USING IDENTITY TO CREATE PERSUASIVE USER JOURNEYS

WHY IS IDENTITY IMPORTANT FOR MARKETERS?

Everyone is a customer for something. As marketers we should be aiming to influence customer behaviour in order to persuade them to take action for the benefit of the brands we work for

GROUPBENEFICIAL

ACTIONBEHAVIOUR

INFLUENCE

THE PROBLEM WITH INFLUENCING GROUP BEHAVIOUR

HISTORICALLY MARKETERS HAVE USED SEVERAL WAYS TO IDENTIFY & CONNECT WITH AUDIENCES

Geodemographic (Mosaic, Acorn, Mintel)

Task stage-based

“New Urban Colonists”Younger, high-achieving professionals, enjoying a Cosmopolitan lifestyle in a gentrified urban environment.

Socio-economic/life-stage

BUT ALL OF THESE APPROACHES HAVE LIMITATIONS

GEODEMOGRAPHIC

• Location based – favours traditional media

• Proprietary

• Potentially expensive

• Limited consumption info (readership), little on interests & interactions that drive behaviour

SOCIO ECONOMIC & LIFESTAGE

• Reasonably simple to understand but requires hard economic data or proxies

• Quite broad

• Socio-economic data indicates spending power. Spending discretionary no indication of propensity, or need

STAGE BASED

• Simple, takes account of how behaviours change through a task based process

• Very broad, no emphasis on relationship building

SETH GODIN

• You can now target what would have been fragmented, expensive to reach groups

• But they are harder to identify

• Individuals span a range of groups

• These groups are based on interest

“The internet eliminates geography”

INTEREST GROUPS ARE CONNECTING TO EACH OTHER & BRANDS IN MANY WAYS

..the user journey can span across multiple touchpoints. Digital is breaking down barriers, but it makes groups harder to reach as they are looser in their destinations & attendance. It’s increasingly difficult to influence users with any degree of control

USER JOURNEY

MARKETERS RESORTING TO TRADITIONAL METHODS TOREACH DIGITAL SEGMENTS

• Expensive to maintain

• Marketing

• Channel consistency

• Easy to lose without active management

• Loyalty based on “service”

• Intangible and risk of defection

• Requires incentivisation

• Broadcast techniques don’t drive communities

USING TRIBES TO DEFINE THE COMMUNAL IDENTITIES THAT DRIVE BEHAVIOUR

WHY ARE COMMUNITIES VALUABLE FOR MARKETERS?

Unlike audiences they are more:

• Self-sustaining

• Survive without strong leadership and incentivisation

• Not necessarily dialogue-based

• Loyal and long-lasting, invest beyond trend

CHURCH-GOER, FOOTBALL SUPPORTER, POLITICAL PARTY

INTEREST

• Multigenerational interests:

• Trekkies, Sci-Fi,

• Dungeons and Dragons,

• World of Warcraft

• Multi-generational products

• Harley Davidson,

• Lego – child’s toy to adult hobby

• Apple

EXAMPLES

INFLUENCING COMMUNITY BEHAVIOUR

Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to groups organized largely on the basis of kinship and geographical location

TRIBE IDENTITY

BEHAVIOURSHARED

ATTRIBUTES

INFLUENCE

• Native Americans• Eskimos• Zulus• Pygmies

There are a number of definable shared attributes that tribes share that can be used as a means to reach engage and influence shared behaviours

3 KEY ATTRIBUTES WE CAN USE TO INFLUENCE & CULTIVATE TRIBES

Tribe

Language

CultureOrganisation

LANGUAGE

RE-ENFORCE AND DEVELOP…

• INSIDER JARGON AND IDENTITY “Etsians” (Fans of Etsy). “Treasuries” – curated lists of items sold by other sellers

• SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE – @username, #hashtags, emoticons :), abbreviations

NAMING…

Name events, navigation, organise content and other elements based on the internal language of the tribe

CULTURE

SHARED NARRATIVE

“Creation story” of the company or community encouraging discussions

SHARED VALUES

Communicate brand and community values in marketing and messaging – Pret’s customer base is formed around good, nutritious food

SHARED RITUALS

Repetition leads to ritual – Daily soups announced the same time each day on FB/Twitter

• Ask for opinions and feedback. If the tribe feels they are being listened to they will become more loyal and cohesive

• Once established , communities will tend to govern themselves

• Negative elements will usually be discarded or chastised by the wider community

• Foster brand champions – often they will do a lot of the grunt work of introducing newer members and answering common questions

ORGANISATION

Plug.dj – tribes created around music genres.

Self moderation of rooms is wide spread, as

is introducing and helping new members

ENGAGING & INFLUENCING TRIBES IN THE DIGITAL SPACE

THE TRIBE’S TRADITIONAL “CAMPFIRES”

THEY FACILITATE…

Co-operation (Wikipedia)

Cognition (Blogs)

Communication (Social

Networks)

BUT FORWARD THINKING BRANDS AREN’T LIMITED TO THESE CAMPFIRES

LANGUAGE, CULTURE, ORGANISATION

BUT FORWARD THINKING BRANDS AREN’T LIMITED TO THESE CAMPFIRES

CULTURE

LANGUAGE, CULTURE,

ORGANISATION

BUT FORWARD THINKING BRANDS AREN’T LIMITED TO THESE CAMPFIRES

APPLYING THE THEORY IN THE COMMERCIAL WORLD

BOB

Goes to the gym in the evening 4 times a week

Stores workouts on his iPhone

Aims to be healthier

ALVIN

Goes to the gym in the morning twice a week

Reads workouts online

Aims to attract hot babes

HELGA

Goes to the gym twice a day

Had developed her own routine

Aims to win bodybuilding competitions

Different journeys

Different interaction methods

Different motivations

Same end goal

Same tribe

WHAT IS THE TRIBES MAKEUP?Good nutrition

Mutual support & encouragement

Goal driven

Commitment

Shared Values

BCAAs

Reps/Sets

Hypertrophy

Ectomorph

Shared Language

Going to the gym

‘Weighing in’

Workout plans

Shared Rituals

BOB’S JOURNEY (@fatmanbob)

Posts a progress shot on the ON FB Page

“Just hit 80kg on the deadlift! HENCH #onacademy”

Downloads workout plan from ON website

“Trying the new breakfast shake @henchdude recommended #onacademy”

10am 3pm 8pm 10pm

GYM

ALVINS’S JOURNEY (@henchdude)

Sends messages to a few girls on twitter

“@fatmanbob – hope you enjoy it! #onacademy”

10.05am

12pm 8.15pm 10pm

GYM

“Anyone got any tips for massive guns?”

“@fatmanbob congrats! #onacademy”

HELGA’S JOURNEY (@helgabodybuilder)

“Only a few days left until the competition, gotta watch my fat intake”

“Going to try my new workout today” #onacademy”

9am 12.30pm

3pm 9pm

GYM

“Gotta hit the gym hard again tomorrow. Better get an early night”

“@henchdude Bulk up a little and then we’ll talk”

GYM

ORGANISE CONTENT AROUND TRIBES

For Optimum Nutrition we identified tribes around goals and sports, and created guided navigation to cater for them

This is a lot more effective then a generic ‘catch all’ range browse only

TAILORED EXPERIENCES FOR EACH TRIBE

Products and supporting content specific to each tribe’s goals and values

GAINING THIS INSIGHT

The insight for these tribal personas does not have to be expensive & was gathered using a mixture of:

• Analysis of social media activity

• Analysis of customer support communications

• Competitor benchmarking

• Analysis of market trends

• Workshops

It allows for richer personas to be created, based on overarching

tribal or group behaviours

THE RESULTS

• Customers are more loyal

• Conversion has more then doubled

• Customer service requests have decreased

• Sales have increased by 200%

IN SUMMARY

• By understanding identity you can begin to influence behaviour

• Identity is influences by the tribes a person belongs to and not where they come from or how much they earn

• Unlocking and understanding tribal behaviour is key to understanding your audience

• Digital is the most accessible and cost effective media through which to research, engage and persuade tribes to take action

• The techniques to accomplish this can be easily added to standard UX workflows

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

ANY QUESTIONS?

@cimex

andy.farmer@cimex.com