How Apple Watch Will Make Utility Cool

Posted by David Deal on Apr 22, 2015 5:35:13 PM

On its best days, Apple shapes consumer behavior. And we are seeing Apple on its best day with the launch of Apple Watch. One of the world's most valuable brands seeks to turn everyday consumer behavior (such as paying for coffee or reading the news) into a more graceful, fluid action by encouraging watch owners to swipe our wrists or merely glance at a fashionable device we wear. In essence, Apple wants to make utility cool. Thanks to the onslaught of branded apps being developed for the device, Apple will likely turn its vision into reality. Following is a glimpse of significant third-party apps that will influence how we manage our lives in five key ways.

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What Apple Watch Means to Brands

Posted by David Deal on Apr 9, 2015 8:46:00 AM

Apple Watch is coming, and it's going to have a big impact on brands.  

The Apple Watch, available on April 24, 2015, has been praised, vilified, and dissected by a wide-ranging audience, including everyday consumers, technology geeks, Apple fans, and fashionistas. The new product has also injected some strong style mojo into the Apple brand. But should businesses care about the Watch? Absolutely. Apple Watch will have far-reaching impacts on several industries, from healthcare to automotive and retail. The Watch, which blurs the line between mobile and wearables, will pressure brands across the board to make mobile experiences more personal and less intrusive. 

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Meet the Digital Companion

Posted by Brent Stewart on Apr 2, 2015 9:48:12 AM

When a sales associate misrepresents your products or services and misinforms your customers, the bad experience can lead to lost sales, inferior customer service, and brand erosion. 

The current situation is dire. Virtually every major manufacturer/retailer relies on third parties to market and sell the majority of their products. But too often, sales people responsible for your brand struggle to keep up with well-informed customers armed with extensive product research conducted online. So how do we solve such a significant business problem? 

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5 Cloud Tools That Accelerate Product Development

Posted by Nikki Barua on Mar 25, 2015 8:45:40 AM

Traditional methods for digital product development aren’t designed for rapid innovation and don’t support a “test-and-learn” approach in shaping the product. The traditional approaches are fraught with risk – you may end up with a product that doesn’t serve your market needs. Whether it’s a mobile app or a website, now you can build better products faster with cutting-edge cloud tools. Here are five cloud tools that we use in our work with major brands: 

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Momentum Matters: Why Momentum is the New Success Metric

Posted by Nikki Barua on Mar 12, 2015 11:50:00 AM


Our culture is rampant with references to momentum: a sports team has “momentum going into the playoffs”; a business has “momentum following a successful IPO”; and an Internet meme or viral video “gains momentum through virtual and real word-of-mouth”. In all of these situations – even physics - momentum is understood to be like riding a wave. Somehow, that team or company has harnessed a kind of power and is being propelled forward beyond the competition. In business, if you have momentum, you will be a market leader. What do companies like Uber, Apple, and GoPro have in common? Aside from being successful brands, they have momentum. Brands with momentum dictate the terms for the market and their competitors and attain powerful and profitable leadership positions. 

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Inside the Design of the Award-Winning Lexus RC App

Posted by Sheila Darcey on Mar 10, 2015 12:19:00 PM

How did Lexus meet the challenge of rolling out training to launch a new vehicle quickly and effectively? 

Lexus, a division of Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), wanted to create a digital tool that could quickly ramp up its sales team on two new models in the highly competitive market for sports sedans and crossover SUVs.

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The Top Five Ways to Research "Everywhere Customers"

Posted by Carrie Yury on Feb 19, 2015 11:34:00 AM

Yesterday your customers loved Facebook, but now they love Snapchat, too. How do you make sure your products and experiences adapt to your customers' changing habits, especially when your customers live all over the digital world? The question arose recently when BeyondCurious CTO Vishal Agarwal and I were interviewed for a recently published Gigaom report, “Enticing The Everywhere Customer.” When asked about Customer Journey mapping (a tool in which a brand literally creates a map of its customers' touch points with the brand), I was quoted as saying, “I think less about taking a flat snapshot of a customer’s journey and more about creating a living story that morphs along with the customer’s experience. I added, “You need to be able to adapt when you discover that your customers are using Snapchat to look at branded content that disappears.” 

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What's in a (New) Logo?

Posted by Nikki Barua on Feb 7, 2015 11:05:00 AM

 

Notice something new about BeyondCurious? 

We have unveiled a new logotype that captures the essence of who BeyondCurious is and how we operate as an innovation consultancy: bold, inventive, pragmatic, impactful, and relentless. 

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Nothing to Fear: How Agile Research Uncovers The Unknown

Posted by Carrie Yury on Nov 21, 2014 8:41:00 PM

Credit: Jon-Eric Melsæter

 Recently I was talking to a technologist friend who said that he thinks most companies are hesitant to include research into their design process because people fear the unknown. Call me naïve, but I was shocked to hear that. To me, while research may start with unknowns, its task is the discovery of knowledge. And knowledge is power -- especially knowledge about your target user. However, the more I thought about what he said, the more intrigued I became with the idea. 

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How Innovation@Speed Helped Lexus Capture Market Opportunity

Posted by Nikki Barua on Nov 14, 2014 12:09:00 PM

How does a major automotive brand empower both its customers and its sales associates with the technology to create a consistent experience online and offline? Lexus, a division of Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), embraced that opportunity by working with BeyondCurious to develop mobile applications that supported the launch of the all-new Lexus 2015 NX and RC models. A key to success was Lexus utilizing a BeyondCurious methodology, Innovation@Speed, that disrupts traditional product development approaches.

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