the logo. Instead, it’s been about everything else…all the things that are represented by that logo. In a marketing environment where brands are defined by the actions they take, not just the promises they make, JCPenney and Mr. Johnson have put first things first, defining how JCPenney is going to be different, not just look different. With the markets and some observers skeptical, it will be exciting to see if Mr. Johnson can pull off the transformation of another storied and well-loved brand.

Image from Flickr user: michael.poley

Brand perceptions are built on reactions to experiences with a brand. As such, changing the experience is a powerful way of changing brand perceptions and behaviors. Although the phrase “experience design” has traditionally been applied to digital experiences, the practice can be applied much more broadly. Somewhat still in its infancy, designing experiences can be a daunting undertaking as it can encompass so much. Many don’t know where to start and lack the framework to even think about how an experience can be better. A few basic “rules” of improv can help as a starting place for beginning experience designers.

Practicing improv is a great way to learn how to think on your feet, be flexible, work collaboratively with others–all practices critical to experience design. Some traditional “rules” of improv are useful in the context of designing compelling consumer experiences:

1. Don’t Deny  In improv, this means don’t disregard premise, no matter how outrageous. If someone says “The sky is a crazy color of green today,” as a partner your goal is to build on that not shut it down by saying “No it’s not…it’s blue.” In experience design, you can’t start by denying what could be: “We can’t change the check-in process because…,” for instance. For a great new customer experience to come to life, it will have to break some of the conventions of the current experience. Make sure you’re open, especially at the beginning of a process, to accept what may be an outrageous premise or idea.
2. Listen, Watch and Concentrate   Improv requires everyone to be paying attention to what’s said, what’s unsaid, how someone is standing or moving, what their expression is. Anything can be fodder for where to take the scene. It’s the same in experience design. Sitting back, watching, listening and concentrating on how people are presently experiencing the brand (while leaving yourself open to the outrageous) can identify moments where the experience could be improved. Thoughtful watching (combined with asking “Why?”) is perhaps the most powerful tool in experience design.
3. Be Specific   In an improv scene, details are the building blocks for the continuing story. Saying “That’s a pretty dog” is less useful than saying “That’s a pretty Pit Bull. But why is he dressed like a pirate?” It’s easy to imagine how to react to the second statement because of its specificity. It’s the same with experience design. Greater specificity as to what exactly needs to be changed (based on your thoughtful watching) is the difference between “Make the check-out experience faster” and “Make the check-out experience faster by SMSing guests’ bills to their mobile phones.”
4. Change, change, change   A powerful improv scene is all about change. Where the scene starts and where it ends is usually where the humor, tension, and interest come from. In experience design, there is always something to be improved. Saying “New and Improved!” without being new and improved is worse than doing nothing at all.
5. Get It On Its Feet   Improv is not sitting around thinking up clever ideas…it’s about being on your feet actively discovering clever ideas. Experience design must move from the planning stage to the prototyping stage quickly. Rather than sitting in a conference room imaging how people will react to a redesigned customer experience, get out into the world and prototype it! Cobble it together with shoestrings and masking tape, ask real customers to participate and interact, then watch and learn.

Like improv, experience design is an action sport, best done by a committed and crazy band of folks who are purposefully creating the new. And like improv, experience design can be delightful for the creators and the audience when it’s done well. So get on your feet and get started on improving your brand’s experience.

It’s been almost two weeks since Google acquired Zagat, creator of those little burgundy guides to local restaurants, rated by actual customers. Since then, there’s been no end to the speculation regarding the acquisition: a good deal, a harebrained deal, a multi-faceted deal. Google seems pretty excited about it, as do the Zagats.

Who knows what Google has planned for Zagat. Maybe it becomes part of Google Places. Or Google+. Or the content gets folded in to the myriad of ways that Google serves up information for people. But what struck me about the Zagat’s acquisition (along with the relatively recent launch of Google+) is a seemingly growing appreciation on the part of Google that there is more information than can be assimilated into their algorithm – information that is created, shared and appreciated by humans, not machines.

To me, Google has always been the ultimate data wonk’s brand – the ‘Spock’ of the internet, relying on cool calculating logic to know what you want when you ask…and maybe even before. In fact, Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO, once claimed that Google could “know what you’re thinking about”. Which is impressive, cuz I’m not sure I can even make that claim for the majority of my waking hours.

But cool calculating logic can only get you so far. One only need look for a reliable local plumber to understand the limitations of a calculating algorithm. For many decisions, human’s look to other humans for advice. Which gets us back to Zagat. Quirky, idiosyncratic, (perhaps even a little unreliable compared to your own experiences), the kind of ‘data’ supplied by Zagat and other ratings based on human experiences must be a supplement to the fact-based logic of Google’s calculations. As with many things in life, the two together are more powerful than each separate.

My primary hope is that the Google brand learns how to be a little more human – to rely on the qualitative, opinion-based, individualized, extremely human information that Zagat has always provided and integrate that into it’s own brand…rather than try to ‘assimilate’ Zagat into the cool, calculating world of the Googlesphere.