“Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it.” - Han Solo, Star Wars 1977
Growing up as a teenager, I worked hard to earn my pilots license. I’ve always had a three dimensional point of view when problem solving - heavily influenced by the principles of aerodynamics I learned as a youth, which leads me to ask:
WHAT IF THE LAWS OF AERODYNAMICS WERE APPLIED TO THE UNIVERSE OF BRAND + CX
In this business construct; the sum of your customer interactions in and through your CX eco-system act like the airflow, and your brand promises acts like the airfoil that creates lift for your business’s success.
In 1903, the Wright Brothers used these principals to fly the motorized Wright Flyer 1, into a headwind, with the thrust needed to create the sustained airflow and lift for the 1st successful manned flight.
Fast-forward 110 years - to the Racing AC72 Catamarans of the America’s Cup, which can travel almost 3 times the speed of the prevailing wind. In 2013, the Emirates Team New Zealand set a world sailing speed record when the 7-ton hydrofoil yacht clocked a speed of 50.8 mph, from a wind speed of only 18 mph.
Emirates Team New Zealand (AFP/Getty Images)
How is possible for the laws of aerodynamics to create such a massively positive energy boost? See the Sep 2013 UK Telegraph article sailing faster than wind.
Now lets’ consider another idea that creates lift – the potential power of your company’s brand. A brand isn’t the logo, tagline, and other tangible items that represent it. A brand is a promise. At its core, it defines the entire business framework, touching every aspect of your company, to create the airfoil needed to deliver an edge advantage, in increasingly competitive digital markets.
So how much lift/thrust can great brands generate operating at full potential?
- Apple’s profits are now over $72 billion, with an estimated “Brand value” of $145m / compared to a $34m value of brand Icon - Coke.
- Telsa’s Model 3 electric car pre-order event on March 31st of this year generated more than 325,000 reservations of the $35k electric car which corresponds to $14 billion in implied future sales, making this the single biggest one-week launch of any product ever.
So what do we know?
- Airfoil + Airflow = Lift/Thrust
- Similarly - Great Brands are capable of lifting their host business far beyond market expectations.
If this is the case - what can provide the aerodynamic boost needed to help a company’s brand realize it’s maximum potential? That is where Customer Experience comes in:
- It is both the prevailing natural forces that create the customer interactions (airflow) over the airfoil of your brand promises. (Unintentional CX)
- And, when properly managed, it creates the focused lift/thrust your brand needs to realize it’s greatest potential. (Intentional CX)
Simply put: across the CX Eco-system atmosphere where all business operates:
- Brand Promises can be both your airfoil and rudder of your business
- The volume and speed of your customer interactions is the airflow that pushes across the surface of your branded CX touch-points to deliver the lift and directional trajectory of your company’s success.
- Careful management of the critical CX touch-points and adds to the magnitude & impact or thrust of the branded CX impressions you make.
As the world’s leading technology providers bring to market new CX Management platforms that create fast and automated segment targeted experiences at scale (based on their proprietary algorithms) we should be excited as CX Practitioners to get our hands on these new platforms and their innovative capabilities.
Emirates Team New Zealand nearly capsized during the eighth race of the America's Cup (AP)
But a word of caution – as Michael Eisner famously said “A brand is a living entity - and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures”.
Proven CX practitioners know that navigating a CX eco-system at high digital speeds without a fundamental understanding of branded CX aerodynamics will most likely undermined your brand over time. In a world where over 2.3 million iOS app are downloaded every second, with over 25% of them destined to be used only once during the first six month; there emerges a simple truth
The faster the speed of business, the more important your Vector is.
Or as Han Solo might advise – “Without precise Branded CX Calculations we could fly right through a star, or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn’t it?”
Are you ready for the jump to CX light speed? Call us - I, and my network of fellow Branded CX Navigators, stand ready to help.