Illegibility and empathy

The Futures Company – the rebranding of the combined Henley Center, Yankolovitch and Headlight Vision – has a email newsletter they publish throughout the year. The last issue of last year was titled 'Managing in a downturn.' In it, Will Galgey discussed a few key issues for brands to watch. One of them ties into a topic I blogged about a few weeks ago – empathy.

His point is that in a downturn, brands need to be outspoken in taking the consumer's side and be empathetic to their trials and tribulations. This means making their customer's priorities the brand's priority. If people are spending wisely, talk about how your product supports that. 

Of course, this effort extends past the marketing message. Many packaged goods companies have been caught with their finger on the scale, discretely increasing prices by packaging less for the same amount. Consumerist.com calls it the 'Shrink Ray' and has a long and growing archive of offenders. To me, this is a perfect example of brands acting in an illegible fashion; the brand's actions work against the customer in an opaque way. While I understand the motivation for these packaging machinations, actions like these can really weaken long-term trust in the brand.