“Flat White or F*ck Off” is probably one of the more memorable brand concepts to emerge this year.
The name is deliberately provocative but behind it sits an interesting challenge to conventional thinking about product, brand and how marketers should and could interact with their customers. The idea – inspired by Rory Sutherland – starts with a simple observation. Most businesses assume that giving customers more choice is always a good thing. More products, more features, more options and more personalisation are generally seen as signs of progress. But that only works if choice is actually what the customer wants.
Take a busy train station on a weekday morning. Most commuters aren’t looking for an artisanal coffee experience. They don’t want to spend several minutes studying a menu or deciding between endless combinations of milk, syrups and toppings. They want a decent coffee quickly before they miss their train.
So what happens when everything else is stripped away? No menu. No customisation. No upselling. Just one product, done exceptionally well.
What started as a thought experiment was brought to life by Charlie Hurst and Tom Noble through a one-day pop-up at Outernet in London. The result was more than 1,500 flat whites served in just 12 hours. The numbers are impressive, but the real value of the experiment lies in what it reveals about the way products and brands evolve. Most products are simple when launched and slowly complexity will creep in. A customer asks for a feature… a competitor launches something new… a stakeholder wants to broaden the audience. Viewed individually, each decision can appear entirely rational and sensible, yet over time the cumulative effect can be a product that is trying to solve too many problems for too many people at one time.
The same pattern is often seen in brand management. Many successful brands begin with a clear proposition and a strong sense of focus. As they grow, new ranges are introduced, adjacent markets are explored and the temptation to appeal to wider audiences becomes increasingly difficult to resist. Further down the lifecycle of a brand or product this isn’t such a bad thing and can make the most of a diminishing demand. Yet at an early stage, too much complexity can be problematic.
For brand managers and product managers alike, one of the most difficult challenges is knowing where growth and extension enhance the proposition and where they start to dilute it. The strongest products are not always those with the most features. Equally, the strongest brands are rarely those trying to stand for everything. More often, success comes from a relentless focus on understanding what customers value most and delivering it exceptionally well – whilst understanding you don’t need to appeal to everyone.
At a time when many business are focused on adding more, there is scope to succeed by taking the opposite approach. Many great brands and products have thrived because they removed friction, sharpened their focus and made it easy for their customers.
As product roadmaps expand and brand portfolios continue to grow, there is perhaps a valuable question worth asking – are customers genuinely asking for more, or are businesses simply finding it difficult to say no?
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