‘Oh So Good’ Experiences For Customers Now An ‘Avatar’ Apart. How, When, Where, Why, Let Dave Answer Your Questions!
Welcome To Dave Tales!
Hello readers, leaders, creators and story makers. Your storyteller of the month- Dave is back again with some interesting tales from the world of tech. This month is all about new beginnings. To start with, DaveAI welcomed 2023 with the announcement of two new projects with two of its clients- Hindware launching a 3d visualizer and Maruti Suzuki launching Arenaverse. With the new year bringing in new business opportunities, digital transformation strategies and experiences for everyone, Dave is planning to be a part of a Dave New World to help brands handpick relevant ecosystems for a digital upstart that continues to win and innovate in bold new ways. Dave New World, Dave New World, rings a bell? You must have heard of this from DaveAI before, but what exactly will this mean for your business? Profits. But what exactly? Well, there’s time for the big reveal. But till then, this month, let’s see what the life of an avatar in brand storytelling looks like.
‘Oh So Good’ Experiences For Customers Now An ‘Avatar’ Apart. How, When, Where, Why, Let Dave Answer Your Questions!
Inside a Sherlock Holmes novel:
Sherlock Holmes is arguing with DI G. Lestrade about a case investigation when suddenly he starts pacing the room frantically. The investigation team is presenting a report on the findings. Mr Holmes is not convinced and tries to find answers to questions no one has asked before. The scene picks up speed and after a few moments of chaos, the anticipation of solving the mystery ends with an ‘oh’ from Mr Holmes.
You flip the last page and shut the book with an expression of awe on your face. The story keeps you hooked from the first word. Once you finish reading, you feel a sense of excitement for days to come. You remember every character, place and detail that the book unfurled in the form of a great story. Arthur Conan Doyle; the creator has a great way of bringing all the stories to life even through the pages of a book, a medium that does not have a humane side to it. Holmes’ mannerisms, eye for detail, ability to read humans and study human behaviour make the stories more fascinating and real. Holmes is a great storyteller and Arthur Conan Doyle has done an amazing job in sketching a character so perfect to represent his vision and bring it to the world.
Let’s Get Down To Business
Businesses today need to focus on narrating good stories for customers that make them recall the minutest details of the products and services and keep them enthralled with everything that they perceive even after the experience ends. Neuroscience says, human beings look out for other human brings for survival. When it comes to purchase decisions, an empathetic experience from the brand coaxes a positive response from the client. Empathy is crucial for any business-client relationship since it caters to the dependent nature of humans and helps back a solution or a decision based on what others think or feel about it. Brand stories are found to be helpful in giving that empathetic touch to offerings and make a stronger impact on the minds of the customer.
Today, a majority of people want to access brand offerings digitally because of the comfort and convenience it brings. As all the businesses are taking the online route, brands need to invest in creating character based stories that people can relate to and discuss with each other in day to day conversations. When it comes to digital platforms as a medium of communicating with customers it is necessary to be an Arthur Conan Doyle and write a Sherlock Holmes.
Who Doesn’t Love A Good Story?
Everyone grew up listening to stories and reading books in childhood. This norm takes centre stage in our subconscious even when we grow up and we start creating stories from our own life experiences and narrating them to our family, friends and loved ones. Discussed how your new years eve went with your co-worker? Needless to say there would have been ambience descriptions, appearance details, what music played on or even a mention of the people you encountered. A story in its own, your co-worker is sure to take interest and remember everything since the co-worker knows you. Similarly, brands need to be able to narrate stories to their customers by building trust and only then will they take interest and believe what the brand has to say.
An Avatar Is The Protagonist In Your Brand Story!
In the digital world, digital humans are necessary to create a character based story for the brand that customers enjoy. A brand can deploy one or more avatars to serve different purposes or customers. An avatar can be an influencer, a salesperson, an assistant or a model. In digital worlds like Metaverse, an avatar is necessary for customers to enter the domain as well. Irrespective of which character an avatar possesses on the platform, story telling is the common trait these digital humans have. Here’s how an avatar with human traits can be deployed for a great brand storytelling:
1.Humorous & entertaining: An AI powered avatar can talk to people about weather, trending news and ask the customer about their pain points and preferences showing the brand cares and is willing to build a relationship.
2. Relatable: An avatar can have a relevant personality- then may it be the dressing, tone of voice, emotions or intelligence. With this the avatar can acquaint people about what the brand can do for them, offerings, and upcoming events.
3.Trustworthy: An avatar is the human equivalent of people in the digital world and can bring a sense of familiarity amongst customers that faceless bots do not.
4. Problem solver: An avatar can talk to a customer about people with the same profile undergoing the same problem and how the brand helped provide a solution. Success stories help customers in the decision-making process. The avatar can narrate relevant success stories by personalizing the experience based on the information they have on the customer like demographics, preferences, likes and dislikes, challenges faced, etc.
5. Helpful: A brand avatar can help users complete a task they are apprehensive about since they do not know what would happen if they click here or click there by providing appropriate information nudges at the right place and time.
6. Intuitive: An avatar provides a stellar user experience by identifying customer needs based on the behaviour on the platform and showcasing available offerings accordingly.
A brand avatar is much more powerful than a logo and if coordinated well with the colours, values and the impression a brand wants to create, it can prove to be the ultimate ambassador for the brand. These avatars do not miscommunicate information or there are no discrepancies in representation of the brand in terms of availability and personality. A brand avatar comes to the rescue when the brand is struggling to keep users interest on the platform and is outspent by competitors.
Why It Works:
As technology advances and competition increases, it has become increasingly important for a brand to be much more than the products and services they offer. The journey to reach the pot of gold aka the brand offerings needs to be a rainbow like experience for the customer. A brand needs to be an entity that is alive, has principles and a personality.
Consumers need to feel that the brand they are purchasing from is reliable and it is a win in the real sense. For example, Maruti Suzuki has deployed an avatar on various digital platforms to map the pain points of customers with relevant solutions and narrate an intriguing story of the values the brand represents- innovation, creativity and customer obsession. In the first 18 months of deployment of an AI powered virtual sales avatar as the digital twin of the showroom relationship manager, Maruti Suzuki has witnessed 150% increase in average session time and 84K hours dwell time that led to 35% improvement in conversion events. A great way of narrating a story, Maruti Suzuki comes with a vision to help people experience the future of mobility with their offerings. Technology is the future and what better way to start with than a customer journey that is powered by tech? This brand can be seen practising what it preaches.
Avatars With A Heart And A Brain
Many automakers today are simplifying the process of booking a car by digitalizing their services. Many brands have applications, websites, kiosks and Metaverses deployed to help complete certain tasks like inspecting the features of a particular model, booking a test drive, or exploring various models at one place in a fun, easy way. This helps the customer quickly get closer to the reality of getting the dream car home. But is the digital experience as easy as it seems and is the brand able to ensure that the image has been projected correctly as it is virtual at all times? Not at all. This is when a virtual avatar pops up. Irrespective of the medium, a brand avatar can be deployed to narrate an engaging brand story and also help customers navigate the platform. How so?
Alice wants to book a test drive for a car model she has in mind on the company’s website. Alice visits the website and finds the brand avatar waiting to greet her. She tells the avatar what she is looking for. On hearing this, the avatar finds out about her needs for a car purchase. He then tells her a story that before her, he has spoken to people with similar needs looking for a car. There were other models best suited for their needs and he helped them find the right one. Now after purchase these clients have left a feedback as to how the suggestions were appropriate and how the car is a perfect fit. The avatar then tells Alice about the company’s vision and values and how the brand wants its customers to witness the best of tech driven mobility. On hearing this, Alice decides to explore options the brand avatar has suggested and not just stick to the one she had in mind. With the avatars help Alice is able to choose the best car from a variety.
Now whenever she has any queries on her car or any new enquiries she looks for a good chat with the avatar on the site that does not make her wait and whom she trusts. A brand avatar led assistance can help customers avoid mistakes, make decisions without having to wait for human intervention and get information, learn about the features, products or services the customer has missed.
Today, Banking is taking the application, website, kiosk, and the Metaverse route as well. The extremely popular chatbots in the banking domain are being replaced by digital humans with a hyper realistic look and intelligence that empowers a hassle free e-banking process. Every great story needs to have characters that understand the craft.
An avatar as a relationship manager in banking provides instant clarification throughout the conversation to help customers avoid errors and contextualized questions help simplify product discovery that creates awareness amongst customers. Information from a machine seems less reliable but when a bank’s representative with a face and voice talks to a customer, people are more likely to trust the digital experiences with the bank.
A Netflix show, Emily in Paris, has told the world that if we judge the protagonist only for her qualifications, a marketing executive like Emily who has a great fashion sense, is quick-witted, and has creative ideas for instant campaigns, a quick fix for a hurdle and can take inspiration from her surroundings for a great brand advertisement is what your brand needs. In the real world, not always feasible right? But it is. In the fashion industry, a brand can use an avatar to build campaigns as good as Emily does. A virtual avatar can be a model, influencer, a brand ambassador, or a marketer in the fashion domain.
Brands can build advertising campaigns that tell an interesting story through an avatar. A denim brand can show an avatar running a marathon in jeans to show how flexible the cloth is or a cosmetics brand can display an avatar eating an ice cream with a lipstick that stays even after the cone is empty displaying waterproof characteristics of the shade. Walk, talk, model or play, an avatar is the perfect storyteller in the fashion industry as well. With adaptive AI, these avatars can grasp changes in surroundings and tweak the experience as per the changing reception from the audience.
Dave says, “We, virtual avatars, have an innate ability to tell stories. We can take on any role for a brand to serve their customers and attract their brains. If your brand wants to persuade customers to do something or make them remember the brand for years to come, our race of humans is the perfect choice.”
Editor’s Note:
In my opinion, the adaptive nature of humans that comes with the ability to hold something in memory and let go of things, both, comes as a blessing and a curse. As we enter 2023, everything looks new and shiny but one thing that has followed in the new year as well is the need for us to be a part of stories that touch our soul. It is time for brands to turn the page and head over to the use of virtual avatars for storytelling.
DaveAI wishes everyone a very happy new year! See you all next month!
-Jui Bagul, Executive Content Writer — DaveAI
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