The subliminal narrative your customers need to see
Not to sound like teenager, but there’s something incredibly cringe about seeing a person describe themselves on LinkedIn as a “CX rockstar.”
Rock stars (or pop stars, to be more accurate), do more than make financially successful albums. They inspire the kind of fandom that most brands would kill for.
Think about how a teenager will not only talk about how they like a particular song, but explain the compelling attributes of a musician or band as though they were an anthropologist deconstructing the social norms of a newly-discovered country.
The most successful music stars give their fans clues to who they are, what inspires them and sometimes even hidden messages in a wide range of content. Although they might not describe it as such, this is what’s known as their subliminal narrative.
How visual identity can make a brand sing
I first came across the idea of a subliminal narrative through the work of Natasha Brito, who runs a Dallas-based agency called Austere which helps musicians forge a strong visual identity.
She talks about the subliminal narrative as the story you never tell the public, but which offers your fans “Easter eggs” they can discover, decipher and argue about with their peers.
A profile of Brito in Rolling Stone’s U.K. edition offers a glimpse at her process:
She listens to an artist’s music with her eyes closed, taking note of every image, color, texture, or symbol that comes to mind . . . From there, she translates those impressions into mood boards, symbols, and a creative direction that informs everything from album art to social media content.
This struck me as an interesting exercise for CX professionals to try as well.
Move through your customer’s typical journey with your brand and think about those visual elements that immediately register.
How does that contribute to the customer promise you’re making, and how well does the end experience truly deliver on it?
Brito also classifies musicians according to a series of archetypes. This is not unlike the notion of customer personas, where brands develop their CX to align with the needs and interests of a representative segment of the population.
The narrative must travel near and far
For brands, the subliminal narrative not only needs to work effectively on social media, product design and public events. It needs to come alive across all channels.
How can the subliminal narrative underpinning your visual identify manifest itself in text messages or contact center phone calls? What about an AI-assisted process like a chatbot?
Top-performing brands definitely cultivate rock star-level fandom among their customers, but it can’t be easy. It requires dedicated, conscious effort. And maybe a little subliminal effort, too.
