Enhancing Customer Experience Through Infographics: What 3 and Wonga Have in Common

Infographics are growing in popularity and stature, but their potential to enhance customer experience is still largely untapped.  Any brand that has to present its customers with complex quantitative data would benefit from doing so in a more user-friendly way.

Telecoms company 3 has just launched an app-based tool that allows its subscribers in Sweden to view their bill data and mobile usage in a funky interactive graphic funky interactive graphic form. In other words, it has turned a customer pain point of trawling through incomprehensible bills into a user-friendly, pleasurable experience. This is a great hallmark for a youthful and irreverent brand like 3, helping to differentiate its offer from that of other telecoms providers. 

Utilities and financial services brands could similarly make their customers’ lives easier by portraying bills and offers in a visual, straight forward and interactive manner. Wonga seems to have caught on to this with their simple loan calculator that takes complexity and confusion out of the application. 

The categories that could make best use of such visualization – telecoms, utilities and financial services – are not renowned for their customer-centricity. Which is precisely why they ought to take notice of this powerful tool. 

Gaymers’ New Look: of Cider, Festivals and Branding Different

I love Gaymers. It transcends my two great passions in life – cider and festivals. It's synonymous with brilliant music, muddy wellies and frolicking in the sunshine. In the competitive cider market where virtually identical brands vie for the attention of young urban professionals their strategy of branding around music and bringing it to life through festivals is a stroke of genius.

Their packaging re-launch is yet one more step in that direction. It's a clear move away from the visual cues associated with ‘standard’ ciders such as Magners and Bulmers (see below) such as the bottle shape, gold label, focus on provenance and ‘originality.’ (N.B. Can anyone actually tell them apart?) 

Gaymers’ new look is clearly influenced by visual styles and emerging cultural codes associated with festivals. The bright block colours and playful retro typography come up time and again in the likes of Bestival and Lovebox and thus help position Gaymers as an affiliate of the liberal outdoor music culture. By comparison, the ‘standard’ cider look begins to feel formal and stuffy with their carefully crafted ‘signed’ labels.

When everyone talks about originality, it stops being original. The introduction of Stella’s Cidre brought a welcome shake-up to the category and drove many estbalished cider brands (including Magners) towards premiumisation. Gaymers have recently been hit by this trend as they were stuck in the middle, but the current move is a clever competitive response which should hopefully grow not just their sales but the cider category in general. I, for one, am really excited.

Naked on the Shelf

From Stark Naked foods to Naked Smoothies to Naked Noodles – nudity seems to have recently flooded supermarket shelves.

Interestingly, even the visual language of these products has similarities – recurrent use of fluid, organic lines, child-like fonts, and vivid yet natural colours.

It is easy to see the thinking behind these brands. ‘Naked’ is the ultimate stamp of clean label – something that Innocent, the uncrowned king of the health beverage world, has raised the bar for. Yet apart from the health and transparency messaging, the term ‘Naked’ also works to give the brand an attitude and infuse it with a cheeky, urbane personality. A textbook case of functional/emotional benefit one might say.

However, as it becomes more prevalent, naming your product ‘Naked’ is no longer that differentiating, nor particularly interesting. Brands ought to look to new, original ways of communicating the health messages of their products in a sassy and catchy manner.

Undressed salad, anyone?