Joining People and Brands

A R T I C L E R E P R I N T

DesignManagementReview

Joining People and BrandsMichael Eckersley, Principal, HumanCentered

William O’Connor, President, Source/Inc.

Reprint #04153ECK60This article was first published in Design Management Review Vol. 15 No. 3

D M ID E S I G N M A N A G E M E N T I N S T I T U T E

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When was the last time you experienced

a truly great product, service, or envi-

ronment? You know—something so

utterly useful or engaging that it simply

captured your imagination and drove

you to tell others about it? This kind of

thing doesn’t happen often, and the suc-

cess of its appeal is almost never acci-

dental. Somewhere, somehow, a team of

people created a standout consumer

offering, and it found an audience eager

for more.

Such extraordinary consumer offer-

ings are statistically rare and valuable.

They attract people in ways and for rea-

sons that are not always apparent. To

earn the attention of a sophisticated

consumer audience in today’s crowded

media culture is to beat the odds. Some

brands demand market attention on the

basis of thin rhetoric and lots of cash,

but the effects are usually short-lived.

Sustaining earned market attention over

time, with ever-new reasons for con-

sumers to stay involved—now that’s the

measure of a great, living brand.

Modern brands transcend any partic-

ular offering. Think of them as meta-

offerings—embodiments of ideas and

values that attribute meaning to (and

derive meaning from) product and serv-

ice experiences. Their intangible value

ebbs and flows in the marketplace, but

there is no question that a strong, well-

managed brand contributes valuable

intellectual property to any enterprise.

So why do so many brands fail to break

through and earn a place in consumer

consciousness?

Causes of brand failure are always more

complicated and varied than are the rea-

sons for success. But from our perspec-

tive as business-oriented social scientists

and planners, it is clear that brands begin

and end with people, and that companies

suffer for lack of deep knowledge of the

end customer—how she thinks, per-

ceives, and acts within a natural cultural

context. Confusion, faulty assumptions,

and bad decisions are the natural conse-

quence of that information deficit.

As the focus of relationships that customers honor with pride

and loyalty, strong brands don’t just happen; they are designed

and nurtured. In this endeavor, it is crucial that companies know

their customers intimately. To get beyond the superficial, Michael

Eckersley proposes—and Bill O’Connor illustrates—a “deep dive”

research methodology that unveils the kind of thorough under-

standing essential to building powerful brands.

Joining People & Brandsby Michael Eckersley

Michael Eckersley, Principal, HumanCentered

William J. O’Connor, President, Source/Inc.

M A R K E T I N G

60 Design Management Review Summer 2004

Branding, at its best, is a science of artful

attraction. Sensitive applied social-science tools

are brought to bear to uncover a wealth of

contextually rich audience information. This

information, methodically sifted and shaped,

inspires the fertile minds of creatives and brand

strategists alike. The result? Integrated brand

meanings and architectural elements that

resonate with the right audience on multiple

levels. Though it’s still far from being a sure hit,

such a brand should find the stars aligned for

its success.

Brand Conversations

“Know your customer” is still the first principle

of business, but it is often the first casualty of

growth and success. While standard market

research is good at capturing a 30,000-foot

market perspective, and “values and lifestyle”

research will get you closer, neither affords an

accurate “up close and personal” picture of the

customer. Focus groups, used inappropriately,

lead to grotesquely skewed conceptions of “the

mind of the customer.” Through this lens, the

customer becomes a vague abstraction, a

chimera, and it is spectacularly difficult to serve

a customer nobody really knows. No wonder

brands get stale and lose their ability to engage

the customer in conversation.

But strong brands are all about conversation,

and good conversation is two-way, lively, and

mutually rewarding. It is one of our most intrin-

sically human needs, and it grows out of a deep

desire for personal identity and interpersonal

dialogue. Conversation is a good metaphor for

the ideal function of a brand, as Paul Hawken

pointed out early on in his classic book Growing

a Business.

Speaking of conversation, have you ever

found yourself cornered by someone who has a

desperate need to talk about him- or herself, but

who hasn’t the slightest interest in hearing what

you might have to say? Some companies demon-

strate similarly boorish behavior in their

attempts at brand communication. Endlessly

fascinated by who they are and what they have

to say, they show genuine disregard for anything

the audience might have to contribute to the

conversation. There might be a feigned interest,

but you get a clear sense that they’re simply not

built for input. Eventually, you walk away or

change the channel. By the time they figure out

nobody’s paying attention, it’s usually too late;

they’re out of business.

More than a few brands are conversationally

challenged. Whether the problem is technical

(you’ve started the conversation at the wrong

place, they can’t hear

you, or they’re simply

the wrong audience),

stylistic (your tech-

nique is inapt or dis-

tracting), content-

related (your message

is irrelevant or uncom-

pelling), or some com-

bination of these, it is

best to remember that

the currency of brand

conversation—like

good interpersonal

conversation—is gen-

uine interest in what

the other has to say. Such interaction fuels

mutual interest, empathy, and even the possibili-

ty of relationship.

How interesting or relevant is your brand

story to the dispassionate prospect? A good indi-

cator is how personally invested you are in get-

ting to know her, and the various layers of her

story. An even better indicator is how her story

alters the course of your brand conversation. Put

another way, can your brand meaning adapt to

and reflect the natural self-interest of your cus-

tomer, and still remain true to itself? If not, then

you’ve got a worthy goal to shoot for. Next-gen-

eration brands will likely demonstrate such

sophistication in allowing customer-specific

reflexiveness to appear effortless, even natural—

like good conversation.

Deep-Dive Intelligence

Periodic immersion into the customer’s world

can be a valuable reality check for companies.

Such “deep-dive” audience research and discov-

ery is, quite logically, where the branding process

Joining People & Brands

Design Management Review Summer 2004 61

Branding, at its best, is a science

of artful attraction.

Sensitive applied

social-science tools

are brought to bear

to uncover a wealth

of contextually rich

audience information.

should begin. Most conventional branding

endeavors center upon the enterprise itself, its

industry, its competitors, its offerings, and its

various value propositions—leaving precious lit-

tle time for the important work of getting inti-

mately acquainted with the brand’s various

constituencies. Ironically, in their rush to con-

verge on a (re)definition of the brand, teams fail

to take advantage of the most salient knowledge

resource of all—the customer.

Practically speaking, the deep dive involves

sending out small interdisciplinary reconnais-

sance teams to spend a day, a week, or a month

in the life of your cus-

tomer (if you’re an

executive or a senior

manager, find a way to

tag along). Initially led

by big-picture con-

sumer market data,

you and your teams

will likely emerge

from the field with a

wealth of fine-grained

consumer data and

more fresh and

authentic, brand-rele-

vant material than you

ever thought possible.

What’s the payoff to

such an atypical

approach? Greater

understanding of your

own brand and how

its offerings currently

fit (or, importantly,

don’t fit) into the cus-

tomer’s world. You

begin to see the dimensions and subtleties of her

story. You begin to see connections, spot discon-

nects, and imagine opportunities to better serve

her. (Oh, and the experience might just remind

you of why you went into business in the first

place!)

If this sounds soft or too anecdotal, that isn’t

necessarily a defect. Anecdotes, carefully collect-

ed and reported, are the valuable data of cultural

understanding. Anecdotes often reveal truths

below the surface that broader market statistics

conceal. Remember that consumers are humans

first, and there are effective social scientific

methods for explaining the interplay of human

psychology, sociology, and biology. Second,

humans exist only in context with other humans

and environments. This context is better known

as culture, and there are effective applied anthro-

pological tools for explaining culture, thus mak-

ing it possible for teams to responsibly intervene

and deftly influence the culture.

Bill O’Connor, president of Source/Inc., in

Chicago, frames the relationship between culture

and brand this way: “Successful brands derive

their meaning from the culture, or from values

that are strong in the culture now and are likely

to remain strong. These carefully crafted brand

meanings can be added to, subtracted from, and

finessed—in a word, managed.” The brand’s

meaning-making arc travels from culture to

brand to consumer, and there are a host of

cultural meanings a brand can consider.

Probably the most important benefit of this

“bottom-up” approach to brand building is its

ability to help even large companies gain a sense

of intimacy with their customers. Knowing

something about your customer is always good.

Having a richly textured, evidence-based under-

standing of your customer is better. It inspires

ideas, relationships, and strategies that are

grounded and sustainable. Resulting brand

themes, stories, and symbol systems inspired by

the process also enjoy greater persuasive rele-

vance to the lives of a target audience—because

it is from their very lives that the themes

originated.

Working On Your Act

Consider what makes a great stand-up comedi-

an. It isn’t his delivery—though superb story-

telling ability is a prerequisite. Rather, what sets

him apart is the quality of his material. Inspired

comedic material is usually the product of

observing people in real-life situations (think

Robin Williams or Bill Cosby). The artful comic

holds up a mirror before our eyes, and we recog-

nize truths—often revealing truths—about our-

selves. We can’t get enough of it. Observation

Delivering Value Through Design


Successful brands derive their meaning

from the culture,

or from values

that are strong

in the culture now

and are likely to

remain strong.

These carefully crafted

brand meanings

can be added to,

subtracted from,

and finessed—in a

word, managed.



inspires other forms of popular art, too. When

asked in an interview to explain the secret of his

consistent string of hits, pop-music legend Sam

Cooke replied, “I think the secret is really obser-

vation. If you observe what’s going on and try to

figure out how people are thinking, I think you

can always write something that people will

understand.”

How do consumer brands such as Starbucks

and Honda hold a vast, diverse crowd of other-

wise preoccupied people? First, they stay close

enough to the audience to be able to make (and

rapidly test) good hypotheses about what will

engage and hold its interest. Scott Bedbury, a

driving force behind the branding success of

Nike and Starbucks, insists that a brand must

develop a clear sense of itself and how it con-

nects with people’s lives, both practically and

emotionally.

Brands get interesting as they reveal depth

and dimension. While devalued brands thin out

and fade away (think of Plymouth, Clearasil,

and Duncan Hines), “dimensional” brands

evolve and find ways to reinvent their value,

often in surprising ways. Get the content, style,

and technique of your brand story right, and be

sure it is congruent with an excellent network of

offerings. Given the requisite perseverance, the

odds just might tip in your favor.

Mining the Cultural Seam

Great brands set the stage for interesting things

to happen in the lives of participants. You might

even think of branding teams as consummately

skilled event or experience planners. For

instance, walk into a Trader Joe’s, a Virgin store,

an REI, or a Starbucks and you’ll probably feel a

palpable sense of energy, even expectation. The

customer plays a vital, willing role in making

that vibe real. Indeed, he is the final arbiter and

co-creator of your brand’s value. If that makes

you nervous, remember: You can do a lot to shift

the odds in your favor.

Consider Hertz’s new brand message: “At

Hertz, we know exactly how you feel, and have

exactly what you need.” Whether value accrues

to the Hertz brand on the basis of such a pro-

nouncement depends, of course, on how honor-

able Hertz is judged to be in delivering on that

promise. Similarly, your tagline must be more

than a pick-up line. Why? Because your audi-

ence is already conditioned to disbelieve what

you say. Hence, your ad agency does you no

great favor in making delectable promises your

brand can’t possibly keep. In this jaded atmos-

phere, customer expectations aren’t especially

high, and that’s good news to the enterprising

upstart able to deliver.

Companies have a lot at stake in gaining flu-

ency with the cultural milieu in which their

brand(s) are intended to live. Likewise, most

brands have a lot yet to learn about the cus-

tomer, who is expected (astonishingly) to graft

the brand to her life.

Nowadays, so much is expected of a brand:

to tap reservoirs of consumer emotion, to

address needs, to articulate aspiration, and to

lead desire. Deep-dive research and discovery

methods complement traditional market

research by producing a wealth of unvarnished

user data that savvy teams can gather, sift, and

formulate into valid consumer models and

strategically savvy market hypotheses.

The result is uncanny brand experiences that

not only satisfy demand and desire, but also

instill loyalty and spark new desire. That’s no

small ambition or accomplishment.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge Andy

Schechterman and a host of research partici-

pants who contributed to the Designer-Arbiter &

Client-Consumer research study profiled in this

article.


There it was, displayed in a spread in the

Christie’s catalogue of distinguished residences

and estates: a bunker-like, low-rise, meandering

manor, the centerpiece of an expansive and

beautiful Pacific oceanfront property. What was

most breathtaking about the house, aside from

the vista, was its $17 million asking price. It was

an architectural-kit house, with some

Mediterranean bolted on to some Arts & Crafts,

and all of it architecturally duct-taped to a basic

California ranch style. The interiors were also a

mishmash of misplaced whimsy and disintegrat-

ed style.

While its asking price gave this Tuscan-

Stickley-Chateau-Little-House-on-the-Prairie

leader-of-the-pack status, its visual style of con-

spicuous affluence and blender architecture was

common to many of the other very-high-price-

point properties Christie’s was flogging in its

glossy catalogue.

How could anyone, I asked our client, able to

afford this–do this? “Taste is a matter of taste,”

he replied, “and we believe that the market has

begun to turn away from these kinds of architec-

tural expressions. People who can afford these

homes are now looking for architectural integri-

ty in the design of their homes and furnishings.

They want their architects and designers to teach

them, to open their minds and their eyes.”

So, while taste may be a matter of taste, there

is certainly a web of historical conventions, val-

ues, and cultural meanings that contribute to an

informed sense of style. Residential interior

designers and architects live and work in this

space. They act as arbiters of taste. The assign-

ment we were about to get was to learn who

these arbiters are. How do they manage the

process and work with their clients, the people

building high-end custom homes? Who were

these clients, anyway? What values did they

embrace that informed their choices and moti-

vated their decisions? What kinds of advice and

collaboration did they seek from the designer?

At the end of 2001, when this assignment

was in its formative phase, there had been plenty

of architectural criticism written about these

look-at-me lairs. Empirical research and anec-

dotal evidence suggested signs of a renaissance.

The very small market of those who could afford

to build or remodel such homes did not want to

be stigmatized as money-come-lately’s, their

homes criticized as tasteless monuments to

recent affluence.

Our client, a large global marketer of hard-

ware and fixtures, believed that a product whose

designs expressed these newly rediscovered and


Figure 1. We spent time with Kim, an independent interior designer inAtlanta, and her assistant, Lucy. They are shown at a vendor showroom,specifying interior furnishings and built-in elements.

Figure 2. Melanie is a contract commercial interior designer with a side-line in residential interior design. Here she is shown specifying colors witha client.

How Deep-Dive Consumer Research Defined anEmerging Market and Helped to Create a Brandby Bill O’Connor



ascendant architectural styles could be served up

as a brand rich with information and the oppor-

tunity for personal discovery. The client wanted

to catch this emerging market at the bottom and

ride it, wavelike, to the crest of a successful and

enduring business with “first-in” prestige and

authority.

Science teaches us that humans are more

alike than different, with the primary differentia-

tor being culture. Understanding the nuances of

human experience, across a continuum, deeply

informs strategy for brands, products, services,

and environments.

The brand team at Source/Inc. worked with

Michael Eckersley and Andy Schechterman to

plan a study that would do more than define the

target in marketing terms. At this point, there

was no market definable by the classic marketing

metrics. The primary audience happened to be

select interior designers managing high-end resi-

dential projects—a fairly exclusive group, to be

sure. But we also needed to find other likely tar-

gets—people who were constructing or remod-

eling high-price-point homes. It was important

for the entire team to experience their rumina-

tions, collaborations, and conversations with

their interior designers in order to build a brand

meaning and a brand story that could be part of

those conversations.

Getting these answers

required a deep dive of

discovery for us all: client

team, research team, and

creative team alike. (See

figures 1 and 2.) Wisdom

gleaned from the

research surprised and

inspired subsequent

work to an unforeseen

degree. For instance, the

target of primary interest actually turned out to

be a hybrid, which we characterized in the “rela-

tionship continuum” existing between an arche-

typal interior designer/arbiter (Carole) and an

archetypal high-end residential client (Leslie).

(See figures 3 and 4.) This relationship is key in

terms of who influences the specification of fur-

niture, wall coverings, hardware, and so forth,

not to mention the general theme or stylistic

direction the project takes. Understanding these

dynamics of control, and how they play out to

varying degrees from client to client and from

designer to designer, yielded a complex, yet

strangely simplifying and authentic picture of

the customer—a refreshingly nonsuperficial, evi-

dence-based familiarity unavailable before.

Figures 3 and 4. In 2002, Source/Inc. spent time with families building high-end custom homes, and their interior designers. We were particularly interested in the processesand dynamics of their working relationship. Our data analysis helped us invent Carole, an archetypal interior designer, and Leslie, an archetypal client who is building a high-end custom home. We posited a range of collaborative relationships, from high client involvement and control to relatively low client involvement. Understanding the dynamicsof this relationship proved key later on.

Relationship Continuum Archetype: Carole and Leslie

Client leads Arbiter Collaboration Arbiter leads Client

Designer-Arbiter & Client-ConsumerUser Research

Science teaches us that humans

are more alike

than different,

with the primary

differentiator

being culture.



From the mass of user data collected and

processed, 70 touch points were validated by the

team and mapped across various dimensions.

Some meaningful patterns emerged from the

touch-point data, illustrating key underlying

themes that were discovered in the client-design-

er relationship of Carol and Leslie. One pattern

was named Realization; it captured some com-

mon aspects of the manifestation of a lifelong

dream that a home-building project can repre-

sent for financially successful people. Another

resonant theme came to be known as Search

(Find), and it represents the demanding experi-

ence of managing a complicated project from

beginning to end, through a search-space of

seemingly countless options and decisions—

some big and many small.

The experience informed an integrated strat-

egy for a new brand of high-end custom-home

hardware that is scheduled to hit the market in

early 2005. The research—which took place over

a period of just three months in four regions of

the US—was foundational. The archetypes,

models, and constructs it offered have a surpris-

ing shelf life. They proved informative both

strategically and tactically in our subsequent

process of brand identity development, name

development, packaging, and merchandising.

It’s some story, and a full telling of it requires

an article all its own.

Reprint #04153ECK58

Joining People and Brands

Design

Transcript of Joining People and Brands