There were two sell-out events last month.
Sting, in Concert at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the US, sold several thousand tickets in less than an hour, and my AMA online session filled all six free slots at the same time.
One of those events made $5 million 💰💰.
You know which one because I’m still here writing this.
Nevertheless, I plan to open the doors again in the New Year. Write to me if you’re interested in knowing more details: michael@unthinkingcx.com
First, a BIG strategy in a small story.
Terry served coffee to early-morning commuters from the back of his van outside the local railway station.
Terry was a character.
He often didn’t remember your name, but he always remembered what you drank.
For years, he served coffee from seven in the morning every weekday, rain or shine.
And he only took cash.
One day, someone asked if he thought he’d sell more coffee if he took card payments.
He said he’d already asked everyone, and the answer he got was no.
Asked who ‘everyone’ was, Terry said his queue of buyers.
People who were already paying cash.
It was suggested he ask the people who were walking past his van, not buying.
He did precisely that, and a week later, Terry was the proud owner of a card reader and a longer queue.
Because, as it turns out, Terry had been looking in the wrong place. The ‘walk on by’ crowd didn’t carry cash but would have happily paid by card.
The lesson?
Ask people who walk by if you want the truth about your products and services.
Someone who buys from your competitor.
Someone who’s looked at buying from you but then does nothing.
That’s where you’ll find the truth.
We often ask consumers what they like about our product or service.
And we feel good.
But how many are walking by? Why?
Don’t forget to look in the other places for the best answers - the people who aren’t your customers and walk on from you. Or your devoted customers who evangelise your product or service. Or your ex-customers who left you.
When you find the answers, you can solve their problems, bottle them, slather them onto your experience design, and grow.
Credit for part of the story: Peter Whent
Brick-and-Mortar? What’s in Store?
Beyond the transactional.
It’s common thinking.
Everything is now e-commerce, and the retail space is dead or dying.
It’s BS, of course, because data tells a different story.
And it misses a trick.
Because brick and mortar is central to how you can create engagement through better experiences.
The Data.
Only about 1/4 of retail volume (by value) is online.
And although there’s still YOY growth, that’s way down from the pandemic years. (The other interesting data? There is a trend of high abandon rates at checkout - depending on the source, typically between 65%-80%).
I would never argue that digital has lost its power.
But it’s time to make space for the vast potential of brick-and-mortar.Â
Stores are where the most retail spend is. By far.
It’s where the battle for your customers’ minds can be won.
If you’re in, or getting into, retail, learn to reimagine physical retail for new needs: from seeking unique discovery experiences and on-demand convenience to the more fundamental need for connection.
Physical retail is a uniquely tactile opportunity for your brand to differentiate.
And a place to connect to customers.
72% of digital shoppers considered the in-store experience the most crucial purchasing channel. (Invesp, 2022)
The rise of the store as an experience.
To win in this new landscape, you’ve got to forget about obsessing over the transactional, efficiency-driven game (and how refreshing that may feel!).
Instead, master the experience economy with your store as the prime stage.
The lesson?
Unthink creating the optimised store. Pivot to making the experience store.
Thirty-two per cent of brands expect to establish or expand their use of pop-up and in-person experiences next year. (Shopify, 2021)
Brick-and-mortar sales are currently growing at a faster pace than e-commerce sales. (WSJ, 2022)
Forty-seven per cent of consumers consider local presence a significant factor when choosing which brands to shop from. (Shopify, 2021)
Opportunities for metamorphosis
INSPIRE: Leave customers in awe of your products for their quality, use, and how they contribute to the experience of your brand.
Think Apple - minimalistic stores, yes, but they prioritise the customer touching and engaging with their product.
They drive a community space for customers to gather, connect, take a class, watch a demo, and more—a place of shared values, perspectives, and passions.
EXPRESS: Create a safe space for self-discovery, experimentation and self-expression.
EDUCATE: Provide an opportunity to learn more about your product and get your staff's advice to ensure your customer is making the right choice.
ENERGISE: Excite your customer by igniting and fueling creativity and mental, spiritual and physical activity to recharge their batteries.
EXPLORE: Encourage customers to explore your brand and discover new product attributes, value props and complements.
ENTERTAIN: Allow customers to have fun and enjoy the moment, engaging with you without the pressure to purchase.
UNWIND: Create a low-anxiety, stress-free space for your customers to relax and unwind from daily life.Â
Here are six transformative archetypes from Cap Gemini research that explore new ways to evolve beyond the transactional to re-connect with brick-and-mortar customers.
The Showroom: Give customers access to experts by putting ‘show and tell’ front and centre.
The Playground: Provide a space for imagination and exploration to take over.
The Clubhouse: Drive loyalty by reimagining the store as a hub for like-minded customers to connect.
The Oasis: Create a refuge from traditional shopping and daily stressors.
The Studio: Unlock the ability of customers to co-create, experiment and customise.
The Garden: Get (and give) stores new life as places to repair, restore and recycle goods in line with brand and customer values.
Creating a great in-store experience can be done in many ways, from doubling down on excellent customer service to leveraging technology to make product discovery and checkout more streamlined, offering customisation and personalisation, and adding play or humour to the experience.
In-store experiences will tap into your customer’s need to connect, commune, experiment, discover, and more to keep you flourishing and competitive.
Great brands simplify customers’ lives.
Don’t complicate the simple.
It’s in our nature.
We take something that works and want it to be better, more, or do more.
Mostly, it doesn’t work.
Because our customers get confused.
Remember when Starbucks added hot breakfasts, DVDs and sandwiches in their coffee shops? They complicated their brand and lost their identity.
That signature coffee smell was gone, replaced by a food smell.
Sales didn’t increase; they dropped. Howard Shultz returned and reverted to basics, and the 3rd place returned.
Which brings us to Apple.
When Jobs returned in 1997, sales were on the floor. And it happened that Steve was asked by a friend which computer they should buy.
Steve was stumped.
Despite hundreds of products, he realised there was no clear answer.
So he gathered his team and drew a chart to form the basis of Apple’s product range for years.
His insight?
Help people choose a computer using only two questions - are you an everyday consumer or a pro-consumer? Do you want a portable or desktop?Â
This one move cut 70 per cent of Apple’s range. One year later, the nearly bankrupt company turned profitable. Today, the company is worth $3 trillion.
The lesson?
The simpler the buying experience, the easier it is to choose, and the more sales you can get.
Barry Schwarz’s work on The Tyranny of Choice makes it clear that fewer choices lead to more purchases, faster and with less post-purchase regret.
We tend to think that more choice gives more utility, but behavioural economics shows that complex choices usually result in no choice at all - and no sale.
McDonald’s and its competitors still have menus crammed with offerings.
It’s a competition for more.
B Schwartz published an influential book about consumer choice in a modern market economy: The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.
He says having too many choices often leads to bad decisions.
‘There are three things that having too much choice does,’ Schwartz explains. ‘One, it paralyses people into not choosing. Second, it induces people to make worse choices. And third - even when you make a good decision, you’re less satisfied. Because as you’re munching your Big Mac, you’re thinking of all the attractive options you said ‘no’ to’.
And the result is that the Big Mac doesn’t taste as good. The other result is that McDonald’s recognised this and reduced their selections from 145 items to around 70.
Take two different websites in the same industry. One website has three different choices, while the other has 15.Â
Though it seems counterintuitive, the website offering fewer will likely perform better and successfully convert more visitors.Â
So, what do these examples tell us?Â
Make it easy for the customer. (BTW, it also helps your business).
We too often think we need to provide multiple options to ensure an optimal customer experience, but too many choices can overwhelm and lead to analysis paralysis. And the psychology of choice says the more options we have, the less likely we are to make any decision at all.Â
You can use simple steps to place the psychology of choice to your advantage.
It’s crucial to offer your customers the choices they’ll best respond to, but there are ways to use the psychology of options to improve your customer experience.
1. Eliminate unnecessary choices.
Streamline your choices to make the user experience more laser-focused and increase sales.
2. Create clear categories.
Many products and services, and can’t eliminate choices? Try creating more apparent categories. Categories help the consumer narrow their options. Instead of giving people 24 possibilities, give them a choice of six categories and another four options.
Tip
Research shows that customers can be more motivated to buy when faced with scarcity. For instance, if your store carries a limited number of products, customers may purchase an item so they don’t miss out.Â
3. No more than five options at a time.
Narrow choices to five at a time. Wny five? Because research tells us that five choices are the optimal number the brain can handle at any one time without the risk of overwhelming our decision-making processes.Â
4. Have a default / suggested option.
It’s your job to help our customers make the best purchase decision. So, provide default or suggested options that make customers feel comfortable that their choice is optimal.Â
5. Provide three pricing options.
Experts advise offering three options, which creates an instant comparison model. Customers usually choose the middle package.
Less is More.
Don’t leave your customers to do the work.
A range should only be expanded when it makes choice easier for your customer segment.
Less choice isn’t about offering less. It’s about creating a streamlined experience that showcases what you’re best at.
Good brands simplify things. Great brands simplify customers’ lives.
It’s not about offering everything.
It’s about becoming known for one thing.
Too many brands don’t have that clarity.
So, understand what you stand for if you want to stand out in your crowded market. Then, go all out leveraging it.
Know what you are the best at. And make it distinctive.
Becoming simple isn’t easy. Staying simple as a brand isn’t easy. We have an inbuilt bias to complicate, to do more.
But being simple can make customers love you.
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keep writing your newsletters PLEASE. Just make them more regular, as we look forward to them here. Once a week would be great!