Want to Win More Customers? Do Less.

Feeling overwhelmed? So are your customers.

Bombarded by media. Bamboozled by “terms and conditions.” Burned out by too many choices. Do you empathize with them?

Good. Because acting on your empathy for their feelings can lead to better revenue, greater loyalty and a more successful brand experience. How? By heeding what Henry David Thoreau told us long ago, “Simplify, simplify.”

As marketers we must respect customers’ needs and their time. When it comes to removing complexity, we must be hard on ourselves in order to be easy for customers to understand and useful to their lives. But know this: the effort pays off. Recent studies show that consumers are willing to pay more for simpler experiences. They’re also more likely to recommend a brand because of its simplicity. And companies that excel in brand simplicity outperform major stock indexes.

Here are a few ways leading brands are growing by simplifying.

• Rallying Consumers Around One Concise Message

When Hilton launched its biggest-ever campaign last year, the brand simplicity value proposition to travelers was punchy and powerful: “Stop Clicking Around.” No longer would customers need to comparison shop multiple websites to know they were getting the best rate; book through Hilton’s app or homepage and boom: done.

Consumers poured in. By September, the Hilton app was the number one hospitality app on the Apple Store—higher than Uber—and the brand had gained nearly four million new members, according to CMO Geraldine Calpin.

Another great example of brand simplicity in action: T-Mobile’s launch event for its concise, customer-liberating concept “Binge On.” Inspired by the magic of Hollywood entertainment, the immersive experience ensured that attendees were surrounded with streaming video from favorite services like Netflix and Hulu, and they immediately understood: “Binge On” meant no more limits on video enjoyment through T-Mobile. Customers could watch as much streaming video as they wanted without using up any of their data allotment.

How many different messages is your brand sending to your targets? Are you saying one thing to Millennials and another to boomers? Why? Great companies don’t pretend to be all things to all people. Great brands are clear about what they promise and deliver on it. Relentlessly.

• Offering Fewer Products, Fewer Promotions

Leading grocery retailers are winning by offering a more limited assortment at everyday low prices rather than through complex promotions, couponing and loyalty card programs.

Trader Joe’s stores in New York City are so popular, security staff has to direct lines of shoppers waiting outside: Not just during Thanksgiving week, but every single day. And ALDI—owned by the same parent company—is expanding rapidly across the U.S., opening hundreds of new stores and upgrading its current 1,300 American outlets.

These two retailers boast about not selling everything under the sun. ALDI promises customers a straightforward weekly shopping experience that covers all the basic must-haves (mostly private-label products and fresh foods) at rock-bottom prices. Trader Joe’s makes shopping a fun adventure—with a rotating assortment of favorite (also private label) convenience products and limited-time seasonal items—at reliably low prices.

Think about how much confusion and wasted spend you could end by eliminating even one underperforming marketing channel or product line extension. How could those dollars be better used to improve your customer’s experience?

• Putting Fresh Eyes on Everything

Nobody said simplifying was simple. Daunting may be the word that springs to mind. Where to start? How to decide what gets jettisoned and what’s essential?

Well, nobody said you had to go it alone; nor should you. A fresh set of eyes can make all the difference in tackling the right challenges in the right order of priority and effectiveness.

It goes back to our first principle: You need to empathize with what your customer is needing and feeling—both inside your brand experience and in terms of general attitudes toward your category and marketplace. Focus groups and direct analysis of consumer behavior are powerful tools. But nothing beats having objective “outsiders” put themselves through all your consumer interactions and pinpoint points of contradiction, confusion and likely capitulation aka desertion by your prospects.

Simplification stalwart Thoreau knew this as well, “It’s not what you look at that matters; it’s what you see.”

Peter Sun is vice president of brand marketing at Jack Morton Worldwide. You can reach him at [email protected].

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