We do a lot of work with companies that make products for the healthcare industry. One of the recurring challenges we take on is helping companies figure out how to connect emotionally with their customers - often doctors, nurses, and healthcare executives. One useful conceptual framework is Emotional Design, pioneered by Don Norman in a book by the same name (Don was a psych. professor and mentor of mine at UCSD a few decades ago, and is one of those very smart and practical guys). His framework can help achieve connection when designing medical devices, developing public health programs, or shaping healthcare services. Don's Linked In profile summarizes the framework this way:

 "The three kinds of design, the better to ensure enjoyable, pleasurable results. Visceral Design emphasizes appearance. Behavioral design emphasizes function, understandability, and the sheer joy of handling, touching, hearing, and using a well-designed product. Reflective design is about pride of ownership, about image, and the role of brands."

Here's an old TED video in which Don explains his thinking that led to the book.

More and more, I think marketing is all about connecting on an emotional level. Call it heart connection. So how do you know if your design is on the right emotional track?

Apply our think/feel/do test. For every feature of your product, program, or service, force your team to articulate what it should make the user think, and feel, and do. Then do the research to see if the features achieve the intended objectives, especially the feeling or emotional objective. If yes, you're on the right track. If not, back to the drawing board. For when design connects on an emotional level, it is astounding.

P.S. For the theorists among us: Given that the Emotional Design framework grew out of the classic ABC model  (affect, behavior, and cognition) to understand how attitudes are formed, our simple think/feel/do test is well-aligned with its principles. 

Image source: http://cpaprotectplus.com/blog/2011/03/warning-signs-of-an-unhealthy-heart-th...

You gotta see this video!" ace ResearchWorks strategist Ross Dammann gleefully exclaimed. And he was right. Watching the parody of Microsoft "improving" iPod packaging is as funny as it is poignantly instructive. It's several years old; and not much has changed. Check it out:

Here are three key takeaways:

1. Purpose: The job of retail packaging is first to get the customer to notice the box and look at it, then to engage them enough to dig deeper. That's it. So K.I.S.S.

2. TMI: Like with other forms of seduction (hey, it is what it is), revealing all right away is NOT the best approach. The package should not try to convey every detail. It's Too Much Information. Usually, less is more (hence, my top secret code name Les S. Moore, since you were wondering).

3. Think/Feel/Do: Every communication piece should be subject to the think/feel/do test. Yes, even Apple stuff. In advance, determine what you want target customers to think, feel, and do when they see the package. Then use those objectives to make sure the creative execution hits the mark. It's a simple, powerful, and ego-free form of assuring purpose-driven communications and accountability for results.

Happy and persuasive communications!

I just saw (again) the happy UPS song-ad targeting international business, which reminded me how much I admire their We Love Logistics campaign (Ogilvy). Check it out! (And don't blame me if the song gets stuck in your head!).

After almost a decade of What Can Brown Do For You (Martin Agency), last fall UPS launched their new campaign, which is squarely aligned with their global growth strategy. Here's how UPS explains it:

Everybody loves something. We love logistics. We love its precision, its epic scale, its ability to make life better for billions of people. Each day, our customers count on us to choreograph a ballet of infinite complexity played across skies, oceans and borders. And we do. What's not to love?

Here are six key branding and identity-building lessons from this highly successful and viral campaign:

1. Creating a new category: By branding logistics as "The New Logistics," UPS is creating a new and much broader category, one which compels us (as "new" often does!) to want to know more, and one which they aim to own!

2. Think/Feel/Do: They are changing what people think about logistics, then associating those thoughts with good feelings, and then connecting those good feelings with UPS. The classic hierarchy of effects.

3. Capturing emotion: There aren't many business topics that are more left-brain sounding - and potentially boring - than logistics. Yet, UPS takes a lighthearted, fun, and strategic approach to bring feeling and life to logistics. (Even my teenager said "I love that ad!" and starting singing the song. He even knew lots of the words!). UPS doesn't just do logistics, they love logistics. (In all your spare time, count all the hearts in their cross-platform communications).

4. Focus on benefits: It's not really about logistics, it's about the benefits their global logistics network enables for small and medium size businesses. Check out their time and money savings calculator here.

5. Brand identity: And it's not just a branding campaign. It's recrafting their identity - their organizational soul - by expanding from shipping to logistics (more here in this Supply Chain Digital article). They manage to memorably convey everything they do, which is - dare I say "logistically!" - pretty complex, in a 30 second ad.

6. Operations-communications-sales alignment: Over the last several years, UPS has acquired dozens of companies to create their worldwide logistics network. They focus more on supply chain execs and CAOs, rather than just on shipping managers (more here). And their campaign brings it all to life in a personally relevant and highly engaging way!

Well done UPS (again)!