**4.2. Passive brand communication**

#### *4.2.1. The design brief*

*4.1.2. The concept: beyond the smart home environment*

is increased.

48 Marketing

that controls your environment.

So what should a seductive brand communication app? The answer is multiplicity. The crux here is that seductive interaction cannot be a universal concept. While one person may find exultant bliss of Mozart's operatic symphony, a similar person may feel a comparable (if altered) experience in the throes of a Cannibal Corpse's death metal concert. As the excellent journalistic observer Malcolm Gladwell [43] testified, there are no perfect products that will be revered by all. Instead, there can only be a suit of items catering to the range of personal preferences which people emotionally feel, yet cannot completely describe. By establishing multiple experiences, the chance of the consumer connecting at a deep level with at least one

The designer therefore has to choose between creating a single, complex app delivering a cornucopia of experiences, or a suit of apps each one tuned to a single purpose. While there are merits to both options, I hold that when several highly engaging experiences are combined into one platform compromises must be made. Therefore, to keep the experience as unfettered as possible, a suit of immersive and seductive experiences is the most suitable for fulfilling the brief. Therefore, consider how a seductively involving app might function in practice.

Fashion retail focuses on delivering in-store atmospherics that communicate the brand's impression [44]. The first concept is brand-appropriate atmospherics in the home. From thermostats to blinds, lighting, doors, music, and personal assistants, smart technology is becoming ever more pervasive within our home environments. Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Siri (for example) seeks to connect all of our appliances and environment features together in one ecosystem. However, when all appliances are connected by one of three ubiquitous virtual assistants, uniqueness and exclusivity (key concepts for fashion retail) are lost [45]. Let us then imagine an app by Chanel installed onto the smart home hub (e.g. Apple TV)

When interacting with your Chanel Smart Home, every room has a microphone and speaker. This allows you to ask the Chanel Virtual Assistant (let us call her Coco) anything at any time. Not only is Coco equipped with the latest in machine learning to mimic human personality, the tone of voice (and the assistant's accent) is set to mimic the tone of voice appropriate for the Chanel brand. Whenever a question is asked, Coco needs to make assumptions to fit the moment. For example, asking Coco to play relaxing music is to balance the user's learnt preference with the style appropriate with the Chanel brand. Taking this further, the lighting in the room can be set to automatically fit the time of day and mood of the music, delivering the perfect ambience. This lighting and background music can know who is home and their schedule. This allows the user to enter the home and step into a predetermined ambience through smart lighting, connected sound systems, and automated temperature. In short, the elegance and sophistication with which the house is managed allows the user to not just wear the Chanel clothing, but to live within the Chanel world. By focusing on the smart home, the user interaction is not through screens or keys, but through ubiquitous voice at all times. Given the right level of sophisticated interaction design, the user is constantly interacting,

constantly engaging, and at every turn being seduced by the brand.

Compared to the highly evocative world of seductive brand communication, you can be forgiven for assuming that passive communication can only be a poor cousin. However the continued prevalence of books in a world where Hollywood has delivered stimulating visuals for over 100 years holds credence to the idea that passive presentation is not dead. To consider passive brand communication in apps is therefore to uncover and celebrate its unique strengths to a commercial advantage. So what is the objective in building such apps? When pure sales are the goal, the answer is simple. This is to start a direct and explicit connection between the customer and the brand ideas with no interactivity getting in the way. But when

the brand communication is itself experiential and intangible, you may be forgiven for asking if removing the seductive element doesn't remove the communication. My answer to this is 'not so'. The philosophy (and theology) of Taoism has at the core of its philosophy meditation on the notion of stillness. This is exemplified by the quote '*Maintain a perfect stillness, and you will witness everything arising from this quietude'* ([27]; Chapter 16). In passive brand communication, while a seductive experience may be one of excitement and hedonism, a passive mediation offers a more tranquil interaction with the subject. Engaging a consumer in such a calm way may lead to a deeper connection with the brand than possible through seduction. Therefore the objective must be a calm, serene, and not overly distracting communication of the brand principles; imagine reading a book in a snow filled landscape instead of the extreme passion of a rock show.

*be subtle with bright colours*'. In your mind visualise any action blockbuster you have ever seen. Visualise the flashing lights, explosions, and shrapnel screaming through the air. Now pause that scene into a single crisp freeze frame. In that frozen moment all the exhilaration is still present, still engaging, and still communicating all the dynamics of the scene. However the viewer is no longer glued to watching it, and they can choose to engage, to reflect, or to move on with greater freedom. So the visual identity of the brand need not be compromised, only the methods they used to communicate the said identify should be suitable for a short attention span.

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After exploring the suit of seductive apps, all working together in harmony to create an immersive environment, it is easy to consider the same should apply to passive apps too. After all, one of the most powerful technologies of the last decade has been the Kindle eBook reader. The Kindle casts off the high performance of iPads and the like to present one thing: books. Simplicity is a pathway to uninterrupted engagement. As the remarkable designer

Through these nine rules, the simplest way of presenting a brand is after all through one app that focuses on one single form of brand communication. For some brands this may mean delivering one app, and for others a suit of apps. However caution should be provided to only produce as many apps as is necessary to communicate the brand even if that number is just one. While many other options present themselves for app concepts, I present below one

As Maeda [30] explains, people experience deeper levels of interaction when they are actively learning. While education in the traditional sense (i.e. Skills) may be inappropriate for a fash-

fashion brand, such as All Saints an app, has a single focus: instructing customers on the 'rules of style'. This app should be more than a simple catalogue or lookbook, focusing instead

The exception to this could be an outdoor clothing brand (for example) teaching customers about outdoor crafts, etc.

, style as an evolving concept presents one possibility. Therefore, a High Street

*4.2.2. The concept*

John Maeda put it [30], we must:

**3.** Reduce the time needs to engage

**6.** Provide everything in context **7.** Increase emotional response

**8.** Gain the users trust

ion brand4

4

**1.** Reduce the content until it cannot be reduced further

**5.** Allow for complexity to appear in order to contrast the simplicity

**9.** Subtract the obvious while adding meaningful artefacts

which embraces these principles while fulfilling the design brief.

**2.** Organise the system to make it appear limited

**4.** Add the opportunity for the user to learn

To match this passive objective, the scope of the app must therefore be able to unobtrusively communicate the key brand message. While a seductive app may require a significant chunk of time to engage with a passive app should be easy to engage with for short periods of time. In 2018 the most popular apps on the app store (and the most popular social networks) are Twitter and Facebook. These both offer bite sized interactions. Imagine the user opening the app, reading a 280 character message, laughing at a cat video, and then closing the app. The fact that these interactions are so short makes them effective, and the positive content makes them enjoyable. In summary, the apps are quick fixes of serotonin to the brain, easily engaged with throughout the day. Passively presenting information is the most effective way to create such interactions, communicating the brand in a satisfying way not possible through a bill board advert. However, the key must be enjoyment, if only for short periods of time.

The materials a designer has are similar to that of the seductive communicator. But unlike the highly engaging apps mentioned previously, limitations have to be put in place. First, the designer should only use the technology within the smartphone's native OS with none of the proprietary packages used by more exciting apps. Second, despite the average smartphone boasting enough processing power to run an augmented reality first person war game, the designer must ignore it. Instead, only the basic functions of information display native to both Android and iPhone since the early 2010s should be used. Ultimately it is up to the individual designer to choose where they draw the line on this restrictive issue. I suggest a very limited pallet of tools and technologies for the designer's utilisation for a single reason: simplicity. By removing all but the essential libraries of a programming language the designer is forced to consider the simplest way to achieve their objective. This creates a quieter, and purer communication of core brand values when compared to the decadence of seduction. So how can these materials be interpreted? Holistically through audio, simple page transitions, short (280 characters) snippets of written text, stories, and short videos. The balance must be found between enjoyable experiences and causal engagement here, which shall require great skill and restraint by the designer.

If the materials of the passive brand communication app are to be limited and tranquil, how does this relate to the look and feel of the app? While high street brands in 2018 have a focus on simplicity (notably *Zara Home* and *The White Company*), other fashion brands such as *Gucci, Abercrombie & Finch*, and *ADIDAS* seem to define complexity and exhilaration in their image. However to see a conflict here is to misinterpret simplicity. As Turner Prize winning artist Grayson Perry [47] said *'some people think that subtle is dull, they get muddled up. I think you can*  *be subtle with bright colours*'. In your mind visualise any action blockbuster you have ever seen. Visualise the flashing lights, explosions, and shrapnel screaming through the air. Now pause that scene into a single crisp freeze frame. In that frozen moment all the exhilaration is still present, still engaging, and still communicating all the dynamics of the scene. However the viewer is no longer glued to watching it, and they can choose to engage, to reflect, or to move on with greater freedom. So the visual identity of the brand need not be compromised, only the methods they used to communicate the said identify should be suitable for a short attention span.

#### *4.2.2. The concept*

the brand communication is itself experiential and intangible, you may be forgiven for asking if removing the seductive element doesn't remove the communication. My answer to this is 'not so'. The philosophy (and theology) of Taoism has at the core of its philosophy meditation on the notion of stillness. This is exemplified by the quote '*Maintain a perfect stillness, and you will witness everything arising from this quietude'* ([27]; Chapter 16). In passive brand communication, while a seductive experience may be one of excitement and hedonism, a passive mediation offers a more tranquil interaction with the subject. Engaging a consumer in such a calm way may lead to a deeper connection with the brand than possible through seduction. Therefore the objective must be a calm, serene, and not overly distracting communication of the brand principles; imagine reading a book in a snow filled landscape instead of the extreme

To match this passive objective, the scope of the app must therefore be able to unobtrusively communicate the key brand message. While a seductive app may require a significant chunk of time to engage with a passive app should be easy to engage with for short periods of time. In 2018 the most popular apps on the app store (and the most popular social networks) are Twitter and Facebook. These both offer bite sized interactions. Imagine the user opening the app, reading a 280 character message, laughing at a cat video, and then closing the app. The fact that these interactions are so short makes them effective, and the positive content makes them enjoyable. In summary, the apps are quick fixes of serotonin to the brain, easily engaged with throughout the day. Passively presenting information is the most effective way to create such interactions, communicating the brand in a satisfying way not possible through a bill

board advert. However, the key must be enjoyment, if only for short periods of time.

The materials a designer has are similar to that of the seductive communicator. But unlike the highly engaging apps mentioned previously, limitations have to be put in place. First, the designer should only use the technology within the smartphone's native OS with none of the proprietary packages used by more exciting apps. Second, despite the average smartphone boasting enough processing power to run an augmented reality first person war game, the designer must ignore it. Instead, only the basic functions of information display native to both Android and iPhone since the early 2010s should be used. Ultimately it is up to the individual designer to choose where they draw the line on this restrictive issue. I suggest a very limited pallet of tools and technologies for the designer's utilisation for a single reason: simplicity. By removing all but the essential libraries of a programming language the designer is forced to consider the simplest way to achieve their objective. This creates a quieter, and purer communication of core brand values when compared to the decadence of seduction. So how can these materials be interpreted? Holistically through audio, simple page transitions, short (280 characters) snippets of written text, stories, and short videos. The balance must be found between enjoyable experiences and causal engagement here, which shall require great skill and restraint by the designer. If the materials of the passive brand communication app are to be limited and tranquil, how does this relate to the look and feel of the app? While high street brands in 2018 have a focus on simplicity (notably *Zara Home* and *The White Company*), other fashion brands such as *Gucci, Abercrombie & Finch*, and *ADIDAS* seem to define complexity and exhilaration in their image. However to see a conflict here is to misinterpret simplicity. As Turner Prize winning artist Grayson Perry [47] said *'some people think that subtle is dull, they get muddled up. I think you can* 

passion of a rock show.

50 Marketing

After exploring the suit of seductive apps, all working together in harmony to create an immersive environment, it is easy to consider the same should apply to passive apps too. After all, one of the most powerful technologies of the last decade has been the Kindle eBook reader. The Kindle casts off the high performance of iPads and the like to present one thing: books. Simplicity is a pathway to uninterrupted engagement. As the remarkable designer John Maeda put it [30], we must:


Through these nine rules, the simplest way of presenting a brand is after all through one app that focuses on one single form of brand communication. For some brands this may mean delivering one app, and for others a suit of apps. However caution should be provided to only produce as many apps as is necessary to communicate the brand even if that number is just one. While many other options present themselves for app concepts, I present below one which embraces these principles while fulfilling the design brief.

As Maeda [30] explains, people experience deeper levels of interaction when they are actively learning. While education in the traditional sense (i.e. Skills) may be inappropriate for a fashion brand4 , style as an evolving concept presents one possibility. Therefore, a High Street fashion brand, such as All Saints an app, has a single focus: instructing customers on the 'rules of style'. This app should be more than a simple catalogue or lookbook, focusing instead

<sup>4</sup> The exception to this could be an outdoor clothing brand (for example) teaching customers about outdoor crafts, etc.

on lessons how style works would be more appropriate. Add in makeup tutorials and the app becomes a pocket reference guide, all the time communicating the essence and style of the brand. A sports brand such as ADIDAS could take a similar lead on delivering a sports trainer, or gym personal trainer, although this is an obvious step. A more interesting option could be a cooking guide to use in the kitchen, allowing novices to produce highly nutritious meals to support training. Sidestep the obvious, focusing on one core concept of learning a brand appropriate skill, and bringing this to the forefront. This shall allow regular interaction with the brand's core values in short and meaningful interactions. Furthermore, the ways in which these skills are communicated must be the simplest way possible. Consider putting the user into a relaxed state rather than engaging excitement. This doesn't mean exciting and stimulating imagery can't be used, but an app does not need fast videos and high quality graphics when a single photograph can suffice.

**Author details**

**References**

Christopher J. Parker

Address all correspondence to: c.parker@lboro.ac.uk

Kindle. Seattle, USA: Rosenfeld Media; 2012

Marketing Managment. 2018. In Press

tions. Business Horizons. Feb. 2015;**58**(3):305-315

reality/ [Accessed: December 14, 2017]

London, UK; 24-Apr-2017

Publishing; 2018

2010

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53

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[6] Institute of Directors, Electronic commerce. London, UK: Director Publications Ltd; 1998

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[9] Parker CJ, Wang H. Examining hedonic and utilitarian motivations for m-commerce fashion retail app engagement. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management. 2016;**20**(4):487-506

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[12] Clark J. Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps. Sebastapol, Canada: O'Reilly Media;

[13] Rivera L. Fashion Revolution: Behind the scenes of a £2 trillion industry. The Independent.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2941104.stm [Accessed: April 3, 2014]

Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
