Six uncommon characteristics of a customer-centric brand
Image courtesy of Vitolda Klein on Unsplash
Speak to almost anyone in the know about the core components of customer-centricity and they will likely point to understanding, feedback, leadership, design, empowerment and metrics management as core components. So, it should follow that a customer-centric brand is one that incorporates the above characteristics. That’s simple enough, isn’t it?
Let’s circle back for a moment.
As customers, we engage with and navigate the world of products and services through our five physical senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. To that extent, customer-centricity needs to be mapped and wired to sensory circuitry. Not only that but, suppliers must resist the impulse to interpret what their customers experience and instead, perfect the art of experiencing it as their customers do. Anything less than that trivialises the customer experience.
A truly customer-centric brand, therefore, is not one that is focused on the customer or even designed by the customer, it is indivisible from the customer because it is the product of the customer.
But in practice, what does this mean and what difference does it make to how products and services and designed? Well, here are the six uncommon characteristics of a customer-centric brand.
1. The appeal to emotion
Think about the things most likely to move you and your emotions will likely come to mind. This is because emotions are powerful expressions of who we are as individuals. They don’t just express our personality; they reveal our humanity. Emotions are triggers, buttons and levers; when you press, push and pull them, there is a consequential response. Through the complex circuitry of our senses, a customer-centric brand gives voice to our feelings. When brands appeal directly to our emotions, they have a ‘hook it to my veins’ quality about them. As such, they can bypass the normal filters of reason and logic that act as fetters to our discretion.
2. The language, vocabulary and sound of colour
Do you have a favourite colour? Or are there some colours that you like more than others? It is interesting how advertisers use bright, bold and vibrant colours to draw our attention to their products. Why do they do that? They do it because colours are able to communicate. Yes, the language of colour is very basic. Its sound is much like that of a high-pitched whistle or a loud bang. But here’s the rub, language does not have to be fluent or intricate to be effective. Neither does vocabulary have to be expansive to be impactful. If the sound of colour can spark your curiosity, then it has performed its role. At a fundamental level, when a customer-centric brand uses the language of colour, it shifts our focus from oblivious to attentive and from attentive to attracted.
3. Visual recognition and appreciation
Imagine yourself standing in front of a mirror. Do you ever wonder who is looking back at you? Of course not. You immediately recognise yourself. I remember watching a former security services officer talking about the art of subject surveillance many years ago. The thing that really struck me was when they spoke about the need to avoid direct eye contact with their subject. Specifically, they noted that: once you make eye contact, a relationship is immediately established. In the same way, eye contact is a determinant of a customer-centric brand. You don’t have to know it until you see it, but when you see it, you will know it.
4. The ‘taste’ of threats and benefits
There are two things that definitively drive human behaviour: threats and benefits. See how quickly we organise when we are facing threats to our well-being or those closest to us. Similarly, faced with the genuine prospect of something to gain, we can quickly pivot and re-prioritise. At a very basic level, we want to survive. Still, in order to do so, we need a ‘palate’ that is discerning enough to differentiate between those things that threaten our existence and those that will benefit our longevity. The appeal to the customer ‘palate’ therefore is a way of heightening customer perception so that beneficial decisions, become desirable choices.
5. The temperature of familiarity
Draw up a list of the things that make you feel most secure and it would be surprising if the characteristic of ‘familiarity’ does not appear amongst your top three. But why familiarity? What is it about familiarity that makes it customer-centric? Well, for a start, it speaks to ease of access, assurance and ultimately comfort. Our closest friends, frequent admirers and most powerful advocates are those with whom we have the greatest affinity. When there is brand familiarity there is less risk, when there is less risk there is more confidence and when there is more confidence there is greater trust. The corollary of the above is that customer-centric brands are the ones that we are most comfortable with.
6. Customised complexity
Have you ever had a moment of sudden recollection? It might be triggered by hearing the sequence of chords or notes in a long-forgotten song. It might be the slightest whiff of a scent that calls into remembrance a friend, loved one or lived experience. Irrespective of how illogical, inexplicable or even trivial, those triggers might be, the essence of customised complexity is that it speaks to experiences that are entirely personal. The point to note here is that a truly customer-centric brand finds a way to tap into personalised preferences that we do not understand and cannot quite explain.
So, what are the key takeaways for brand-builders? Well, in simple terms, brand-development is neither rocket science nor exact science. However, like anything that is intended to have an impact and deliver results, getting the fundamentals right is critical. Where customer-centric brand-builders get it wrong, is in conflating foundations with roots. In branding, a foundation is a static construct, built for the customer. By contrast, roots are an organic construct, that emerges from the customer. One of the above entities is internally self-aware and self-sustaining, whilst the other, which requires external stimuli, is not.
