Over 80% of our content is recommended by algorithms nowadays. In protest, French books, music and electrical equipment retailer Fnac recommends what doesn‘t fit our taste. The idea of their “unrecommended campaign“ is to let humans – instead of algorithms – recommend products. The aim is to emphasize what makes shopping in a Fnac store a unique experience: the knowledge and cultural background of Fnac advisors. By doing so the brand helps people broaden their perspective and really discover something new instead of fuelling them with content that is in line with what they already read or listen to.
As people are increasingly exposed to opinions and information that conform to their existing beliefs, partly due to algorithms, we often have a one-sided perspective. This leads to an alienation from out-groups (like your customer), wrong decisions (because you’re not well informed), and therefore ineffective leadership. At TrendsActive we help you broaden your view by structurally embedding a broader perspective into your organisation.
We’re curious to see if more services and retailers will embrace this “unrecommended principle”. Maybe our “Discover Weekly“ on Spotify will then truly help us discover again.
