See why we’re taking the link from FOMO to JOMO  

See what caught our attention in February

Many of us are ruled by the fear of missing out. Behavioural economists have long talked about how FOMO affects our decision making. Increasingly, the term has made its way into everyday conversation – from having that pudding after hearing a friend’s menu choice, to buying festival tickets you can’t quite afford #FOMO.

We want to soak up as much as we can, breathe it all in and celebrate with souvenirs (photos, posts, and likes). The downsides of this desire to experience it all and shout about it too are getting more apparent. It’s like running our own Sunday supplement! It’s exhausting. We can feel pressured to produce an endless lifestyle highlights reel, feel compelled to say a big fat YES to every offer that comes our way. But wait, there’s a new acronym in town! Meet JOMO, the calmer, more nurturing sibling – the joy of missing out.

JOMO is here to save us from the overwhelm of our own making. JOMO frees us from obligations. It says ‘stay home, cancel your plans’. It gives us permission to duck experiences we don’t fancy or can’t afford. Of course, we’ve all taken last-minute rain checks and told white lies to avoid the dull or effortful. JOMO takes this further. Not only do you dodge the giant night out when you’re feeling too tired, or the meal at that restaurant with eye-watering prices. With JOMO there’s a side-helping of guilt-free reassurance that you’re not a total loser or aging faster than you can say birthday.

Whether we recognise it in ourselves or not, this JOMO instinct is powerful, and brands are cashing in – largely by focussing on the J in the acronym. The thing is we still want some joy! Without this it really is just plain missing out. Here are some winners…

1. Leading the tribe is Dominoes and its celebration of JOMO. Naturally, we see Just Eat and Deliveroo winning here too – tasty food without leaving the sofa is the very definition of joy!
2. Of course, any streaming service lends itself brilliantly to indulging in some downtime, and we predict Netflix, Amazon and Apple’s race to provide the most addictive, jaw-dropping content will only heat up,
3. Fashion brands who emphasise luxurious loungewear are well placed – we are prepared to spend big on feeling cosy and looking chic whilst doing so.
4. Luxury-led home brands are set to benefit – from high-priced candles to high-thread count sheets, we’ll want to invest in our nests if we’re to spend more evenings in them.
5. And finally, could JOMO give quality food and drink a nudge too? We’ve seen specialist wine brands like Naked and Laithwaites fly recently. Perhaps splurging on the refreshments reassures us we aren’t boring or past it.

So, at your earliest convenience, get your comfies on, put your feet up, order some noodles, light the candles, open wine, mindlessly scroll Netflix, debate what to watch and then settle on that re-run of Friends. JOMO would want you to.

Really get to know your customers with our latest customer closeness techniques

Kokoro is proud to announce a new client partner, Nationwide Building Society. We are working together to deepen the society’s understanding of its members’ lives, needs and preferences.

We’ve won the trust of many brands through our unique grasp of the power of emotions; identifying the actions which resonate and drive spend. Owned by, and run for, the benefit of its members, Nationwide’s customer focus makes them a great partner for us. Kokoro’s expertise will deepen Nationwide’s understanding of how it fits with people’s lives and enable it to create even more compelling propositions.

Martha, our Director of Digital Activation, gives her expert take on how to avoid digital transformation disasters

A recent client meeting got me thinking. Why do some new digital experiences fail to deliver commercial benefits?

This particular client has been on the digital transformation journey for a while. They’ve invested heavily in their programme and are sure they have the right tech capabilities. And yet benefits in terms of adoption, cost savings and revenue are just not coming through.

My years at the coalface of digital transformation planning and execution, allow me to identify five common problems and five solutions…

1. Compromised business cases
   • It’s very hard to make accurate forecasts on the financial return from something which doesn’t yet exist. We make it even harder for ourselves if we fall into either of these traps:
     • potential benefits are overegged (tempting when you’re under pressure to deliver a high net present value)
     • costing assumptions are divorced from those about benefits (can happen when the first is done bottom up and the latter top down, or when multiple stakeholders are involved)
   • Solution: independent forecasting based on clear, consistent user stories backed by statistical modelling and benchmarks – plus strict ownership of case, with relentless documentation (dull but essential!)

2. Research not fit for purpose
   • Typically, research underdelivers in one or more of these ways: it doesn’t go deep enough, isn’t actionable enough, or is not used often enough. The best foundational research delves beyond people’s post-rationalised answers and gets to the subconscious, emotional drivers of behaviour. Insights are then coupled with collaborative ideation to build action plans which product teams own. Lastly, the research is used iteratively throughout development to define, refine and validate new digital experiences. Too often too many of these elements are missing
   • Solution: talk to us about Kokoro’s innovative, impactful approaches such as biometrics and our game-changing 5Drivers model of consumer emotions. We’re confident we’ll make your research budget go further and deeper!

3. All eggs in one basket
   • I really admire product and creative people who have an instinctive vision of how their digital journeys should function. However, time and again I’ve witnessed seemingly great ideas fall short. This is often because there are a ton of factors to consider and the odds are stacked against even very good ideas delivering first time
   • Solution: the best way to beat the odds is to play the numbers game. Start with multiple executions, whittle these down and refine through rounds of fast-turnaround user research and A/B testing – de-risking your benefits forecast with likely success rates in mind. Get in touch to find out how our genius for arriving at the best idea has won the loyalty of so many big brands

4. MVP is too M (or not V enough)
   • Minimal Viable Products are a familiar part of the Agile delivery model, but sometimes what gets launched is just too minimal! A particular risk with technically complex solutions is requirements get sacrificed in order to meet a release deadline. Then, before you know it, you’re launching with only the most basic features and a sub-par user experience. You’ll optimise this post-launch, but will those unforgiving younger users give you a second try?
   • Solution: put points 2 and 3 (above) in place and ensure product owners are steeped in users’ needs – and willing to go to bat for them

5. Benefits attribution plan is MIA
   • Too often, product teams ask analysts to quantify the benefits of something they’ve launched only to find that meaningful measurement isn’t possible. This can happen when they’ve not planned any controlled way to gauge impact – leaving the analyst unable to disentangle the effects of the new experience from all the other factors that affect performance (seasonality, marketing activity, pricing, competitor campaigns etc.)
   • Solution: engage analysts early to plan a measurement approach that balances the need for accuracy with pragmatism (e.g. controlled release, A/B testing, lookalike analysis, post vs pre period etc.)

Get in touch for more on how Kokoro can help you make a success of your digital transformation.

Our Founder, Alison Bainbridge, gives her view on why focusing on just being easy won’t work for your CX strategy

I get it. Nobody wants a hard experience. Picture this supermarket visit. Three times in five minutes the product you need is out of stock. Your cortisol levels rocket. You feel under attack. You’re no longer on autopilot. You’re forced to think. This is bad news because, thanks to Daniel Kahneman, the world knows thinking is something humans don’t like doing. It’s painful to have to rethink your tea plans or nip to another supermarket – and shit! The kids need collecting in 20 minutes! If a supermarket wants to stay in business, it cannot inflict these moments on shoppers.

Now picture another visit. Everything was in stock. You were out in ten minutes and arrived at school with time for a quick Instagram. Would you remember this experience? No! It was unremarkable. It’s gone. And if a store is always unremarkable it will become invisible and steadily fade from customers’ minds. Rivals will fill the vacuum.

So why do so many companies sign up (so easily) to the pursuit of easy? A big reason is that driver analysis often shows a hassle-free experience to be central to satisfaction. Alert 1! You need to be very careful about what customers actually mean by easy. It’s not just about practical things. They also mean ease in a higher-order sense i.e. ‘Get me! Solve my problems. Help me realise my dreams.’

Alert 2! But I think the real reason companies focus on ease is it lets them hit the ‘no brainer’ button. It doesn’t require them to step into the unknown, to create something new, to do something head turning.

The quest for ‘hassle-free’ ease results in directives to ‘find and remove pain points’. In the business plan this gets described as ‘Year One: get the basics in place’. Everyone agrees to it because, whilst it might require lots of work, there are always lots of people willing to do this. And it definitely feels right to get the house in order – especially in uncertain times.

Alert 3! This plan should really be labelled ‘let’s be unremarkable, drift from consciousness and let others (like Boohoo, Greggs, Next, Pretty Little Thing) steal the limelight’. Put like this it doesn’t feel so right does it?

Alert 4! So, what’s a better weapon than ease? It’s to disrupt – to build memorable, irresistible elements into your CX. Picture a trip to your local Aldi. Whilst the prices are predictably low the constantly changing ranges hold surprises: Halloween dancing skeletons, a giant Jo Malone lookalike candle or some new vegan products. These spark ‘how do they do it?’ moments which form lasting memories.

This kind of experience is what a psychologist would describe as a state of ‘flow’. You’re not on autopilot, you’re engaged. You’ve suddenly got exciting ideas for your kids. You laugh at the sheer cheek of their copycat tactics! All this demands enough attention to make you feel something, but it doesn’t become ‘hard work’. And because you’ve felt something, you’re much more likely to remember it (it’s how our brains are wired).

This is a fine balance. Every feeling at every point of the journey must be nailed if the magic is to happen. Entrepreneurs get this instinctively. Today’s business school graduates are taught it. Others can be left flatfooted.