Everybody's talking, nobody's listening

This week Nestlé announced it was following a Japanese philosophy called kansei to help the company design products which elicit certain emotional responses from customers. It begs the question: how come it hasn’t been designing products with this in mind from day one?! But then, certain Nestlé products have drawn very definite emotional responses that the company did not want at all. Even though kansei appears to be about product design rather than brand accountability, this will be a strategy worth watching. If Nestlé is actually working closely with customers, then maybe it will learn something that will encourage it to go beyond the rudiments of mere product design. The zeitgeist is that everybody’s broadcasting and nobody’s receiving. Brands are blogging and bragging, boosting their messages through multivarious mobile means. Kansei actually means ‘sense engineering’. It’s all about acquiring an understanding of customer sensitivity to certain product attributes. Yet we have an English word for the real art form that’s required here. It’s called listening. Of course, there’s listening, then there’s hearing. Take note, Nestlé.

Mark Griffiths www.idealconsulting.co.uk