Users first, brands second: The reason behind Google, Apple and Amazon's success

A lot of people theorize about the success of some of the most popular global brands. Whenever you think about brands like Google, Apple and Amazon, what you find in common is that they place the user or consumer at the heart of everything they do. This may sound quite basic, but lots of businesses and entrepreneurs forget about the fundamental premise of a successful business: products and brands exist to satisfy a user/consumer need. Sometimes, this need is created by the product or brand (based on an existing opportunity), but it doesn't work when you try to create a need (or problem) out of the blue.


Fundamentally, products and brands should start from understanding and trying to resolve an existing consumer need. The reason Google search became so popular was the fact that they solved a fundamental issue in the Internet: How do I find the content or information I need? In an always growing Internet, it was harder for people to cut through the clutter and find what they were actually looking for. So Google delivered a simple text based response that gives you results in seconds.

It is so simple and basic that no one would have thought it was going to be the largest most popular brand in the world. If you think about it, there is nothing pretty or exciting about the Google Search landing page. One logo, one text box and two options. Not really anything special or visually stimulating. Just a very simple interface that made people's lives easy... and delivered results in seconds.

Same thing happened with Amazon. With online shopping growing at high rates, Amazon found that people got a bit overwhelmed while trying to find what the products they wanted. So they put a lot of effort in creating an experience that help you refine your search, recommendations based on other people's search, related products and a product rating capability that helps people choose a product based on the reviews. We have all used it, and I think the reason it is now the largest global retailer, it's because they solved their user/consumer problem. No one would say that the Amazon site is the prettiest, or the app is amazing and beautiful. But it delivers on the Amazon promise to make your shopping experience easier. And this builds their brand in a meaningful way.

At last we come to Apple, who didn't invent MP3 players or smartphones, neither tablets. All Apple did was create a user interface and experience that was so friendly and easy to use, that people were compelled to buy and pay more for it. This is how they built their brand, around the design of brilliant user experiences that help people solve problems: maps, messaging, staying in touch, reading a book, etc. Most people think it's about the product (the phone, the tablet) but it's not. It is about the user experience and all the benefits that using it brings to the person.

Lots of other companies have tried to compete with these brands thinking they can do better products (ie. a better smartphones or tablets) but what they failed to see was the fact that the users/consumers were not looking for better products. They are looking for solutions for their needs and problems. If a new product is creating a new problem (ie. having to learn a whole new system interface) they're not interested. Because a new product is not solving a problem, it is creating a new one for them and so they decide to stick to what they're used to.

This all takes us to where I wanted to get to which is user experience in your digital channels. When you create your digital experience (web, social, mobile, email), are these channels aligned to solve people's needs and problems, or are they there to promote your product, what you do, offer and stand for. Just a thought to think about.

Your digital experience should be designed to solve your user/customer problems. Whether it is to help them understand the problem, the different options and solutions to that problem, or whether they have already purchased something and need help with it. If you put the customer/user at the center of the design of your multi-channel strategy, you will be able to determine what their problems are and how to deliver an experience that helps them. The sales and brand engagement will follow.