Why Skittles is doing well but not enough
For the last 7 days (since this article for me), all the TwitterSphere has been talking about the Skittle website? widget? webget. Indeed, for those who do not know what I am talking about, have a look here.
Most of you must remember this very strange website one year ago created by Modernista, where you have just a small menu in the right top corner with links to their Netvibes universe, their Wikipedia page, their Facebook page, their YouTube account… « You are viewing Modernista! through the eyes of the Web.« , it was particulary relevant in this case, I mean for a digital agency, indeed, many things depends on their reputation (like most of the communication agencies) and X or Y thinks about. Here, everything is here, the visitor has every tool to get his opinion about it. That perfectly fits what people need.
Now the Skittle case is different, it’s a confectionnary brand which belongs to Mars. They simply wanted to propose a website to introduce the brand, its products. Usually, we would have seen a Full-Flash website to say how cool is the brand and how nice are the pakaging colors. Now, we have the main Web tools to chat (Twitter), to share pictures (FlickR), to share videos (YouTube), to exchange and play (Facebook), to learn (Wikipedia) about Skittle. That’s nice and really honnest from the brand, I perfectly agree Tiphereth Gloria on this point. Additionnaly, it gives authenticity and confidence to the customer point of view. It corresponds perfectly to Faris Yakob‘s quote « A brand is a collective perception in the mind of the consumers« . This example perfectly illustrates this change from the channels (offline and traditionnal medias) to arenas of discussion for the customers (that very few brands did).
However, this kind of website is the first one, everybody wants to see to know what it looks like. It created an interesting buzz but that won’t be the same for the next ones. Personnaly, I don’t really care about a confectionnary brand, it doesn’t bring me something relevant. There is something missing for the user to have a real interest to come on this website. This « Brand Utility » is « where brand create something useful to you, something is a utility in your life » for Benjamin Palmer, CEO/Owner of the Barbarian Group. In Skittle case, the utility doesn’t exist at all…
Hopefully, it is only the beginning, so new ideas/updates are coming to make the next one better and more useful for the users.
