Georges Lewiwho we have already had the pleasure of interviewing right here as a mythologist, is now talking to us about the consumer experience.
Adwise : At the last Printemps des études, you mentioned the concept of "brand design thinking": we know you're an expert in branding, but what do you mean by "brand design thinking"?
Georges Lewi : It's all about using design thinking to position brands. Marketers only talk about UX and customer experience. But when it comes to brand positioning, brand storytelling and what makes a brand valuable, there's nobody left!
It's as if the customer experience affects others but has nothing to do with them. As if they wanted to jealously guard their prerogatives as speech-makers without ever referring to the consumer.
Le "brand design thinking is the confrontation of a positioning and a narrative tension worked out and validated with the consumer and not just between experts (people like me, advertising agencies, etc.).
And not just in the frustrating and unsuccessful pre- or post-test advertising, because the chips are already down.
Adwise : In a recent column in Les Echos, you said that "consumer experience is expressed first and foremost in the avoidance of what they don't like": what implications do you draw from this for brands?
Georges Lewi : Out of modesty or indecision, human beings cannot say what they want, but they know very well what they do not want or no longer want. The discourse of brands, whose role is to "fill in a vacuum is to express the fight they are waging on behalf of their customer or consumer.
The battle of Coca-Cola is to fight against a life that is too hard, without pleasure ("Enjoy), that of its competitor Red Bull is to combat the apathy of a risk-free life. Consumers are going to make a choice. They will be on one side or the other.
The examples of Trump and the recent Italian vote clearly show that people are choosing to fight against what they see as their own interests. "a scourge and no longer a set of expected benefits. We may regret it, but that's the way it is! Complexity is being replaced by the simplified storytelling of TV series, where characters are archetypes with whom we can identify or oppose. Brands to become "love brands will have to learn about passion and hatred.
Adwise : A new book in the pipeline?
Georges Lewi : Yes, Generation Z, instructions for useIt was written with my students born after 1995. It's a curious generation, rather like that of 1968, whose 50th anniversary we're talking about, the time it takes to put the past behind us. "to zero".
