Consumers love when brands know them well and meet their every need; however, they’ve grown impatient with brands’ need for constant affirmation and connection. Consumers don’t want to feel the desperation of brands trying to get their attention, but do want all the benefits that come with having someone at their beck and call. They are drawn to brands that do the hard work for them, asking for nothing in return.

The Opportunity: Invisibility

Learning platforms are uniquely suited to break the cycle of consumer impatience and exhaustion because they have the rigor, scale, and sensing capabilities to grant each consumers’ nuanced wishes.

Today’s platforms are shifting away from the mass market, instead leveraging their anticipatory deep learning systems and collaborative ecosystems to surprise long tail consumers with intimate personalized solutions and tools—making exactly the right things appear or disappear, like magic.

Successful brands deepen engagement when they recognize the intangible value of delighting for delight’s sake.

The next decade of consumer loyalty will be built by brands within platform ecosystems that do the heavy lifting and insightful sensing behind the scenes, granting brands more “free time” to focus on delighting consumers.

image: motley

Box Helsinki

Considers every need and strives to fulfill every wish all in one place by bringing all the pieces together—package pickups, box recycling, fitting room, repack station--and sprinkles a bit of fairy dust with a rotating pop-up retail space.

Box Helsinki

image: Rina Horisawa via Nikkei Asia

Uniqlo

The line between virtual and analog experience vanishes instantly in Japanese retailer Uniqlo’s new instore hyper-connected platform.

Uniqlo Interactive Displays