Simplicity = More Money + Less Stress
From all your herds, a cup or two of milk,
From all your granaries, a loaf of bread,
In all your palace, only half a bed
Can man use more? And do you own the rest?
— ANCIENT SANSKRIT POEM[1]
It’s Complicated? Choose to simplify.
As a concept,simplicity has been suggested as a crucial cog of “the good life” by billions,ranging from top Fortune 500 CEOs to the rickshaw driver in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and it needs no formal introduction.
Define It!
To establish a baseline,let’s go with Herbert A.Simon’s version which says that something is simple or complex depending on the way we choose to describe it[2].Simplicity could imply beauty,purity or suggest a lack of nuance as well.
There is a distinction between the two senses of simplicity: syntactic simplicity (the number and complexity of hypotheses), and ontological simplicity (the number and complexity of things postulated)[3]. These two aspects of simplicity are often referred to as elegance and parsimony respectively.
What’s the beef?
We often hear the elder generation pride on their simple ways of living and lament on the inability of the current generation to do so.
Be that as it may,it is important to note that the reason for the elder generation to practice simplicity during their prime was straightforward : They had no other choice.
After having seen the benefits of living simply,it was deemed as moral virtue as well.The gap between what the philosophers waxed lyrical about and the way people lived was not too great.
But,aggressive strides in capitalism over the ages gave rose to a consumerist society which consisted of a population that was enabled and encouraged to buy more than they possibly needed.
At such a time,the idea of either cutting back or living with less was simply boring which made the philosophy of frugality a hard sell.
This might be about to change under the influence of 2 factors: environmentalism and the economy.
Having said that,the advantage we currently hold,is of making a conscious decision to cut back as opposed to having it shoved down our throats.
An increase in options available cannot be used as our only excuse to buy “things we don’t need with money we don’t have”.
It pays to look at various reasons that act as obstacles in our journey toward simplicity:
a)Subjective yet misunderstood concept: The notion of simplicity is assumed to be simple and is often left unanalyzed, while in truth, its vagueness and multiple interpretations contribute to the challenge of pinning the notion down precisely.
As an example,the whole “No pain,no gain” narrative has fuelled the amount of work we load ourselves with,productive or otherwise.
With that lens on,people mistake simplifying things with shying away from responsibility.Leveraging on this,complexity is sold to us on our wish to stay in control over something that we may not fully understand[4].
An image association test done upon hearing the word “simplicity”,could be of a person living off his farm with one pillow to his name,which is minimalism,a daunting task compared to clearing your wardrobe of clothes you no longer plan on wearing
How people choose to simplify is a personal choice based on their circumstances,but in our “1000 people like this” and “Instant noodles ready in 2 minutes” culture,it would be sluggish for us to find a blueprint for simplification from a person or a group of people facing the same or similar odds before taking action
b)Less Is More,are you sure?: Healthy,happy and loved are the “Sexiest Feelings Alive Today”,we can’t get enough of them and are throwing everything we have,in our race to get them.
Most brands are in our corner,fueling this race of ours.But when this approach fails, the first worthwhile advice we come across is the principle of “Less Is More”.
But,assuring people that a single packet of potato chips is enough for two weeks standing in front of an overflowing chip rack is bound to give you puzzling looks
c)How much more profit will simplicity fetch me?: Complex processes and principles have the dual advantage of being staunchly embedded in established environments and of being the carrier of increased profits.Remaining occupied with external complexities seems easier than perform uncomfortable soul searching. Additionally,who has ever won the Employee of the Year award by simplifying things within their company?
Enough with the bottlenecks!
Answer this : Why should I adopt a simpler life?Why should I brew my coffee with a simple-sounding brand when my Visa gives me the power to get a professional to brew exotic beans originating from places I can’t even pronounce?
To understand this,let’s make our way to Draeger’s Supermarket located at Menlo Park,California with Iyengar and Lepper[5].This supermarket is particularly interesting given that it stocks 300 + varieties of jams and 75 different varieties of olive oil among other products.To test their hypothesis dubbed as Choice Overload,Iyengar and Lepper had 2 research assistants set up twin displays: one with 6 varieties of jams,the other with 24 varieties placed on it.
60% of the consumers who passed the extensive display of jams stopped at the booth and 40% of the consumers who passed the limited display of jams stopped at the booth.
Amazingly,only 3% of the consumers who stopped at the extensive display purchased a jar while 30% of the consumers who stopped at the limited display picked a jar to buy.
Findings such as these challenge a fundamental assumption that more choice increases desire and augments motivation to buy.
Put simply, people don’t want to think too hard about which jam(or any other product) they end up buying. They would rather avoid the experience entirely than spend energy on figuring the best out of the rest.
The underlying psychological theory behind why simple experiences are better is called the Simplicity Theory which plainly says that people are attracted to simplicity and drift toward products and experiences that reduce their cognitive load.
Why do we then end up buying things we don’t need?
Let us turn to Dennis Diderot,the co-founder and writer of Encyclopédie,who earned a great fortune after living a good part of his life in poverty.
Shortly after acquiring a beautiful scarlet robe that caught Diderot’s attention,he realised that the robe stood out when placed among his other common possessions,which led him to replace his old rug with one from Damascus and eventually all his current furnishings made way for their newer and more lavish counterparts. Such reactive purchases came to be known as the Diderot Effect[6].
Think this doesn’t apply to you? Ask the jewellers and the shoe shop owners who dance in delight when they see you enter their store wearing your new dress or the realtor who savors the opportunity to “cross-sell” an Internet of Things package with the large home you just bought
In our defense,with the abundance of information for a variety of products present at our fingertips,it is understandable when people ask for variety but also demand certainty.
Brands that serve an ever-lasting need or create one will greatly benefit from simplifying something as major as their communications to something as minor as the aisle width within their stores.
This view is supported by research conducted in 2018 by Siegel + Gale,a design consultancy in it’s Global Brand Simplicity Index report which claims 55% of the consumers interviewed would be willing to pay more for products with simple experiences and 64% of the interviewed consumers are likely to recommend a brand with simple communications about it’s products[7]
For instance,general insurance is a business that promises to secure their policyholders’ unpredictable futures in return for regular payments called “premiums” from the policyholders.
How did such a vertical become the most complicated to deal with(as pointed out by the Global Brand Simplicity Index report)?
Let’s face it,insurance firms are for-profit entities,not social santas doing their bit and they do hire actuaries who spend a good amount of their time trying to predict the probability of a customer filing a claim.The higher such a probability,stronger the justification they have for charging you increased premiums.
Moreover,insurers do not help their case when they offer prospective customers a fine-print laden document which may contain information regarding conditions in which the policy doesn’t pay out and also by not providing clear justification behind a change in their premium rates.[8]
The underlying issues behind such complexity: Too much information with little meaning and unfulfilled communication which could be solved some small shifts.[9]
Let’s take a look at how Saudi Arabia is transforming the way people deal with insurance firms:The Insurance Law mandates insurers to maintain policy cover in case they fail to mention a change in premium rates to their customers.In addition to this,insurers are required to provide a “free look” of 21 days to any prospective policyholder so that he may assess suitability.
It becomes easier for firms to convince customers of changing premium rates if the customers are convinced that they benefit from this change in some way.
The Saudi Arabian government requires all insurers based out of KSA to adopt a co-operative insurance model whose most notable feature is that 10% of the insurer’s net surplus is either directly distributed among it’s policyholders or applied towards a reduction in the policyholders’ premiums.[10]
This is all well and good but how can my brand simplify our customer experience?
Every brand in the world promises to deliver on it’s basic promise.But,brands that are leading the charge on the simplicity front place special emphasis on offering a streamlined experience that meets the consumers’ needs without drowning them in offers.
Simplicity doesn’t always mean offering less,but it definitely means making everything on offer easier to access as well as understand. Costco,an American retailer,which operates a chain of membership-only warehouse clubs[11] embodies the 3 tenets that the Global Brand Simplicity Index report claims will help brands simplify their customer experience:
1.Get the basics right : Costco works to offer a limited selection of nationally-branded and private label products within a specific range of merchandise categories and it does so by stocking only around 4000 SKUs which is considered very less compared to the volume it’s competition stocks and houses them in a no-frills warehouse staffed with highly compensated staff
2.Provide tangible value:So,a chain keeps only a single choice for ketchup and shaving cream,etc. and yet generates sizeable strides in sales growth.How? Merchandise categories chosen are such that produce high volume sales,driven by fast inventory turnover and limited selections in said categories allows Costco to get better vendor agreements which translates to a higher quality of products offered to customers at a lower price with the addition of lower operational burden for Costco.
To give the consumer the most choice,retailers allow our old friend Choice Overload to tag along for the ride,which does not help in saleability
3.KITS (Keep It Transparent,Stupid) : Costco has it’s suppliers deliver their product in display-ready packages that are housed in warehouses that do not have a back room for storage of additional products.
Idle inventory doesn’t earn money,carrying that realisation,Costco designs it’s warehouse floors with the sole intention of using every square foot to sell inventory and that too huge quantities of it.
To access the “low prices” that Costco offers,you must become a card holding member which creates a stable revenue stream for Costco.
Consumers,seem to like this,as the member renewal rate was 90% in the US and Canada and 89% worldwide in 2017.
It offers 4 classes of membership and,ironically,highlights the differences between different classes of membership which ultimately aids the customer in making a decision[12]
Research carried out by Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner) found that ‘decision simplicity’ was the single biggest factor in making consumers ‘sticky’.
Across sectors, every successful disruptor today begins with the aim of creating a simple solution to a complex problem, whether it offers a product or a service[13].
Ready to reduce?
Tell us how you would simplify people’s experience with your brand.
