The Way to My Heart? It’s Simple.
Make it simple. Keep it simple. That’s the idea behind the amazing book Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity by Alan Siegel, Founder of the global brand strategy firm Siegel + Gale, and Irene Etzkorn, Executive Director of Simplicity there.
Siegel and Etzkorn (S and E) view simplicity as “...cutting to what matters and delivering substantive content that seems to speak to an audience of one.” Above all, it results in that rare feeling of trust. Simplicity is a triumph over the complexity and group-think that plagues large companies and builds over time, until it’s accepted as the status quo.
The fear-based mindset at many (most?) large institutions is that it’s safer to give everyone—customers, prospects, employees, shareholders, you name it—more information explaining every potential outcome. Witness: In 1980, an average credit card agreement was under two pages. Today, it’s 31 utterly indecipherable pages.
In 1975, Siegel was asked by marketers at First National City Bank, the predecessor of Citibank, to redesign its forms. He told them they didn’t need forms that looked different. They needed forms people could understand. Working with a readability expert and the bank’s lawyers, Siegel turned a pages-long credit card disclaimer into one sentence: “I’ll be in default 1) If I don’t pay an installment on time or 2) If any other creditor tries by legal process to take any money of mine in your possession.”
And thus a movement was born.
Big Business for Big Business
With large institutions widely viewed as nontransparent and social media that allows people to comment and publicize absurd complexity instantaneously, S and E see this as a watershed time for those companies willing to commit—at every level—to clarity.
Simplicity doesn’t just translate into brand loyalty. It can have a big effect on the bottom line as well. S and E found that consumers are willing to pay a simplicity premium as high as 6% for “brands offering a greater degree of simplicity” (defined as ease of understanding, transparency, caring, innovation, and usefulness of communications).
Investing for retirement will always be more complex than ordering a latte. The key: Keeping complexity as invisible to the end user as possible. Whether it’s a less frustrating phone tree, a clear explanation on a prescription bottle, a useful text alert or a memorable TV spot, “Everyone wants to understand what is being offered to and expected of them. Simplicity…shortens the distance between people.”
Me? I Loved and Lost.
When the online bank ING launched, I loved everything about it. My every touch point—from emails to statements to tax forms—was crystal clear, conversational and inviting. My ING CPS score was a solid 10.
Alas, that ING disappeared when the behemoth Capital One bought it a few years later. From the stilted, impersonal communications announcing the sale to the cumbersome new site to the lower interest rate on my savings account, ING morphed into another murky, bait-and-switch bank out to nickel and dime me.
My bottom line? All I ask, dear brand, is that you give me clear information—what I need and want, when I need and want it—that makes my life simpler, not more complex. That may not be easy, but it’s worth the effort. Because you’ll win my heart forever.
All excerpts are from the book Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity,
Copyright 2013 by Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn.