My Brain hurts - Wunderman books

1. THINK SIMPLE
‘When I listen to music, I like to hum along
and tap my feet’, they told him. ‘If other
people can’t hear the music I’m doing it
to, they’ll think I’m a psycho.’
To communicate the idea, he needed a product
that could be understood in one way only.
And that meant it had to have one function only. The
record button and radio had to go.
So he overruled the engineers. And his one-function
press and play device went into production.
Because his new product could only be used in one way,
young people were forced to take Morita’s intention
seriously.
Simplicity acts like a
missile into the
consumer
consciousness.
If you want to get inside the
consumer’s head, simplicity
is the key.
In the late 1970s, Sony was developing a new consumer
electronics device.
The device would allow people, for the first time ever, to
carry round music easily and listen to it anywhere
without irritating others.
The device was designed to do this – and nothing else.
‘But they will still want a record function’, said the
engineers, ‘and how about a radio?’
But Akio Morita, the founder of Sony, knew that he had
a serious communication problem on his hands.
At the time, young people always shared music,
wandering around in groups with throbbing ghettoblasters.
He was asking them to wander around listening to
music that no one else could hear. He knew they would
find the concept weird, and would resist the idea.
This forced the Walkman into the public consciousness,
and made it a worldwide hit.
‘The ideal
consumer
electronics
device has only
one button.’
AKIO MORITA,
FOUNDER OF SONY
Which means
A device that does one thing well is a much stronger
consumer proposition than a complex multifunctional
offer, no matter how advanced its specification.
So if you want to get inside the consumer’s head, think
simple.
1. Simplicity gets remembered
In the 1960s, offices flooded with new technology –
duplicating machines, golf-ball typewriters, telexes and
more.
But the only machine in that office with one-button
simplicity was the photocopier.
Most companies that made office equipment in the
1960s are now footnotes in history.
Even government can be
simple. Clinton’s 1992 election
team pinned these words to
their hotel room doors.
14 WUNDERMAN
MY BRAIN HURTS 15