#FUSE15 Day One Recap: Steven Overman, Bradley Kreit & More

By Sentient Decision Science, Inc.
April 14, 2015
Day one of IIRUSA’s #FUSE15 conference in Chicago was an inspiration-packed smorgasbord of branding and design insights from some of the most innovative minds in the business.
While we wish we could have made it to every session, the insights we gleaned from those we did attend are more than enough to think on. Here’s a brief recap of some of our favorite sessions of the day.

The Kodak Comeback, Steven Overman

As the author of “The Conscience Economy: How a Mass Movement for Good is Great for Business,” and the newly appointed CMO of Kodak, Steven Overman gave us an inside track on how the company plans to transform the Kodak brand to regain relevance for future generations.
Overman emphasized the importance of history and legacy for the Kodak brand. In recent years, as Kodak saw its brand moving away from B2C and toward B2B, their strategy seemed designed to eliminate anything that evoked their business in film.
But Overman’s plan is to turn that notion on its head, inspired by the nostalgia of the yellow photo envelope (remember those?) is to draw on previous innovation and focus on new product development to build back credibility as the scientific, innovative brand Kodak used to be.

We’ll be keeping an eye on Kodak to see how Overman’s comeback-plan plays out. If there’s one thing we know, it’s that tapping into consumer emotions through nostalgia is a powerful way to connect your brand with consumers sense of self.

The Brand Extendability Roadmap, Stephen Springfield & Dr. Aaron Reid

Sentient’s own Dr. Aaron Reid and Stephen Springfield presented on using subconscious insights for successful brand extensions. Using DORITOS as our case study, we discussed the ways a brand’s various attributes and customer associations can influence consumer behavior at the subconscious level.

Then we discussed how we used those insights for DORITOS for effective brand positioning and extension, resulting in one of the company’s most successful product launches ever. To end our session, we laid out five keys that lead to a successful brand stretch:

  1. Work to de-couple the inverse relationship between credibility and novelty.
  2. Help guide consumer inferences about points of similarity & points of difference. Design is hugely important to this step.
  3. Kiss your guardrails goodbye, because few things can remain always true of the brand.
  4. Select a category where your Brand Constant™ is an advantage.
  5. Make sure your brand’s presence in that category reinforces its main narrative.

Want to learn more? Stop by the Official FUSE Insights Lounge to chat with Aaron, Steve, or Faith. We’re here to show you how to leverage insights from hundreds of millions of consumer subconscious associations to position and extend your brands.

Future Forces Transforming Consumer Behavior, Bradley Kreit

Bradley Kreit both wowed and unnerved audience members during his discussion on the future of consumer behavior as driven by technological advances and marketing innovations. Careful to avoid the term “predictions” Kreit laid out a simple path for brand forecasting, which breaks down to: 50% foresight, 25% insight, 25% action, in that order.
From the Amazon Dash to Dorothy (the app that lets you click your heels to order an Uber), technology is changing the way we consume products and services.
We’d add our mobile implicit research technology, Sentient Prime, to that list. Sentient Prime uses mobile devices to help brands and insights managers assess consumer subconscious associations on-the-fly, in real time.

 The Empathetic Way: Effectively Leveraging Empathy to Change Businesses for the Better

Gareth Schweitzer, president and founder of Kelton Global, started his career as a journalist and news correspondent, so it’s no surprise he’d understand the value of empathy for effective storytelling.
But it’s not just journalists who benefit from empathy. Brands have their own stories to tell, and market researchers can help uncover which of those stories will resonate best with their audience. Even further, product developers need to hear the stories of their end-users in order to develop the most useful ways to serve them. In short, empathy means richer data.

The benefits of empathy for businesses are threefold:

  • Richer data = better creation
  • Introducing a culture of empathy has organizational impact
  • Empathy makes you a better and more efficient marketer

The science of understanding human emotion provides powerful new insights on how to connect with consumers by revealing the non conscious drivers of how consumers really feel

The Power of Design: What I Learned From Apple, Nathan Iverson

Nathan Iverson’s session spoke to the ways in which good design is rooted in truth. Design has very little room for bias. Design itself is not empathetic, but good design can touch humans. How? Iverson outlines three ideas:

  • ___ Innovation: Believe in who you’re working with
  • Craft Matters: Believe in the way you work
  • Challenge the Status Quo: Believe in the clients you are working for

Iverson closed by saying, “believe in design, not advertising. The advertising agency is dead!” We wouldn’t go that far, but our work on the subconscious associations, particularly with regard to logos and package design, is tangible evidence that great design lends itself to even greater profitability.

Keep Up With #FUSE15

You can keep up with all the FUSE 2015 speakers by following our handy Twitter list and check out the sessions we’re most looking forward to on Tuesday here. Thanks again, FUSE, for a great first day!

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