Archive for the 'Articles' Category

Vive la difference

Published on November 17, 2009 in Articles and Interesting. 0 Comments

I am often asked if there is any real need to market technology to women as surely they just want the same things as men: quality, well-designed and simple products. Surely all we need to do is cut out the pink stuff and quit dumbing-down the technology.  End of story?  The short answer is no: There are some things that both men and women want, however it is far more complex and there are important differences. My latest research The Lady Geek Times Brand Survey 09 confirmed why.

Firstly, men see technology as something to be conquered whilst women see technology as something that can enhance their life.   Men are quite happy to tinker and conquer with a product for hours. Women just want things to work.   They want a clean interface, fewer frills and more substance than men.  An out of the box experience.

A few manufacturers understand this: Flip’s Mino and PURE’s Sensia are great demonstrations of perfect female design:  These products provide a clean, beautiful interface. They only do a few things but they do them very well.

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Secondly, women buy technology completely different to men:

Most men research products extensively before buying. The male sales experience serves one of two purchases: Either a transactional purchase ( an exchange of money with little wanted interaction ). The other is that it is an opportunity to for bragging ( to ensure that they know more than the sales assistant ).

Women on the other hand, are often ‘reassurance addicts.’   62% of women said being reassured that they have bought the right product was really important to them.  And 40% of women do not have a brand or model in mind when shopping for tech compared to 20% of men. Women actually solicit advice from retailers (who are mostly unable to provide it).

Finally, when it comes to advertising, this is where tech companies make the worst mistakes. They only have three maladroit ways of positioning their products. The first is ‘tech porn‘ or ‘nerd jargon’ (spec, ram, gigabytes).  The second is ‘does not know what a phone is‘ (dumb technology down or disguise it) or lastly just ‘make it girly and pink” (bows, butterflies, princesses).

Women are different. Not better.  Not more intelligent.  Just different.

Vive la difference.

Analogic Solutions to Digital Problems, older people and mobile communication.

Published on November 10, 2009 in Electronics, Interesting, Mobile Phones, design process, older people and people centred design. 2 Comments

by Clara Gaggero

Older users, particularly older women, seem reluctant to use mobile technology on a daily basis. According to Ofcom, (The Consumer Experience 2008 Research Report) only 5% of people aged over 65 makes a phone call or sends a text on a daily basis.

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Samsung commissioned a research project to the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art to tackle this issue. Adrian Westaway and myself  conducted the yearlong project, aimed at enabling older users to use and enjoy mobile technology.
Existing “solutions”, often known as Silver Phones, are stigmatising and disrespectful. They dumb down information instead of enabling the users to access them. We believed that creating another mobile phone with bigger screen and bigger buttons would not solve the problem. We believe that older people would benefit from gps, and other applications that mobile technology can offer nowadays.

We looked at the bigger picture, analysing the whole user journey. We worked closely with users of all ages and we soon discovered something staggering. After purchasing or receiving the phone, when opening the box, digitally savvy younger users approach immediately the phone and learn how to use it by trial and error; older people instead look for help inside the box. Help isn’t always there, manuals are merely legal requirements printed on flimsy paper and the packaging is a glorified egg carton. We noticed that the enthusiasm of having a new phone vanishes at this stage and many people feel frustrated and excluded.

But older people are not alone, 85% of all users report frustration in setting up a new phone. This shows how, by focusing on a defined user group and conducting a people centred design process, we can discover a big commercial opportunity.

We created three solutions, three analogical answer to digital problems. People are waiting six months or more to meet their daughters, sons or nieces, the “translators” that will explain them the phone or the digital camera’s features. We created three objects that act as interpreters between technology and the users.

The Book:
Most phones come with flimsy manuals with complicated language and jargon. These books, which can live on a bookshelf, actually contain the phone. Each page reveals the elements of the phone in the right order, helping the user to set up the sim card, the battery and even slide the case onto the phone.
The second book is the main manual – the phone actually slots into this and becomes the center of attention. Arrows point to the exact locations the user should press, avoiding confusion and eliminating the feeling of being lost in a menu.

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The Cards:
Phones have become over complicated and many users are afraid to break them or get lost in menus – so they don’t explore and learn all the things they can do. A set of cards represents every function inside the phone which users can flick through and discover. The phone is supplied empty, and users add the functions they want by tapping a card onto the screen. Cards can be carried in your wallet so functions can be accessed on the move. To encourage learning, the back of the card explains what the function does, and how to reach it using the menus.

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The Map:
Last but not least. To encourage users to explore and familiarize themselves with their phones a map was created, which guides users through the meandering labyrinth of menus. Users tests showed that people were quickly discovering and getting interested in new areas of their phone previously buried under layers of menus.

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Samsung was very pleased with the results of the research and is now developing internally the solutions to bring them to market. The company is looking for applying this direction not only to mobile phones but to a whole range of digital tools on the market – cameras, video recorder, mp3 players… -
Samsung will talk to its older customer in a way that will distinguish them to the competitors who dump down information and whose design is focused on disabilities rather than being inspired by abilities.

For more information please contact: info@claragaggero.com

Technology & Fashion: A match made in Heaven or Hell?

Published on November 2, 2009 in Articles and Interesting. 3 Comments

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Last week Dell hosted an event intended to unite the worlds of fashion and technology bloggers. Their goal was to discuss how technology could be re-positioned as fashion in order to sell it to women.

With Microsoft’s research highlighting that technology is as important to women as fashion, should tech brands be positioning their wares as fashion accessories? Does it correlate that women love fashion and therefore if you position technology as fashion, women will want to buy it? Is a netbook the latest fashion accessory? Would women rather have the new Dell Adamo XPS rather than a pair of Jimmy Choos?

It’s not an original idea to try to sell technology as if it were a fashion accessory. LG’s Prada phone was the first time a major fashion brand put it’s label on a phone. Despite it’s modest capabilities it sold well, proving the allure and reach of the Prada brand.

Few woman have a strong attachment to technology brands – in such a vacuum a strong brand like Prada can help shift products, even if it does seem out of place on the shelves of the Carphone Warehouse. I suspect that the Prada label puts off as many women as it attracts, since there is something frivolous about being seen to flaunt a label, especially on a something as conspicuous as a phone.

There’s a big problem with the technology as fashion proposition:

Firstly, fashion is by nature short term. After a single season your old fashion is out of fashion. That’s perfectly fine for a £20 top from Top-Shop, however it’s not so fine when you are locked into a two year contract on a fashion-phone which is no longer a-la-mode.

If the networks are going to sell a phone on a 2 year contract they need to continue to offer value over this period or risk alienating the customer.

Secondly, the reasons I buy technology are very different to why I buy clothes. Technology enhances my life, builds real and intimate connections with people. It gives me a voice. And amplifies my voice to those closest to me. Fashion is transitory. I get immediate gratification but its fleeting. Its fun but not meaningful. Brands risk trivializing themselves by positioning themselves as fashion.

Lastly, every tech brand seems to take this approach to women. Samsung’s Genio talks about it’s exciting colours but does not mention what value it can add. Dell’s “my colour is pink” tv-spot looks like a mid-90s’ shoe advert. This is clearly not a way to generate sustainable difference.

As one Lady Geek said,

“What my phone and shoes do for me are very different. One connects me with the world and is about relationships. The other is solely just for me”

To truly understand women, tech brands must research and understand how women engage with technology in the real world.  They would understand that Fashion is about ‘me,’ technology is about ‘we.’  Two very different propositions in my world.


Tech retailers add no value

Published on October 23, 2009 in Articles, Mobile Phones and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

When was the last time you saw an actual mobile phone on display in a mobile phone store?

If you’ve had the misfortune to wander into one of these places recently you will notice that the walls and shelves of these places are usually covered with “dummy” phones, empty shells in which the screen has been replaced by a sticker. Who could possibly think that a dead lump of plastic riveted to the wall gives an impression of the real thing?

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Carphone Warehouse is an unpleasant shop: It’s the only technology vendor I know that borrows it’s design aesthetic from the Job-Centre. At the Liverpool St. branch I asked the bored-looking man behind the minuscule desk if I could try out HTC’s newish “Hero”. I found his reply quite astonishing: He explained that he couldn’t let me try one because they did not have a demo unit and that I ought to look on the company’s website which had an “interactive demo”.

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At the nearby Orange shop on Bishopsgate I asked to try out the new Motorola Dext. This time my assistant was able to locate a working handset but unfortunately he brought it to me without a SIM card – that meant that I could not try out the phone’s killer feature: Social networking. So how was I supposed to experience this new product? He pointed me to a fuzzy screen near the entrance to the shop: Oh goody! Another interactive demo.

The previous examples are typical rather than exceptional: Conventional wisdom is that shops have one big advantage over online vendors: They allow you to experience the product. But if shops cannot get this very basic trick right then what value are they adding?  And why, according to Jupiter, over half of all women walking out of stores because they cant find what they want.

We asked the Lady Geek panel about the kinds of retail experiences which they wanted: Virtually everybody said it was important to talk about, touch, smell, engage with a  product before buying.

Women are “reassurance addicts.” Women feel at a relative disadvantage when shopping for technology.   They are much less likely to have done research about the product before they buy compared to men.   And they are much more likely to rely on the sales experience than men. Nearly half of all women have no idea what brand they are buying when they walk into a tech store.

The retail experience is akin to a “vending machine.” Not only that but as a woman, you feel like a bit of bait ready to be snapped up by a pushy sales guy.

Our research indicates a clear prescription for selling more phones to women:

  • Find a way to put a few real products on display – and into customer’s hands.
  • End the hard-sell tactics and let good products sell themselves.
  • Stock a smaller range of more interesting products. Vendors should be brave experts and trust their opinion about what customers should want.
  • Employ women to help attract more women and make the environment a place where women want to be.

With Best Buy entering the UK market, tech retailers have no choice but to add real value or die.

The Masculinity of Marketing

Published on September 11, 2009 in Articles. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

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I have sat in numerous meetings where clients and agency people alike have spent hours talking about what the rational unique selling point (USP) is of a product.  Very rarely have any of the products I have sold had a truly unique feature or benefit.  And in technology, any unique feature is quickly copied and therefore unsustainable as a long term strategy.

Whats much more unique is the emotional features of selling a technology product.  How it feels to the user.  The retail environment in which it is presented.  The feeling it creates in others who see you with your gadget.  And ultimately the meaningful human interaction and creativity it brings.

So why then do we insist on spending hours debating the rational USP of a product?  Comparing every tiny feature of a product with like for like competitor comparisons?  And talking about one specific rational feature as if it is going to solve every problem you have ever had in your life?

I propose we are asking the wrong answers and therefore coming up with the wrong solutions.  Take my previous article about Nokia’s N97.  Imagine the engineers and the marketing team’s conversation.

“The n97 has so many USPs.  Its sure to be an i-phone killer.”

“For a start it has a 5 megapixel camera.  The i-Phone only has 2.”

“Not to mention the FM transmitter…”

“And the fold out keyboard.”

The list goes on.  Nokia got so hung up on rational USP’s; they forgot about how people use the phone and the feelings it creates in the heart not the head.  A great product is more then the sum of its features. The tragedy of most products is that despite the brilliance of their specification, these features are not how women engage with technology.

One woman told me last week;

I love my i-Phone.  It somehow manages to capture the human expression of technology; whether its flicking the screen like i would with paper or browsing through my photos.  It just feels more human that other tech gadgets”

Pretty Little Head talk about how most marketing focuses on the Achievement Impulse- a male strategy which delivers competitive claims framed through a product advantage (largely based on Baron-Cohen’s work).  Most advertising claims talk about how technology helps men succeed.   In advertising we use ‘male’ language- military language of targets, strategies, campaigns, deployment and so on.

With the missed financial opportunity being at 0.6billion according to Jupiter, as a consequence of failing to connect with women, technology brands need to build marketing programmes around a female mindset and agenda.

Forgetting about USP’s is a good place to start.

Baby Geek

Published on August 16, 2009 in Electronics. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

If Microsoft can do it then I can go one better: My three year old son is reviewing the latest touch-screen laptop sent to me by HP: The HP Touchsmart TX2.  I had reservations about a touch smart screen as why would you need a touch screen on a laptop when you have a keyboard, but my son really loved it.  So did his favourite toy Serena…

The N97, the ultimate Symbian smartphone or Nokia’s big joke?

Published on August 11, 2009 in Electronics. 4 Comments

I have to admit that I was in a state of giddy anticipation when I got home to find that the courier had delivered a shiny new Nokia N97: It came in a under-stated black box which resembled a treat from a Regent Street boutique. It was a pleasure to unbox, as I appreciated the way it feels comfortable in my hands.

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The N97 is a radical new design, somewhere between a classic touch-screen like the iPhone and a keyboard-phone like the Blackberry. The whole device slides open with a very satisfying swing that just exudes quality engineering revealing an easy to use QUERTY thumb-pad and a joystick for people who do not enjoy using touch-screens. Other bloggers have complained about the angle of the slide: The screen is at approximately thirty degrees to the key-pad, and it’s impossible to push it flat. I never found that to be a problem because the shape of the phone when opened out makes it very easy to hold securely while typing and walking.

I agree with Susy Weaser when she says that the test of a good gadget is that you should not need to read the manual. It does not take me long to download the Facebook and Twitter application.

However, it takes me ages to find out how to change the basics: date and time, profiles, personalisation. I found the structure of the configuration application very confusing: It took half an hour to connect to one of the many WiFi access points in the house and even more time to download the Google Apps.

Nokia are pushing their “Ovi Store” as the one-stop shop for all applications, however I found that I couldn’t find the applications I wanted. The search did not seem to work at all.

In all I think I must have spent about twelve hours customising and tweaking the phone’s apps and settings before I had something which seemed vaguely right.

Speaking of customisations – the phone seemed to want to do it’s own thing: For example even though I set up my own Google Mail application and then the “Mail for Exchange” client (which can be used to connect to Google’s calendar and tasks) it still insisted on forcing me to set up Nokia’s own mail software each time I powered on the phone. Even after I relented and signed up for “Ovi Mail” it still wanted me to set up the mail service every time I switched the phone on, which happened rather a lot given the phone’s tendency to crash in the middle of whatever I happened to be doing.

And on the subject of reliability: The Symbian platform is known for it’s dependable full-featured phones. I’ve been using Nokia’s S60 phones for more than three years. Unfortunately somebody in Nokia’s testing department must have been on holiday when they were preparing this for release: Even after upgrading all the software to the latest version this phone crashed two or three times per day. It usually happened at the least appropriate time, such as when I was talking on the phone.

The most annoying bug was a quirk on the key-lock: If left un-used for a minute the device automatically locks it’s keyboard to prevent accidental dialling. You are supposed to be able to unlock it by simply flicking the keylock switch on the side, however from time to time it would decide to ignore this. Other than removing the battery to hard-reset the phone I could find no way to get back in control of the device. Given that this happened two or three times a week I’m astonished that Nokia’s quality-control people did not spot this problem.

Finally, my biggest gripe is the screen itself: It looks just like any other mobile phone touch-screen however unless you push it quite hard nothing happens. I found it required quite a bit of pressure to make it work, and then given the force you have to use it becomes very imprecise so I often found myself pressing the wrong button by mistake. The N97’s touch-screen is really quite clumsy. It’s got no multi-touch and Nokia cheekily bundle a little stylus with the phone – suggesting that Nokia are well aware that this touch-screen is not intended for touching.

The iPhone has already set the standard for a touch-screen.  Everybody knows how well the iPhone works – you can touch it with one or two fingers. You can manipulate images on screen with easy to learn gestures. You do not need a stylus or any special accessory to use it. Like most modern touch-screens the iPhone, HTC Magic, Palm Pre and pretty much everybody else uses a “capacitive” screen which can sense the presence of your fingertips without the need to push. The N97 uses an older generation of screen known as “Resistive” – it’s the same kind of screen that you find on a Nintendo DS. This cheaper sort of screen relies on actual pressure in order to register input.

Please do not mistake me for an Apple fan, it’s just that I recognise that they got it right whereas Nokia got it wrong. And that’s a real shame because the screen was supposed to be the biggest selling point of this new machine. I cannot think why Nokia decided to go 2nd best for the phone’s main feature.

The N97 is packed with features, cool things like a built in FM transmitter, the best mobile-camera on the market, and an email application that easily rival’s Blackberry’s flagship. On paper this looks like the best phone ever made however silly design mistakes frequent annoying bugs makes me reluctant to recommend this product. Other than the screen (which a great many people will not find a problem), all of the phone’s problems are to do with it’s software so in theory Nokia could release an update which corrects all of the phone’s faults. Rumor has it that they will be releasing a refreshed version of the N97 with an improved screen (but without the joypad) – I hope that Nokia can pull it off second time around.

Finally, it’s been said that the N97 is one of the most eccentric products that Nokia have ever made: The week before I had to give it back they sent me an even more bizarre product to review. It’s supposed to be an “anti-theft” device for the N97. You clip your state of the art Nokia into what looks like an early 1980’s phone and then run an application which is intended to make the N97’s screen look exactly like an old-fashion phone keypad.

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The end result is that your N97 is made to look like something that Cybill Shepherd in Moonlighting might have used.  My kids love it.  It shows that even if they did not get the N97 completely right, Nokia has a sense of humour.

Buying An Object of Desire

Published on August 3, 2009 in Articles and Mobile Phones. 3 Comments Tags: , .

I treated myself to an iPhone. As many objects of desire, an iPhone does not come cheap, so the shopping experience could be expected to enhance the status of the object of desire as, well, desirable.

An advantage of getting an iPhone is, indeed, that you can buy it in an Apple Store and avoid other technology stores. I would have been able to buy it online, too, but I wanted the in-store experience. So I went to Apple’s Regent Street store after making an appointment with a personal shopper first. Given how crowded the store is, that was a good decision.

I was quickly assigned my personal shopper and led to the cordoned-off area for the personal shopping experience. Although I had done my research beforehand and knew exactly what I wanted, he took me through all the options. I, playing the role of the customer, engaged in the ritual of the sales pitch. My personal shopper was a mid-twenties guy. He explained all the options to me in an unpretentious way. This would make it easy for people who are not sure what they want to make their choice.

After getting a brand-new boxed iPhone based on my choice, my personal shopper set out to register it. Sadly, he had to open the box for this. This meant that my unwrapping experience at home was diminished. But who would complain about this if he then does all the admin for you and you can use your phone straightaway?

He told me the process would take 15 minutes, however he did not consider o2. There was some website problem and we were always kicked out of the registration system. My personal shopper finally rang them using his personal BlackBerry (a bit ironic given that it was an Apple store) and registered the iPhone. It was rather 45 minutes than 15 minutes. However sitting in the personal shopping area of the Apple Store that was not too much of a problem.

Although the box had been opened, my personal shopper put all the material carefully back into the box and gave me a nice shopping bag to carry it home. I could bring my new iPhone home in style and could start using it straight away.

We have said many times that Apple as a brand appeals to female customers. Apple Stores are unlike other technology stores. Apple understands that technology should be an object of desire. My whole shopping experience was not unlike a personal shopping experience in clothing stores on Regent Street. I can imagine that women do like shopping in the Apple store. I did not feel patronized like in other technology stores. The shopping experience had some style to it. The purchase was wrapped beautifully. This makes the object of desire even more desirable. Particularly for women.

What do women care about

Published on July 20, 2009 in Articles and Electronics. 0 Comments

The idea that women are afraid of technology or that they do not use technology as much as male consumers is outdated. In business and in personal use, women make up a large percent of tech users, especially in computer and Internet use. So how, as a technology business owner or marketer, can you attract this large customer base at the same time you pursue teens, male consumers, and other demographics? In order to successfully make your tech products and systems appealing to women customers, you need to understand the ways in which they are influencing the market and other buyers.
1. Women care about “green” technology products. Studies have shown that women are more likely to boycott products that do not implement fair trade practices or that ignore environmental protection recommendations. If you want to keep up with the competition, make sure your products are energy efficient and that your business makes a point to recycle, give back to the community and produce technology through systems that do minimal harm to the environment.
2. They look for products that are multi-functional. Women who are active in the workforce as well as full-time caregivers look for products that can meet all the demands of their lives. You will need to prove that your product can handle extra applications, customizable features and other tools that streamline a customer’s entire life.
3. They monitor what their kids buy. Women who are savvy customers don’t just research their own purchases: they also monitor the things that their kids buy, or the tech toys that they buy for their kids. Remember that when marketing to kids, you’re also marketing to parents, so include features like parental controls, safety and privacy settings, and heavy-duty hardware.
4. They’ve amped up the desire for attractive tech toys. Now that women are investing more and more in technology, tech marketers need to come up with new designs that are aesthetically pleasing. Clunky, awkward laptops that aren’t attractive will never sell to a modern, mobile woman.
5. Women like being informed. Don’t make it impossible to find information about your product, including price, the types of materials used, tech support and energy efficiency. If you bury all of that information behind a snazzy ad, your customer will just head to another seller who is happy to share product information with the customers.

This post was contributed by Tara Miller, who writes about the best online degrees; TaraMillerr00@yahoo.com

Women know your place: The Boardroom

Published on June 15, 2009 in Games and Uncategorized. 2 Comments

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I feel like a Russian doll. I get smaller and smaller as the testosterone in the boardroom gets bigger and bigger. I tell myself I am a confident woman yet the environment I am in makes me feel I must change my persona and adapt to my ‘male’ surroundings. I must cut across people when they speak. I must hammer my point home with authority. I must emit an odour of superiority. I must show the world I am King. After all, this is advertising. ‘Cojones’ are the order of the day.

So many women behave like men in the Boardroom in advertising agencies. They feel they must emulate men to be successful. Many of the senior women I work with are not women I would aspire to be like. More like men in drag. This lack of appeal is one of the reasons why only 6% of women make up company board members in the UK compared to a directive in Norway where 40% of all board members have to be female. The reason Norway has chosen this approach is that a boardroom with women on it, improves turnover and attracts more talented women.

I want to propose a new style of Boardroom where women can openly use the traits they have: femininity, intimacy and authenticity. To create an agenda that is open, transparent and supportive. The Boardroom should not be a place for corporate politics but a place for productive intimate business.

Gestalt talks about how boards of directors tend to operate in ways that seek to minimise ineffectiveness. Trevor J Bentley, in relation to Gestalt, says

“Relationships on boards are often tenuous, superficial and dishonest. They are quite often transitory subsytems of people who support each other out of personal interest. The best that most boards achieve often through share option schemes, is to align the self interest of individual directors with the interest of shareholders. This approach tends to create a short term price focus that is nearly always to the detriment of the long-term sustainable growth and well-being of the business.”

This pretty much sums up why we are in a financial crisis. A group of money hungry men had short term personal goals of becoming richer without thinking about the long term consequences of their actions.

I want a far more ‘intimate’ and ‘authentic’ environment: Bentley states that there are 2 parts to working in an intimate system.

The first is knowing what I am prepared to offer others is what they want.

The second is knowing that what I want is what others are prepared to offer me.

My experience is that most people in meetings are never clear or open about what they want. It takes a series of long pointless and frankly ineffective meetings before you start to find out the other party actually wants. You have to “play the game” (countless times I have been asked to “play the game”-each time I am told this, I feel myself revert back to my Russian doll).

Once you are finally clear about what the other parties want, the quality of contact increases and people relate to each other with a degree of authenticity. Its a bit like when you have the frank conversation with your new boyfriend about what you want from the relationship. Once the hazy fog of second guessing has been lifted and everything is so much simpler and more enjoyable.

Today in the boardroom in agencies, I watch women emulate men, leaving the men to dictate the rules of the boardroom. Women must be prepared to use their feminine skills in a productive way and men must be prepared to build cultures that thrive on diversity and tolerance not conformity.

More senior women will attract talented women. Women want role models and female mentors that can support and nurture them. Not to mention, women will design products for other women. And when according to the New York Times, 80% of all products are bought by women, this is a profitable and commercially sound strategy.