Heart Over Brain

So there it is, that very moment when it’s time for you to make a decision about something. You probably think that reason is influencing what you should do because you are a smart rational person, but in reality, it is your heart that is taking over your brain and affecting your behavior the most.

Whether you are buying a new home, selecting between job opportunities, or picking a new shirt, you will first base your decision on how you feel about it, then justify that decision with more logical thinking.

This is even truer in our day and age. Customers are much more aware of what you need to deliver in order to impact their lives positively. They not only seek value but also significance in everything they acquire or interact with, something sincerely meaningful.

In a previous article I discuss what the creation of meaning involves. In essence it’s about making sure you develop enough empathy towards your audience, understand how they really feel, what they aspired to, and create a momentous experience that supports the emotional drive during the journey: a path to goal-achievement and contempt.

But what emotions are we talking about exactly?

 

Primary Emotions

Psychology experts have offered us plenty of studies in the last few decades about the understanding of the emotional self, the shambolic and sometimes unpredictable pool of sentiments (and their correlated responses) that makes us the opposite of robots.

Anyone can identify basic emotions such as happy or sad, but there are many more nuances and when combined, they influence how we behave in a specific moment and over time. And this of course applies to customers and clients. We will never stop being human even in business situations, which means emotions also need to be taken into account in a B2B context.

Understanding emotions is not simple, but once you grasp the basics you can actually determine what to do with them and identify opportunities to connect with your audience and support them efficiently. A commonly used guide to emotions is Plutchik’s wheel which structures 8 families of emotions. The inner circle (rage, ecstacy, etc.) is the most intense set of emotions but the second circle (joy, sadness, etc.) includes the most common ones. The outer circle presents variants and less intense emotions within the same family.

 

The Plutchik theory also demonstrates how pairing primary emotions from different families can define new ones. Here are a few examples:

 

 

But what perhaps matters the most is what to do with these emotions. Plutchik also suggests some anticipated reactions from people when facing certain situations. And that is of particular value when defining customer journeys.

 

 

One good example of how emotion scales are used is by companies wanting to optimize their customer service centers. They will develop guidelines and training classes for the representatives so they are equipped to deal with certain situations, particularly the more negative types of emotions such as anger or fear. An irritated and overwhelmed customer is not easy to handle after all.

But we all react differently to situations, now don’t we?

Personalities

While understanding specific emotions is very useful, the way they are combined in each of us is just as important. Personality refers to someone’s amalgamation of emotions, thoughts, and traits, as well as the psychological responses to situations. Personality is basically a pattern of characteristics forming a distinct behavior. And of course, scientists have spent a lot of time trying to understanding what makes us so unique.

There are many sets of customer personalities out there, but the most referred one is probably David Merrill and Roger Reid’s “Knowing About Social Styles” theory in which 4 types of personalities are identified. You can actually use a quadrant to define more precisely one’s personality, for instance you may be assertive in a given situation but not dramatic about it.

 

Many experts or agencies provide insights on how to deal with the 4 types of customers. They tend to adapt the characteristics to the industry they evolve in, but here are some of the most common ones from my audit:

 

While Merrill & Reid’s theory is very enlightening, I see it as a base. I think every project is different and identifying specific personalities for each might be a more targeted approach. For instance in a recent user experience research project I focused my efforts on one particular area of a digital platform redesign: talent recruitment.

My investigation allowed me to discover that in this area of expertise potential employees are often divided in 2 distinct categories: the passive seeker and the active seeker. It was clear early on that both have specific behavioral traits regarding career opportunities. They do not seek information the same way and are interesting in different things (or at least have different priorities).

Here’s a summary of the top-level personalities I presented:

 

ACTIVE SEEKER

They are typically in a situation where they need to find another job, either because they are unhappy or just pursuing a better opportunity, or because the company may be closing or outsourcing jobs (making the situation more urgent). Active seekers only represent about 30% of the total workforce, but most jobs are filled with this group who is proactively looking for new positions (and are more rational in their decision making). They will work hard at their personal brand and will be easier to find on social networks and recruitment websites. Because there is more of an urgency to find a new position, they will get down to business quickly by looking at your job descriptions early in the process. But it does not mean the talent you need is in this group. Many believe they are not as qualified as the passive candidates (on average). Why? They may not hold jobs as long and therefore have less experience. They may take any position and are less committed. That being said, there can be strong professionals in this group but you just need to filter the candidates properly.

PASSIVE SEEKER

This group represents about 70% of the workforce and is often thought as too “difficult” to approach (despite often including the most qualified candidates). These professionals are obviously not looking for jobs, but it does not mean they are not interested in hearing from you. Many are actually whiling to engage into a conversation with prospect employers to see if there is an opportunity. While you need a specific strategy on how to reach them, if they do visit your digital properties or come across content published elsewhere, you need to excite them. You have to connect with them on a more emotional level because only a spark, a moment of revelation, could make them decide to start considering new horizons.

In the full analysis, what I presented my client with is not only an understanding of the primary candidates but also how to handle them. But this is just a first layer. You need to take into account some of the other personality traits such as outgoing versus shy, or nervous versus confident, which can apply to both the passive or active seeker and do not necessarily define the qualification level of a potential employee. A shy and less confident person may still be the best match for your company but you need to know how to deal with them (note: introverts are now considered important players due to their more composed and analytical approach in life. Find the ideal moment or the best way to collect their thoughts).

So how else can you use emotions and personalities?

 

How-To

Leveraging emotions and personalities can be done in many ways. These obviously relate a lot to profiling exercises but also help model user experience artifacts. Here are a couple examples and some tips:

 

PERSONAS

Modeling archetypes is obviously the best way to translate the common characteristics of an audience into specific sets of emotions and personalities. As I explain in another article, a persona can only be called that way if it is brought to life during the development process (through storytelling and role-playing). To help you do this, persona artifacts should include a elements related to the emotional state and overall attitude. I usually include a single sentence that sum up the archetype’s state of mind (sometime as a quote). The overall personality must shine through the background stories you will write and specific emotions can be identified in particular stages of the journey.

 

EXPERIENCE CYCLE & JOURNEY MAP

Diagraming the path to goal-achievement is one of my favorite exercises. It represents how an audience member is likely to evolve over time within a given experiential platform. Because it is sequential and evolutionary, you can identify specific mindsets or feelings when certain events occur or when certain tasks are performed. A good example of that was a project I worked on not so long ago where the audience was not only young but also going through a difficult experience. Kids were participating in a clinical trial and it was clear that emotions were going to influence a lot how they were going to interact with our retention program. To make our flows impactful we used an emotional cycle related to patients going through such an experiment. It included a sequence of stages from motivated to doubtful and even growing apathy.

Take-Away

In a nutshell, it just about asking yourself: “How do they feel and what can I do about it?” Think of customers or clients as human beings, understand their perspective of a situation and act as a true partner. Show that you really care about them and want to make a difference in their lives, whether it is personal or professional.

Here are some additional tips about the attitude YOU should have regarding your audience:

• Customers are human beings: make people your priority
• Get closer, listen a lot, speak to them and show that you understand.
• Get them involved, value their ideas, let them imagine possibilities.
• Make it easy for them, give them control, offer options.
• Stay positive, make it inspiring, delight them.
• Teach your team or colleagues how to develop empathy.

 

Anecdote: I came across an interesting study from Frac.tl which identifies the top drivers of viral content, and in the end, feeling “happy” was identified as the overall motivation for social media sharing, as seen in this list:

1. Amusement
2. Interest
3. Surprised
4. Happiness
5. Delight
6. Pleasure
7. Joy
8. Hope
9. Affection
10. Excitement

 

Some books to consider:

• Personal Styles & Effective Performance
• Emotions and Life: Perspectives from Psychology, Biology, and Evolution
• Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are
• Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

 

 

Marco Gervasio

_________________________________________________

Reach me: marco@sequential.ca

Preamble

I have been using and promoting the use of personas for many years now, not only because I believed in them from the very first time I heard of the methodology, but also because I have seen the true impact it has during the definition of more meaningful customer experiences. Sill today, I face clients or even co-workers with doubtful eyes when suggested to use personas throughout the development process. That’s usually because they share the misconception that personas are just fictional characters and cannot possibly represent the majority of an audience (and therefore are a waste of time and money). That’s of course far from the truth. What skeptical minds do not realize is that personas are actually created out of data. In fact, they not only come from quantitative data (which most marketers are accustomed too) but also combine important qualitative data that inform us on deep human needs and habits.

That’s why personas are a key component of human-centered design.

 

What Are Personas?

Persona artifacts are meant to provide a portrait of the people analyzed during the research phase. Each persona is in fact the representation of many individuals sharing similar behavioral patterns, synthesizing all common and significant attributes contributing to a distinct conduct. Unlike a marketing segmentation, personas provide more insights regarding the overall context, recurring challenges, common perceptions, social trends, goal-driven expectations, shared emotional needs, etc.

More importantly, personas humanize the target audience and make us care more for them.

Empathy Is Everything

In a previous article I was exposing the truth about how consumers have evolved in the last century, particularly in the last couple decades. Nowadays people expect so much more from brands. They want companies to be honest, to be there for them, to be proactive and be a true partner. It all comes down to injecting your service or product with responsiveness and compassion. In other words: empathy. Financial success or stability is important for any organization, but money should not be the only thing driving leaders and employees. Because people seek more and more meaning in their lives and want brands to provide some of it, companies need to really care about making a difference. Using your heart and your brain at the same time is a good way to start building impactful customer experiences.

And personas are fundamental to the creation of meaning and value.

 

Analyzing The Right Data

As mentioned earlier, great archetypes come from insightful data that inform on both rational and emotional needs of our target audience. In the process of creating personas, the first steps is to gather as much data as possible, starting with existing assets, such as: demographics, sales reports, customer service feedback, website analytics, market trends, etc. Secondly, you will need to acquire further qualitative data in order to better understand the behavioral traits of your audience. This can be achieved through interviews, contextual inquiry or observation, surveys and focus groups. The sample is of course much smaller than a quantitative research but it can still uncover key emotional triggers that often influence task performance and decision-making. Once you organize all the data, cross-analysis will help you identify behavioral patterns and even uncover new opportunities to further answer the needs of your audience (and perhaps identify new revenue streams).

That’s how you start understanding the humans behind the market segments.

 

Identifying Candidates

I have once conducted a deep dive analysis for an e-commerce project (a well known technical clothing company for various sports). Cross-analyzing data allowed me to identify two primary archetypes that would represent the majority of the audience. I ended up suggesting two polar-opposite individuals based on knowledge of the industry, experience with outdoor activities, and recurring challenges. On one side of the scale, the newbies (those new to the product category and related sport) can be insecure or get lost when shopping around for such clothing and needed to be supported during the purchasing cycle. On the other hand the experts (knowledgeable fans of the brand and product category) were feeling less certain about their favorite clothing company (seeing so many new ones with similar options) and needed to be reassured that they were still making the right choice. How did we respond to that? The final platform included contextualized education and strong evidence communication.

Putting ourselves in the mind of our personas allowed us to create significant value.

 

Bringing Them To Life

Another misconception is that personas are just sheets of paper or PowerPoint slides that you refer to from time to time. They can only be called “personas” if they are actually brought to life during the development process. How do you know if you have achieved that level of effectiveness? When your team and client regularly talk about the archetypes as if they are real people, doing role-playing during design validations and prototype walkthroughs. Keeping them alive also means having a personas owner who will make sure they are utilized but also continuously updated. Persona artifacts should evolve as you acquire new data, for instance when you monitor your new platform activities or when you conduct usability testing (for which personas can help define recruitment requirements). People and society evolve so keep an eye on social trends, consumer habits, market transformations, and changing cultural values.

Always share updated artifacts and present the key changes or new insights.

 

Persona Artifacts

There are many things you can do to help bring your archetypes to life and keep your team connected to them. Here are some of the tools to consider:

 

Base profile

This is pretty much your foundation. Prior to developing full profiles, go through a “skeleton” phase during which you focus on the core data defining unique behaviors as well as essential goals and needs. When fully developed, a base profile will become a one- or two-pager document that provide key character attributes, context of use, life situation, etc. This typically includes:

• Name
• Title (or role)
• Photos
• Background story
• Quote (state of mind)
• Key challenges or hurdles
• Main goals and aspirations
• Primary needs
• Key sentiments
• Influencers (friends, co-workers, etc.)
• Technographics
• Media consumption
• Etc.

 

Relationship map

This connectivity exercise allows you to see how various actors relate to one another. This becomes particularly useful when dealing with several archetypes. For instance in B2B situations there are often many individuals involved in the experiential ecosystem. While you may not develop personas for all of them, defining how they relate helps understand key factors like influences, dependencies, etc. A relationship map exercise will produce the following items:

• Actor roles: key responsibilities and tasks
• Connectivity chart: primary and secondary connections, influence toward service or product, levels of engagement, etc.
• Relationship characteristics (for each pair of actors): when they connect, service/product selection or recommendation process, general expectations towards each other.

 

Experiential cycle

Putting our archetypes in action is an important part of bringing them to life. An experiential cycle is typically divided in the primary phases that lead to goal-achievement. You can define these phases based on the nature of your project. I often combine a few, for instance:

• Purchasing cycle (classic)
• Learning cycle (when personas need to acquire knowledge or skills)
• Seasonal cycle (when a period of the year trigger needs)
• Calendar cycle (for important dates like events of holidays)
• Emotional cycle (when dealing with sensitive issues like cancer diagnosis)
• Etc.

Each phase of the cycle should present what our personas are going through and how we can help:

• Background story: current situation, challenges, expectations, goals, and needs.
• Primary tasks
• Tactical ideas and channels

 

Journey map

This is closely related to the experiential cycle but focuses on telling a story. It illustrates how one of the archetypes will reach specific goals through various actions within the platform. A journey is sequential with many milestones. I have even drafted maps with several journey lines intersecting, each representing primary archetypes (this links back to the relationship map too). Things to consider when making journey maps:

• Have a strong narrative: make sure you can tell “Jane’s story” in a continuous stream
• Focus on important tasks or moments, but demonstrate with specifics
• Display what data can be collected at specific interactions
• Make the map visually appealing with illustrations or graphics
• If possible, print a very large version of the map and gather your audience
• Use the mapping exercise to define a product roadmap

 

Note: see my other article about journey maps for visual examples.

 

Other tools

Bringing the personas to life can be achieved in many ways. The artifacts presented above are some of the essentials but you may want to consider the following too:

• Persona booth: set up a table or kiosk somewhere (in your war room ideally) with real objects that relate to the character
• Poster: create a collage of photos, illustrations, and words or quotes that reflect the world in which the persona evolves in
• Deck of cards: create a synthesized version of the profiles, cycles, and maps and distribute them to the team so they can do quick references
• Persona website: you could create an online destination to access all of the persona artifacts, using a simple design that represent the industry or topic (I once worked on a travel website redesign and made the persona website look like an Expedia or Travelocity)
• Mini movie: if you have time or budget, you could create a short montage using actors (or amateurs that can make the characters feel real) and present a day in the life of.

 

Conclusion

Being able to integrate and successfully use human-centered methodologies must come from the desire to make a difference in people’s lives, focusing on who they are and what they aspire to (whether you sell products or lead a non-profit organization). This must fundamentally be rooted in a company’s culture and values. If it is not the case, they are ways to get there, a step at the time. Even if at first you cannot develop advanced persona artifacts and if you have limited interest from your team, any small gesture can have an impact and over time you can transform your current development process. But what’s even more important is to demonstrate how being centered on humans (not just consumers and numbers) can actually help you become more innovative and create experiences around your products or services that bring real value and impact people in more meaningful ways.

 

____________________________________

Marco Gervasio

Reach me: marco@sequential.ca

Measuring the efficiency and reliability of products has been performed by the industrial design industry for many decades. This notion of evaluating goods for their ability to deliver satisfaction started to be applied in the world of digital marketing some time in the 90’s. We have to thank Jacob Nielsen for introducing us, the Internet up-and-comers, to the idea of accountability. Back in the day, digital pioneers were so anxious to get something out on this World Wide Web throbbing with infinite possibilities but were oblivious or too fast at times and delivered ineffective applications.

Nowadays, we are certainly more responsible. We are more mature in our approach and will question our decisions early on in the process of modeling tailored solutions for our clients. But how do we go about deciding what his best? Intuition? I certainly hope not (although sometimes it does work). In reality, we spend many hours searching for insights, or clues for the truth, the undeniable answer to a challenge thrown at us by a client. Conducting a solid discovery phase is a good way to start the strategic and creative process. It provides the necessary foundation for the development of a successful program or platform. But we shouldn’t stop there. Measuring the overall quality of our solutions need to continue throughout the process.

Fundamentally heuristics form a scale, a set of criteria or guidelines that we should aspire to. These standards provide us with sanity checkpoints, to make sure we are heading in the right direction. But heuristics, if you search for them online, are all over the place. We still don’t have a shared set of standards in our industry. Nielsen tried to do that but unfortunately his heuristics outdated years ago mainly because they focused on usability only, or the rational side of things. The reality is people often make decisions based on emotions, their overall sentiment vis-à-vis a service, product, brand, or person. The biggest error Nielsen did was to think all people need is a user-friendly interface to complete tasks successfully.

Studies have shown that interactive experiences that offer a less efficient experience (not necessarily unusable) but fulfill emotional needs like encouragement or inspiration can be more successful in terms of making customers complete a task like a purchase. Those solutions that do it well take into account in equal proportions rational and emotional needs. It works because that’s how humans go about life. We look at things or analyze situations always with 2 analytical layers, sometimes unconsciously. There are moments when we will be more on the emotional side, and sometime we will be very rational in our decision, but both layers are always there and we need to measure every aspect of our solutions that way.

A few years back I had attempted at establishing a news set of heuristics that would tap into the emotional layer. I had analyzed 15 sets of heuristics from various sources, some more known than others, and tried to find commonalities as well as unique differentiators. In the end, there were many differences and none took into account emotions. This outcome really made me want to change things. My first stab at identifying more current heuristics was definitely on the right track. I had included criteria about the impact of a product or service in people’s lives (value and felt meaning) and the overall appeal, which influences perception (this means an ugly interface can affect the desire to complete a task).

It was also a time when other experts in the industry were starting to realize that people are not robot and have feelings, and that we needed to evaluate products on a human scale. I even got a call from a Forrester analyst who was curious about the new phenomenon and wanted to gather the opinions of various professionals.

While our industry is still waiting for optimized heuristics that balance the emotional and rational planes, it is easy to add a few more to your current list, some that can evaluate how users feel throughout their experience, such as:

- Confidence
- Inspiration
- Motivation
- Delight
- Security
- Etc.

These could form an additional column in my table (see related post), one that would truly focus on positive feelings (the category could be labeled Spirit or Sentiment). If measured at several milestones, they sort of become a mood barometer, a curve indicating changing feelings during a customer journey.

Heuristics are not only criteria used by experts during assessments. They should be reminders or guidelines we refer to when defining and designing applications and programs. They can really help us create better experiences.

_____________________________

Marco Gervasio

Reach me: marco@sequential.ca

One of the most important phases of a service or product development is coming up with a big idea. A client gives us a challenge, strategy uncovers opportunities, and then it’s time to bring the vision to life. Unfortunately, the way we go about finding great ideas is where many organizations have trouble. Some people think concepts will come up just like that if we sit down and talk about it, but the creative process is much more complex and organic. That’s why designers and creative directors often struggle when working in overly structured environment and within a rigid workflow.

In order to get the best out of your talents, you have to give them not only flexibility but also true enablement. Your team must be granted the time, the means, and the responsibility to go through a solid ideation process so inventiveness can occur. But what is a good process, one that will allow your team to reach nirvana and present brilliant solutions to your clients?

First off, everyone must understand exactly what we are trying to achieve. A good brief should clearly present the people we want to serve (client and audience), how we think we can solve the problem, and why we think it is going to work. Once the strategy has been enriched and validated by the team and the client, the creative process can begin. Get your talent ready for some brainstorming.

But let’s do a step back. What is a brainstorming session, you may ask. Most commonly, it is known as the generation of ideas in a face-to-face setting. A group of people will share thoughts through discussion, writing, and drawing with the intent of finding solutions, opportunities, or concepts. It’s a great way to solve things quickly and the collaborative aspect makes it very “agile” in nature.

An alternative to these sessions are idea jams, an activity allowing team members to submit ideas over a longer period of times, sharing them online or through some other form of communication or publication. This approach is useful when you want to reach a larger group of people, when people live in various geographical locations, or when a challenge requires iterative research. Generating ideas can also be done individually, often to prepare for jams or brainstorms. Techniques like mind mapping or mood boards is a great way to do find ideas by association and collect inspirational elements.

One of the most common mistakes when it comes to organizing a brainstorm session is the lack of preparation. I have too often been invited to these idea generation meetings where people were either not given enough context or insufficient time to research and incubate prior to the session. Here’s how to get things organized:

Phase 1: Planning
- Problem definition and opportunity
- Ideation objectives and scope
- Participants identification
- Pre-session homework
- Timeframe

Phase 2: Ideation Session(s)
- Introduction
- Warm-up exercise
- Brainstorm
- Summary of results
- Next steps

Phase 3: Analysis
- Evaluation of ideas
- Decision process (selection or iteration)

Before the session, make sure all participants are introduced properly to the purpose of the ideation exercise. Send them a brief with related references and resources. Giving participants homework will allow them to understand better the context and problem as well as start seeding some ideas in their minds. Giving homework can be assigning specific research areas such as market trends, best practices, and innovation, or preparatory exercises like individual mind mapping.

During the session, the facilitator plays an important role. Not only does she have to keep the session on track but must act as stimulator so the team is continuously engaged and generating ideas. The facilitator must be objective and should ideally have no particular attachment to the project. Respect is also a very important value to promote during these sessions. It is sometimes tempting to give a negative comment about someone’s idea, but that can affect the mood and productivity level. As a rule of thumb, every idea is good and deserves attention. Even if one may seem underwhelming, it can spark another idea in someone else’s mind. So, everything contribution counts during the brainstorm. The basic rules:

• Every idea has value, never criticize them even if they are similar to others or seem off
• Every idea is the result of collective thinking and belongs to no one in particular
• Generate many ideas and push your team to take risks

After the session or jam, it’s time to sort and evaluate ideas. These can be grouped in categories and similar ideas can be merged. Additional feedback or specifications about certain ideas can be requested from the team afterwards. Most importantly, the leader or the group must decide on which ideas will be kept and promoted (that’s not always easy). To do so, ideas need to be evaluated for not only for their novel qualities and technical feasibility but also for how they can successfully solve the problem. The group can be asked to perform this evaluation by submitting a ranking or rating for each idea.

The amazing thing about brainstorm sessions is how it helps achieve greatness collaboratively. Often enough, people invited to these sessions do work together on other projects and such creative gatherings can help them develop more affinity. There is a tremendous sentiment of shared accomplishment when the group finds a great solution and solves a tough problem together.

Key take-away:

• Never underestimate the power of collective thinking
• Consider group ideation more often, event to address smaller challenges
• Always prepare for a session and get the team ready
• All ideas are good and belong to everyone
• Respect and encouragement is key

 

__________________________________________

Marco Gervasio

Reach me: marco@sequential.ca

Our world is complex and in constant state of change. And there is no sign that things will slow down or get simpler any time soon. This rapid evolution phenomenon applies not only to industries and organizations but to people and social movements as well.

The way we conduct business nowadays is far different that decades ago: the competitive landscape is always boiling with rising and falling players, society’s values are challenged all the time, technology is spitting out an overwhelming amount of new commodities, and customers have become overly stimulated and possibly blasé.

How do we survive in this jungle of insanity anyways? Shouldn’t life be easier? But I digress…

Perhaps the madness began with the industrial revolution, a stepping-stone in our history that totally changed how we created and accessed products. The machine age helped make everything more accessible and businesses jumped on the opportunity. Suddenly, customers had access to so many goods and started piling them up. But people’s needs and goals have evolved over the past century.

100 years ago, customers sought products with great features, devices that would make their lives more confortable and efficient: “My Lord! I can get light in the house by pressing a switch!” Decades later, in mid-century, when access to products was easy and options were abundant, customers started looking for more superficial benefits such as image and identity: “Which brand will make me appear swell in front of my peeps?” But are we really different today? Yes and no.

Both feature and identity benefits are still important. We still want the impossible gadgetry and still desire to display designer labels proudly. But coming up with great product functionalities or developing a cool brand is almost the easy part now. Why? Because today, people expect even more.

Options in the marketplace are certainly not weak. We face so many amazing selections every time we go shopping. So what makes customers more demanding than ever? Well, tired of just seeking innovative goods or brand self-association, they aspire to something more relevant, significant, and momentous. In other words: something meaningful.

But what is meaning, you may ask.

Our now aware and awaken customers will basically pay more attention to things that can make an actual difference in their lives, on a more emotional, intellectual, and even spiritual level. Basically, whatever we create should tap into how people connect with what makes sense around them, what is right, what is truly important in life. When people connect with your brand, do they get a sense of:

• Togetherness & Contribution
• Harmony & Splendor
• Certainty & Transparency
• Encouragement & Improvement
• Illumination & Discovery
• Creativity & Achievement
• Freedom & Integrity
• Etc.

It all comes down to setting up an overall experience that will generate meaningful moments. Obviously, the goal is not to make so many meanings come to life all at once. That would be overwhelming and not possible anyways. What’s important is to make sure that some of these actually occur. That’s when customers feel like you are devoted to generating a significant impact in their lives.

Being in business nowadays means caring for people and not look at them as numbers or buyers. It’s about a true desire to make a difference every time we have the chance to engage with people. It is a pretty noble intention, when you look at it this way. But making it happen is not easy. And why should it be? Every great thing in life requires a genuine effort to create, and it all starts at the foundation of every organization: culture.

Successful companies understand that offering the best customer experience demands a high level of commitment. It must be part of the company’s beliefs and values. Every thought, action, and conduct must align towards that goal. If your culture is based on wanting to make a real difference in people’s life, not only will you set up the grounds for innovative ideas to emerge but you will also ensure that the end product will connect with customers in profound ways.

Perhaps this seems ambitious but it does not have to be complex. It just needs to be good and right. Here are a few examples of companies that had an impact on us and the meanings they tapped into:

INSTAGRAM – Creativity & Achievement
This little app is so simple yet it has achieved so much. It did not allow people to take pictures, it made people feel like artists. Sure, all the filters help make everything look prettier than reality, but the app still made people want to become more creative by putting extra effort towards finding the right subjects and framing them in novel ways. Ordinary people suddenly had a tool to let the artist within come out. And we all need to create in life. It is a fundamental part of our existence.

MOVEMBER – Togetherness & Contribution
We all know about the ‘stache movement now. What makes this event so brilliant is how simple things came together: body marking, tribe building, giving back. A simple hairy feature on the face (a very noticeable one) would make people ask questions, allowing the advocate to lure them in and make them either donate money or become part of the clan. By mixing fun, style (arguable for some, but creative nonetheless), and collectivity, it just made people want to be part of it all. Participants suddenly felt a true sense of belonging and accomplishment. Finding a way to make people feel like they are part of a movement, of something great and bigger than themselves is what made the difference between this fundraising campaign and all the other ones.

APPLE – Harmony & Splendour
Well, it would be easy to attribute many other meanings to this brand, but I thought I would highlight these two. The reason is, a couple decades ago Apple took the conscious decision to make every product beautiful and easy to use. The outcome was a series of powerful products that put people in constant wonder. They were slick and intuitive; they just made sense and were better than anything else. Not only did Apple push the innovation on a feature level, but they also integrated an overall experience. From purchasing, to opening the packing, to using the product, to getting technical support; every step was designed to make people feel great.

 

I recently came across a quote, in the middle of writing this post. I just thought it was a nice way to end this story:

“It is not the strongest of species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin

 

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Marco Gervasio

Reach me: marco@sequential.ca