Differentiation and emotional connection driven by design experiences hold the key to unlocking brands' potential to foster customer engagement, says international strategic and design firm Eight Inc.
Thailand has a strong creative culture according to Mr Kobe, who curated the design of Apple’s first store in New York. (Photo: Arnun Chonmahatrakool)
Eight has worked with various organisations to push for digital transformation, including Advanced Info Service (AIS), Thailand's biggest mobile operator, as well as companies in the financial, hotel and fashion sectors.
The design-led firm is also behind the transformation of multiple global firms, such as Nike, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Apple and Citibank.
Tim Kobe, founder and chief executive of Eight, told the Bangkok Post human service outcome prospects and strategies must be initiated first and then accurate tactical decisions can be made.
"We help companies to have the framework as the value creation engine that can lead to customer experience," he said.
The master plan for customer experience is a set of tools that could bring the right decision for designs or construction, Mr Kobe said.
"It is all about designing experience," he said.
Mr Kobe was behind the design of Apple's first store in New York and worked for 12 years with late Apple boss Steve Jobs.
He said the Apple Store can deliver experiences to customers that help communicate brand value.
People go to Apple stores because they are aligned with the firm's value system, which is very important for communication with customers, he said.
Apple stores, through architecture and design, can communicate the value of the brand, which is open, democratic and modern with the generous space for service.
There is also environment involved, such as how staff interact and communicate with customers as well as products and services.
"If you put all of those touch points together, that's actually how people understand brands," Mr Kobe said. "Our job is creating experiences to help brands make their customers believe that they care and build a relationship and share common values."
Creating experiences also help generate sales and revenue, he said.
"We did a project for Nissan in Japan. Instead of putting cars in the showroom, we want to sell Nissan's thinking. So we changed it from the cars that they sell in the showrooms to an exhibition around the future of mobility," said Mr Kobe.
The exhibition drew a huge number of participants, which subsequently propelled sales, he said.
The company also encouraged Globe Telecom in the Philippines to switch from focusing on product sales to fostering customers feeling emotionally connected with the brand, including content. Globe Telecom ended up becoming the biggest player in the market.
SEE DIFFERENTLY
According to Mr Kobe, Thailand has a strong creative culture and tourism.
"Thailand needs to make others see the difference and emotional connection by fostering design experience to communicate value," he said.
He said company leaders need to be open to doing innovative things by fostering differentiation and emotional connections.
"These two keys lead to deep relation and passion," said Mr Kobe. "We design human experience. Design is the first part. We have to understand how to build relationships."
"In order to do that, we have to understand demographics and psychographics, how to divide audience and classify, and understand what makes people behave in a positive way to generate positive outcome."
He said Jobs always talked about "value" and what the work does for the people is the most important thing.
"Brilliant people like Steve used logical or analytic thinking with intuitive thinking," he said.
METAVERSE ENGAGEMENT
Mr Kobe said the metaverse is another touch point to activate engagement with customers. "It still needs to look at differentiation and emotional connection to activate opportunities in an infinite world," he said.
Brands would make a mistake if they just want to just "copy" stores and put them in the metaverse, he said. "The opportunity for imagination and creativity and new ideas within the metaverse is a space that's not encumbered by gravity."
"When you think of the opportunities in a space with infinite capabilities, you get a chance to define that capability," said Mr Kobe.
"It would be a shame to just copy and paste something that I already have in the shopping mall, right in the metaphor, which is what a lot of companies are doing because it's a gold rush."
Brands need to be creative about being present in the metaverse.
According to him, the physical and virtual worlds can create fascinating new relationships and new ways of human interaction, he said.
URBAN PLANNING
Mr Kobe pointed out the pandemic requires changes in the urban design model, noting technology can eliminate traditional mobility by using virtual space.
He said urban planning needs to focus more on lifestyles instead of the previous concept of separating commercial and residential areas.
"We need to rethink urban planning around lifestyles built in proximity to one another," he said.
He acknowledged budget constraints among companies pursuing digital transformation but these firms can achieve budget optimisation without a change in "human design experience" concepts.
