Brand news, views & insights: August 2024

Are you experienced?

I recently had a particularly unfortunate series of poor customer experiences.

They happened one after another over three or four days, I'm not sure whether it was simply a run of bad luck or some kind of contagion that meant I started to notice one issue and then couldn't stop noticing every issue.

It started with Toyota and what should have been a simple repair job, but…

They booked the car, but they didn't order the part.

They ordered the part, but they didn't order the right part.

They identified the right part, but they didn't order it.

They ordered the right part, but they didn't deliver it.

Four days later and they'd fixed the car, finally.

I then went to JB Hifi to buy something.

For the sale price I'd seen advertised via Google Shopping.

But that wasn't in fact the price in store, it was higher.

They matched it, albeit with a nudge from me.

And later I went to my local café to order a toasted sandwich. It was already made, it just needed to be toasted.

They said it'd be right with me.

Twenty minutes later, it finally arrived.

They apologised (just like they always do).

Now this isn’t a complaint about poor customer experiences per se.

Nor indeed the ubiquitous clarion cry for seamless customer experiences.

In fact, quite the opposite.

I get that Toyota have different departments, more or less connected to one another. Service. Parts. Maybe even a third party delivery company.

I get that Google scrape pricing from JB Hi-Fi’s website, sometimes the two might be out of sync, and then again the online shop may even be different from the physical store.

I get that the person taking my order in my local café is different from the chef, and different again from the server. Even if they do work all day within ten feet of each other.

And that’s the point. These hand-off points are an incessant and inevitable obstacle to seamlessness.

Because they’re not seamless.

In fact they can never seamless.

What they need to be is this, seamful.

(And while you’re there, take inspiration from the late Mark Weiner, CTO at Xerox’s PARC and pioneer of ubiquitous computing, and make them “beautiful seams” too.)

Just like BRAT

If you know me just a little, you'll know why Fridays are my favourite day of the week .

So I was excited to say the least to read a brand strategist's reflection on pop culture sensation Charli XCX, her BRAT phenomenon, and what brands can learn from it – thanks to our Strategy Director, Emma.

If you’re interested in a different perspective on all things brand, it’s well worth a read .

Be your own BRAT.

The big swing

It’s only a month or so until the Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit, and this year I’m looking forward to the team sharing the story of how a change in brand is changing perceptions and attracting more people to play more golf.

Team is the operative word as it’s very much been a combined effort on the part of Golf Australia, the PGA of Australia and FutureBrand, not to forget a range of other partners including SE Creative. Sport’s like that, it’s a team effort.

Taking the stage will be Josh Marton, General Manager of Public Affairs & Marketing, together with our Head of Strategy, Victoria… here’s the blurb.

Golf has traditionally been a game for the precious few.

In the last two decades, however, there have never been more Australians playing more golf. And retaining these newcomers, while attracting hundreds of thousands more, are the single most important factors in future-proofing the success of Australian golf.

To support this, the advent of the new Australian Golf Strategy – developed collaboratively by golf’s peak bodies – heralded a new horizon under the banner that ‘all golf is golf’.

This represented a dramatic change of direction after years of focusing almost exclusively on members of a golf club. It also prompted a complete overhaul of how to position and communicate golf: from research and analysis to brand strategy and brand architecture, design and language, and ultimately the brand experience.

Hear from the brand strategy and marketing team who challenged those traditional perceptions in order to change them.

From a sport that is exclusive to a game that is ‘for me’.

From a single entry point and a linear pathway to the encouragement to ‘play your own way’.

From playing the game to having fun with new formats, so that golf is what you make it.

Qualitative data and supporting anecdotal evidence indicate that golf is now broadening its appeal. What’s more, leading measurement indicators point towards an increase not simply in golf participation but more so in the number of people who identify as golfers – the pivotal metric in delivering on the commitment that ‘all golf is golf’.

Josh and Victoria will be taking the stage together on 19 September at the Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit, see you there?

Food for thought: are we on track to economic inclusion?

One of our habits here at FutureBrand Australia is to learn from every experience.

It why we survey our clients every quarter, for example, why we make time for project retrospectives, and why we each have a dedicated pool of money to spend on our own learning experiences.

Just last week, our Head of Strategy, Victoria switched the stage for a seat in the audience and filled a notebook full of ideas and insights into the future of finance.

Her hypothesis? While 'economic inclusion' only featured verbatim in just one presentation, there was a sense of it that permeated many of the sessions throughout the conference.

A fintech that pivoted from its origins of giving Australian traders access to Wall Street to enabling everyday people – especially young people – to participate in the mechanics of our economy.

A big bank that is focused on identifying groups of people for whom traditional investment milestones might not resonate – think travel, buying a home, starting a family – and supporting them in different ways.

A challenger bank that is committed to having honest conversations with their customers. After all, customers’ aspirations might not have changed but their timelines likely have, and it will take a new mindset to help them frame their needs and achieve their goals along that extended trajectory.

In years gone past, we might have heralded the first as democratising finance; or championed the second as financial wellbeing; or even pored over the third as niche targeting.

In 2024, the reality is that none of these things can happen without economic inclusion.

In Victoria’s own words:

“While 'wellbeing' is a common focus for financial services brands – and it’s still a driver of brand perception strength in the FutureBrand Index – people's ability to participate is what makes the difference between being bound by circumstance and being free to discover your own destiny.

In other words, full, fair and equitable access to opportunity.”

It sounds like there might be renewed sense of purpose within the Finance sector, it will be interesting to see if and how this is reflected in this year’s FutureBrand Index, due to be published in the coming months.

That’s it for this month, a more ruminative collection of news, views and insights but hopefully a welcome change of pace after the rush of the financial year starting anew. As ever, I’m always happy to hear your comments, and of course please feel free to subscribe and share.