February 2, 2022

Radical simplicity wins every time

Good morning 👋

Quick question for you: is your brand simple enough?

As with most things in life, simplicity is powerful – and especially when it comes to building a strong brand.

Brands that deliver clear, human and valuable experiences — win.

And that includes everything from your products to your customer service, your social media posts to your investor deck.

In a world becoming increasingly complex (politics, pandemics etc.), people are seeking out simplicity. It’s refreshing to come across a brand that’s easy to understand, transparent, useful and obviously cares about your needs.

In other words, brands that are radically simple.

A study by Siegel + Gale of more than 14,000 people found 76% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand if it’s simple.

So why does simplicity work so well?

Two reasons:

Expectations: As much as we want our brand to be the most important brand in someone's life, it probably won't be. But that's a good thing. It makes life as a founder a hell of a lot easier. It means you don't have to be everything to someone, you just have to be great in one area of their life. You have to do one thing really well and customer expectations will be met or — ideally — exceeded!
Cut through: people are bombarded with more ads and content from brands than they ever have been, and it’s almost impossible to know which brands to trust in such a noisy world. So, when it comes to promoting your brand, simple creative and precise messaging will always cut through faster and have more of an impact. If you can simplify what you do and why people should care into a simple sentence, you’re on to a winner.

But keeping things simple isn’t always easy – I probably don’t need to tell you. Things can get complicated quickly because as humans we find it hard to say no.

We think more is better so we add in an attempt to solve rather than take away.

Sound familiar?

Well, this email is designed to help you trim your brand fat, get you back to simplicity and build a brand that’s easy for customers to love and share.

Let’s go ✌️

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Practical advice for keeping your brand super simple, today.

Do one thing really well

It’s normal to feel like you’ve got to launch with a HUGE range of products. People like choice, right? Actually, choice can be paralysing. Choice can be confusing, and choice can make it look like you’re trying to do lots of things but probably not so well.

Doing one thing REALLY well, especially right at the beginning, is an excellent strategy for building a stronger brand and audience, as well as defensibility over potential competitors.

This can mean launching with literally just one product.

A great example of this is travel brand AWAY. They launched with just one suitcase. They even kept the language super simple, so it was easy for customers to know what they were getting.

Another is beauty brand Glossier. The brand only launched with four well-researched products founder Emily knew her audience would LOVE. The range is enormous now, but it didn’t start that way.

➡️ Quick tip: remember to look at the stories of the brands you aspire to, not just what they’re doing now.

Prioritise and focus your ideas, time and money

You’re a founder, so you’ve probably got ideas whirling around in your mind ALL the time. I get it; I’m the same. But the more you prioritise and learn to focus on one thing, the simpler your brand will be.

An excellent way to do this is to have a ‘not for right now’ list in your notes somewhere. It can be physical or on your phone, but we’d recommend putting all of those distracting ideas in there so you can forget about them and stay focused.

Speak to your potential customers

There might be something you think is super cool about your product, but customers might not care about it at all. To make your offering super simple, make sure you know what will be most important to your customers.

I know this sounds like complicated market research, but it’s not. I would reach out to a few people on social media, chat with them, ask if they mind answering a few questions. No, it’s not thousands of people, but SOME feedback is way better than NONE.

Ask yourself these questions when opportunities/ideas arise:

Will it add value, or am I doing it because I want to?
Will it make our offering less clear to customers?
Will it confuse our current customers?

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Articles/podcasts

As the pandemic makes life more complex, people crave simpler brands [Siegel + Gale]

The Power Of Simplicity: What You Can Learn From Netflix And The Top 10 Simplest Brands [Forbes]

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Brands keeping it simple

Hiut Denim: they make jeans, nothing else, and they do it really well.

Tarla Bakes (a new brand I spotted recently): Fresh patisserie quality bakes that you can make at home.

Huel: convenient nutrition

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A final word - simplicity aids consistency.

The more simple your brand, the easier it will be to execute across multiple marketing channels and everything you do. You'll also vastly increase the likelihood of finding and onboarding long-term team members and investors.

When your brand is simple, it will cut through and beat the competition.

So as you're building your brand, keep simplicity in mind at all times. Make sure your vision is clear, your message easy to understand and the experiences you create for your customers seamless.

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Mindset

Practical

Keep being an outlier 💪

J + K