Why do some products, brands and experiences become so recognisable that we can tell the difference with our eyes closed or from a great distance? Setting the tone, writing the recipe and building the blueprint are generally the result of years of iteration and the applied intuition of great creatives yet arriving at the 'just right' or Goldilocks zone is a task worth pursuing.
Perhaps the greatest ever design brief (in our opinion) was that of Coca-Cola and more precisely for their iconically contoured container. It went something like "design a bottle so distinct that you would recognize it by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground." What if this were true of your products and experiences?
For many years scientists have been reverse engineering recipes like this one with a particular focus on flavour and fragrance yet ALL products and experiences have a code of sensory perception. The challenge is then how to make sure that yours is unique. Too often we come across vast options being placed in front of a consumer but where the result is a sea of sameness. Get it right and consumers are telling their friends; "you have to try this!"
Maybe you have one of these? A success that has transcended your market. A jewel in the crown of your business where seemingly the most important thing to do is 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. But what if you understood why, not just how. The latter is to carry on, keep following the process and building a fortress around the operating model. The former is a different question. Can you explain the mechanistic, experiential and contextual parameters at work?
Humans are wonderful creatures with entire worlds hiding behind our language as we describe any moment and experience. What is particularly valuable is a simple phenomenon. We describe how we feel, not necessarily what is true. We have been engaged time and again by teams who despite diligently following the feedback from well constructed research are still pursuing what seems like a mountain with no top. One common word we hear in the world of sport is 'lightness'. Let's imagine an athletic garment where athletes all around the world agree that being 'lighter' is what they really want and need. The artisans and engineers go to extreme measures to eliminate mass from said garment only to be met with exactly the same feedback. So what is the right question?
What does light feel like?
This evokes a very different response and the realization that the term lightness was in fact being used as a descriptor of cling and not an attribute of weight. Reduce the cling and instantly the perception of mass is shifted. The feedback that follows; "much lighter, thank you!"
It is likely that your products and experiences are full of these clues and where an integrated approach to extracting the truth of any feel-state can elicit great gains in innovation, strategy, positioning, development and design. Our layered methodology for exposing the human truths through a full scientific array of biology, physiology, neurology, psychology and behaviour all combine to help you bottle the lightening of your success, highlight growth adjacencies and ensure that your competitive position is not just secure, but optimized. After all, scale is all about consistency and that comes from a mix of practice and the deepest of understanding.