[Jihye Choi's Trend 2026] Branding Through Subtraction

Stories Remain Where Immediacy Fades
Empty Shelves, Screenless Cameras
A Brand's Sincerity Lies in the Space in Between

Jihee Choi, Research Fellow at Seoul National University Consumer Trend Analysis Center

At a bookstore in Ginza, Tokyo, there is only a single book on display. This is Morioka Shoten, where the shelves are otherwise empty. Customers are freed from the task of choosing a book that suits them from among hundreds; instead, they are faced with only one question: "Will I read this one book today or not?" By reducing the options to the extreme, the bookstore paradoxically deepens and personalizes the relationship between reader and book. Here, freedom is not the ability to choose anything, but rather the freedom to decide whether to dedicate your time fully to this one book right now.

Once, a brand’s merit was measured by how much, how quickly, and how conveniently it could provide. The more choices, the better; connections had to be seamless, and waiting was treated as synonymous with customer attrition. However, in recent times, consumers paradoxically gather at places where brands deliberately set limitations. Sealing away phones, reducing options, and providing inconvenient tools that do not offer instant confirmation—these are the contexts where people experience deeper satisfaction. The important question is changing: "Instead of adding convenience, what can be removed to return agency to the consumer?"

The phenomenon that most dramatically illustrates this shift is the "No Phone" strategy. By temporarily setting aside the smartphone—a universal remote control—a brand can completely alter the direction of its spaces and experiences. A prime example is "Hush Harbor," a phone-free bar opened by Rock Harper, the winner chef of the American TV show "Hell's Kitchen," in Washington, D.C. in September 2025. Upon entering, guests seal their smartphones in Yondr pouches and spend the evening without them. There are no photos, no uploads, no messages. Instead, there is conversation, music, and a drink made right in front of you. Rather than restricting freedom, the brand suggests, "Let yourself be fully immersed in this moment, with these people." When customers accept the inconvenience of disconnecting digitally, they become the true masters of their own evening.

Similar constraints have appeared in art museums. The Frick Collection in New York, for example, completely prohibits photography inside its exhibition halls. Visitors are permitted only to see with their eyes and to engage in thought in the moment. Rather than replicating images or turning the exhibition into an extension of social media, the museum returns the agency of viewing the artworks and the space to the audience.

The second strategy is reducing options. While many options may appear to offer freedom, in reality, they lead to fatigue and regret. Dozens of menu items, hundreds of content choices, and infinite scrolling bring not a sense of liberation, but ongoing doubt: "Did I make the wrong choice?" "The Boring Phone," a product jointly launched by Heineken and New York convenience store brand Bodega, directly targets this dilemma. This "boring phone," stripped down to just calling and texting—with all social media, apps, and notifications removed—is intended to help people at festivals and parties focus on others and the music, rather than endlessly scrolling their smartphones. By stepping back from the race to add new features to the latest smartphones, the brand paradoxically enables people to experience more meaningful moments by providing a device that does less.

The final strategy is the aesthetics of waiting. Most services today are designed on the premise of "instant confirmation, instant delivery, instant feedback." Immediacy is intense but fleeting. Recognizing this limitation, some brands are intentionally reviving the void of waiting. The "Flashback One" camera, released by the startup Flashback, is a digital camera where you cannot check your photos immediately after taking them. The images are sent to a dedicated app and can only be viewed 24 hours later, recreating the anticipation of film cameras in a digital age. German camera brand Leica has likewise intentionally removed the rear LCD screen from its $9,395 M11-D digital camera. Photos must be transferred to an app and checked later.

The No Phone strategy, reduction of options, and the aesthetics of waiting all emerge in different domains, but they are rooted in the same underlying context. First is the realization of excessive connectivity. Smartphones and social media are always ready to draw our attention elsewhere, making it difficult for us to truly be "here," wherever we are. Brands are now expected not to create more touchpoints but to protect the consumer's attention. Second is the increase in choice fatigue and regret. The equation "more choices = greater satisfaction" has already been broken. The more a brand filters and reduces choices, the more responsibly and deeply consumers can engage with what remains. Third is the desensitization to immediacy. Environments where everything can be seen, bought, or changed at any time are convenient, but they diminish emotional resonance. When waiting disappears, little remains that can be recalled as meaningful stories over time.

At the intersection of these three trends, the role of brands is being redefined. Brands have long pondered, "What more can we give?" More features, faster speeds, wider choices. Yet now, as the competition to add more has reached its peak, consumer trust is paradoxically shifting towards brands that know what to subtract.

Brands that deliberately do less and forgo some conveniences they could easily provide. When this restraint is read not as a mere marketing tactic but as a genuine message—"We want you to truly live in this moment"—consumers respond at a deeper level. The act of subtraction by a brand ultimately returns room for choice, attention, and emotion to the consumer. The wider that empty space, the longer and more vividly the consumer’s experience will remain.

Jihee Choi, Research Fellow at Seoul National University Consumer Trend Analysis Center

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.