Looks count

Entrepreneur, Sept, 1997 by Bernd Schmitt

Aesthetics. From the moment we awaken to the end of each working day, we are dazzled by what we see, hear, taste, smell and feel. Our personal tastes guide our decisions in choosing our neighborhoods, decorating our homes, selecting our clothing, picking our appliances and buying our cars.

Many marketers have forgotten what provides value to customers, what truly satisfies customers, what "turns them on." Business has been preoccupied with "total quality management," "business process re-engineering," "defining core competencies" and "strategic planning." Business processes do not provide value to customers. Core competencies do not. Even brands do not. Value is provided only by satisfying needs. In a world in which most consumers have their basic needs satisfied, value is easily provided by satisfying customers' aesthetic needs.

Aesthetics provides opportunities for businesses to appeal to customers through a variety of sensory experiences and thereby create customer satisfaction and loyalty. These opportunities are not limited to industries such as fashion, cosmetics and entertainment that are concerned with aesthetic products. Any organization, in any industry, for any customer base, carl benefit from using aesthetics.

* IDENTITY WITH A TWIST

In the late 1970s, no one would have expected that a new Swedish vodka import would become one of the hottest-selling vodkas in the U.S. a decade later. The odds were clearly against Absolut. It faced formidable competition by Stolichnaya from Russia, which had a market share of more than 80 percent in the imported vodka category. To make matters more difficult, Absolut had a brand name that lacked distinction, a product imported from a country not associated with a tradition of superb vodkas, and an old-fashioned bottle that looked as if it had come from an alchemist's laboratory. Not surprisingly, a marketing study warned against introduction.

In 10 years, however, Absolut sales soared from 5,000 cases per year to 2.5 million. In the late '80s, the Swedish upstart eclipsed Stolichnaya as the bestselling imported brand and commanded a market share of 60 percent among imported vodkas.

How did Absolut do it? None of the common explanations for this kind of marketing achievement - product quality, efficient distribution or price leadership - explain its success. What happened is not miraculous nor mysterious, however. Absolut knew that the traditional ingredients of successful brands are no longer enough to lift a product above its competitors. The willingness to market its aesthetics moved Absolut into its enviable market position.

Absolut's success came from a well-integrated identity campaign. The commonplace word of the brand name and the product's distinctively shaped bottle became the center of an artistically imaginative campaign. The Absolut identity is cool and cutting-edge, yet playful and irreverent. The product is associated with a fashionable, artsy scene.

In a nutshell, Absolut's sassy image is created through mixing consistent and simple refinement with unconventional executions. Not just the look of the ads but the way they use the advertising medium itself conveys this identity. Holiday campaigns always offer something special and unpredictable. The "Absolut Wonderland" ad was encased in a clear plastic package that contained tiny plastic snowflakes suspended in a mixture of oil and water.

The Absolut campaign has been copied shamelessly by competitors. It has been paraded and used for products unrelated to liquor. Yet more than 15 years since its invention, the campaign seems as fresh as ever.

* BEYOND THE SIZZLE

Traditional organizations provide products - the proverbial "selling the steak." But good marketers, and particularly today's market-driven, customer-oriented organizations, focus on the perceived benefit of the product - "selling the sizzle." Cutting-edge organizations of today and the versatile organizations of tomorrow provide experiences - "selling the experience of consuming the steak." Any good steakhouse knows that beyond just providing a good steak, it must provide customers with a total sensory experience, from well-crafted steak knives that feel right to dark wood decor and low lighting.

That's where aesthetics comes in. "Marketing aesthetics" refers to the marketing of sensory experiences that contribute to the organization's or brand's identity. Today's environments are multimedia, multichannel, multi-sensory and digital. Communications, transportation, and products and services are becoming global. Worldwide, more people than ever are living in cities, and consumer lifestyles and preferences - especially among young people - are intense, short-lived and ever-changing.

New media and technologies like multimedia, the Internet and virtual reality provide immense opportunities for grabbing customers and providing them with satisfying combinations of text, pictures and videos as well as sound, touch and smell. Businesses that engage consumers are those that afford them a memorable sensory experience that ties in with the positioning of the company, product or service.