The Science of Social Intelligence. For Brands It’s About How We Connect.
Building Relationships is Fundamental – Especially for Brands.
Connecting with consumers in this overwhelming world of online advertising and social media is very challenging. Brands today are often considered invasive even though they’re precisely targeting a customer with the right product or positioning. You have to get through all the media that often inundates people on a daily basis. And, then, why would they trust you?
The way you define and position your company, your brand or your products is all based on associations that reflect a relevant social bond. By their very nature, these associations define you and can signal a connection that feels relevant and meaningful in the customer’s world. But how do you become trusted and connected?
Your value to customers is supported by how you shape your brand. Social signals say you’re ok, that “you know what matters to me and you care about me and my values”. How you cultivate these values over time and the reputation you build demonstrates an understanding of your customer’s world and how you fit into their perceptions. Brands who get this tend to build strong, long term relationships with their customers.
The Science of Social Intelligence
Fundamentally the foundation of these connections comes from social Intelligence. That’s the ability we have as humans to make social connections, create bonds and build trust.
From Wikipedia it’s defined this way – Social intelligence is the capacity to know one’s self and to know others:
Social scientist Ross Honeywill believes social intelligence is an aggregated measure of self- and social-awareness, evolved social beliefs and attitudes, and a capacity and appetite to manage complex social change. Psychologist, Nicholas Humphrey believes that it is social intelligence, rather than quantitative intelligence, that defines who we are as humans.
This is fundamental to human connections from family to clan, to the tribe, to the community we live in. We build trust through social cues and understanding in our interactions at work or at home. We now have global companies and brands using these cues to connect to us and build trust – or so they think. From Whole Foods, to Wells Fargo, to Amazon, each of these brands is trying to keep this trust with the consumer and not lose it.
Can Brands Learn From How Humans Connect?
Why do I bring this up? Because at a basic human, one-on-one level, this is very much part of our DNA (literally) and yet as we grow into larger, less personal organizations, companies, brands we lose this. Frequently brands don’t clearly understand how to adapt and connect to their customers. And, in many cases, they just take customers and product sales for granted to drive revenue growth and short term profitability.
Kraft Heinz cut manufacturing costs and reduced overhead and the result became clear: consumers didn’t buy the products and lost faith in some of their trusted brands. Kraft Heinz is an excellent example of a large, consumer-focused company with many brands that did not see the intangible yet real value of loyalty over short term earnings and cutting costs. The result: a massive loss in sales and revenue and did I say a loss of customers?
By focusing on how to build social intelligence into your brand, understanding the consumer motivations and values, you can create touchpoints that resonate with the customer and build their connection to you.
It’s Essential to Build Social-Brand Connections
RadiantBrands focuses on the dynamics of these relationships in building brand value and equity for companies. The social dimension is essential in understanding the asset value of developing product names, brand identity and in creating video and social media.
Building a Brand Strategy with Social Intelligence
1. Discover Who the Customers Are and What Matters to Them
Knowing the demographics of customers, customer categories and what they care about is essential to stay related to them. Build profiles, identify them by age, gender and what their concerns are.
2. Listen to Social Media and the Voice of Your Customer
Now we have a very public voice that often broadcasts consumer opinions, values and brand virtues. Social media is an important tool to help us understand and learn how brands are doing well and what customers think.
3. Align Your Brand Values with Your Customers
Are you really clear about the values your company is committed to? Are they for real? Are they the same values your customers hold dear? This is important to live and breath within a company or organization.
4. Be Clear About Your Authentic Voice
Speak to your customers with relevance and in the right voice and pay attention to what they react to. This is essential to brand building and knowing who you are for the customer.
5. Know the Touchpoints that Connect to Customers
Every brand has key touchpoints for reaching and interacting with customers. Retailers have store experiences, from colors to signage to floor staff; online shopping is about the UX design and experience and what they know about you; and consulting firms connect with media and sponsor key events that matter to customers.
Customer Relationships Are built on Trust and Connection
What this all comes down to is the customer’s relationship can be understood and defined by understanding them and the world they live in. Brands need to consistently move beyond just sales and marketing to really knowing who they are paying attention to and why. This is not a static world and shaping what your brand is for your customers takes focus, testing and work. The key is to understand, connect and grow this relationship over time.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]