That ad is displayed inside the MTR (Metro) in Hong Kong. It is an ad for the fast train that links the airport and a new exhibition hall. It says in big that you can enjoy a same day return trip to the AsiaWorld Exposition Hall for only HK$42, instead of a usual HK$100 if I am not mistaking. That sounds like great! Then you look at the right of the ad with all these street signs displaying places in Hong Kong Island and a big 42 next to each of them…

… unfortunately, when you look at the bottom of the ad, you can see that if you take a full ride from Hong Kong station (on the main island of Hong Kong like the places displayed on the signs at the top right of the ad) to the exibition hall, that will cost you HK$72. Still a nice discount but not as nice as HK$42.

I will never understand how an advertiser can manage customers’ expectations so badly. You have a great discount, but by showing IN BIG a wrong figure you actually make people feel bad about the offer and about the company that is seen as trying to trick people. It would have been so easy to display the right price first or at least to change the copy and say: “Same day return trip ticket to AsiaWorld Expo FROM HK$42 up”.

I hate going to the hairdresser. I go there as rarely as I can. Usually I wait until more than 90% of my friends complain about my hair getting too messy before I actually go and get it cut. At that time, I cut as much as possible to make sure I won’t go back that soon. It is hard to compare a haircut and going to the dentist, but to me it is as hard to convince myself to go to either one… if there is no obvious urgent need or symptoms, I won’t go.

In terms of hairdresser, I am not loyal at all. I never had any outstanding experience that made me want to stick to a specific hairdresser. I want a simple cut, nothing fancy. So a good stylist does not make much of a difference. Most importantly I want to spend as little time as possible in the company of the hairdresser. The main things I look at when choosing a new hairdresser is price and convenience. That could be a short version of my persona, summarizing my behavior in relation to getting my haircut.

When walking in the streets of Hong Kong I ended up finding a hairdresser that directly addressed this type of personas. QB House is a Japanese chain that was created in 1996 and that instead on focusing on style, focuses on efficiency. On the door of the hairdresser, then rules are set:

1. Get a HK$50 note ready
2. Buy a ticket (no change given)
3. Wait for your turn
4. Explain the hairstylist what style you want
5. The haircut lasts only 10 minutes

When searching on forums, it clearly appears that this concept does not rally all type of crowds. Many are reluctant to try, and it is true that in Hong Kong you can find countless cheap hairdressers that will induce more confidence by focusing more on style. But I can very well imagine the computer geeks in Akihabara district in Tokyo rush to that kind of quick hair salons, enjoying the very systematic process detailed in advance by the hairdresser. With a salon in Hong Kong just next to two major computer and game centers in Wan Chai, the concept can work very well. No need to please everybody.

The news came in yesterday that Starbucks was buying out its local partner in China, thus taking control of around 60 shops in Beijing and Tianjin. The story can be read on BusinessWeek Online in their article “Starbucks Caffeinates Its China Growth Plan“.

Below is a quote from the article that highlights the crucial difference that exists between running Starbucks in Western countries and running it in China:

“It’s not just a drink in China. It’s a destination. It’s a place to be seen and a place to show how modern one is,” adds Technomic Asia’s Kedl. And with China’s economy growing in double digits, there are likely to be lots more young urban and modern Chinese ready to sip java in a sleek new Starbucks.

People in China do not go to Starbucks because they like coffee. They do not go there because it is comfortable. Starbucks, just like trendy bars (but maybe appealing to a different crowd), is a place to be seen. Married women go there with their friends to chat and show off their apparel. Families spend the afternoon there reading newspapers proudly showing they can afford two kids despite the one child policy.

So of course, with wealth increasing that fast in China, more and more people will want to show off their newly acquired fortune. But at the same time the process will help create many more alternatives to sipping a coffee in a Starbucks to show off one’s wealth. A main threat for Starbucks could be businesses that are more relevant to the culture of China elites. And then Starbucks had better hope that Chinese do actually like coffee… because its early lead could backfire and push it down the value chain.

In his book “Call of the Mall”, Paco Underhill talks at length about the way mall floor plans and directories are badly designed and make it hard for shoppers to find their way. In one of my expeditions to Mong Kok (most famous shopping district in Hong Kong) I was looking at the small booklets provided by Langham Place shopping mall to help shoppers find their way. These booklets could prove handy in a shopping mall that offers almost 600,000 sq. ft. of floor space and spans over 13 floors!

With my background and experience in usability, it was an opportunity to identify few flaws in the design of the booklet:

Aesthetics driven
The booklet is very nice to look at (the picture on the left presents a front and back view). Unfortunately as it is sitting on the stand at the entrance of the mall, the color difference between the front and the back and the labels “Shopping Guide” and “Dining Guide” lead shoppers to think that these are two entirely different booklets. Many pick two booklets up and only realize after some time that the two are actually the same.

Information Architecture
Another flaw is in the structure of the booklet. It is accordion or zig-zag folded and the title on each side (front and back) should represent what it contains. While holding the booklet on the “shopping guide” side, shoppers can browse a list of all the shops divided in subcategories, with no map of where they are. However on the other side, “dining guide”, the first two pages are dedicated to listing restaurants, while the rest is a series of floor plans to actually locate the shops. I can very well imagine the designer of this booklet thinking that there are too many shops and restaurants compared to the number of floor plans and deciding to group restaurants and floor plans together under a “Dining Guide” category so that the accordion fold CONCEPT would still work…

Not task-oriented
The last flaw of this booklet is that it was not designed with relevant tasks in mind. Shoppers might have two main tasks when taking the booklet. They may need an overview of all the shops available, or they may have a specific shop in mind and want to locate it. First, with subcategories like “The Spiral”, which is a specific location of the shopping mall, it makes it very hard for new shoppers, who do not know the mall’s jargon to get an overview. Second, shoppers who want to locate a specific shop have to look for the code of the shop first, figure out that floor plans are under dining guide and finally look up the shop on these plans; not the most straight-forward of tasks…

It is interesting to see that for an item like a guide to a shopping mall, design seems to take priority over usability.

While walking around Mong Kok, which is one of the main shopping area in Hong Kong, here is a picture of a shop that stood out from the rest thanks to its “multiple concepts approach”. For me the name “3-concepts” really worked well. I wanted to know more.

It is actually a simple clothing shop and here is the concept they have (written in smaller fonts below the shop name): “Represents either tri-chromatic or neutral, cohering extravaganza paraphrasis together similarly”.

A brand always benefits from a clear concept or mission statement. After reading this the shop had lost me as a potential customer. But of course I do not belong to the target audience of this shop. The target audience, young local Hong Kong girls, would not read the smaller captions and just memorize that there was English there, which in itself is a mark of quality.

Obviously in Hong Kong English is not the first language and it is always interesting to see the role that it plays in building customers’ perception. Somehow, whatever is written, there has to be English. English role goes beyond making sure non-Chinese speakers can find their way around town…

A picture taken in a local ParknShop in Hong Kong. This is the leading supermarket here…

After six years living here, I have learnt that you should never ask what your Chinese dish is made of… but at least when I buy ingredients, I’d like a bit more details…

;o)

I have that picture for a long time on my computer. Finally I can post it!

Let’s zoom a little on one specific day schedule (all are the same)

A very nice poster from Hong Kong i-Cable company that was displayed during the Germany 2006 World Cup in selected restaurants. This is a provider of cable TV and Internet in Hong Kong. They are losing market share at light speed to broadband competitor Now (PCCW). Although this poster is a very small detail, it may shed light on a much bigger problem overall…

I wonder if some people waited until 27pm to see the game…