THE POWER OF ARCHETYPES FOR TRANSFORMING AUDIENCES
Recently, while presenting the new brand narrative guide to a client that owns a fashion brand, he found resistance while going over the archetypes of one of his audiences. During my investigative StoryListening phase of the project, I had discovered that a portion of his final consumers fall into the archetype I would describe as The Renouncer (which I’ll define in a moment) and I recommended that the customer journey should aim to transform them into The Sensual instead. He found this as a long and difficult journey of transformation, and couldn’t immediately picture how his brand could accomplish this.
But having lived this exact situation at a different fashion brand, I wanted to explain exactly why a transformation like this is not just possible, but highly necessary and effective when done currently.
This brand’s new narrative aims to transform those women who have stopped feeling attractive and to a certain extent no longer invest effort in themselves, and help them reclaim themselves as Sensual, women who regain their sense of attraction through a new self-confidence and a rediscovered femininity.
RENOUNCER
It is the one that renounces, abdicates, leaves, abandons, gives up, deserts, resigns, ceases, withdraws or refuses something for any reason or cause. He has lost hope and, with it, the desire to fight, so he throws in the towel.
SENSUAL
A Sensual exudes sensuality. She is spontaneous, knows how to live in the moment and likes physical experiences. She instinctively knows the art of fascination and seduction, and she knows how to choose the clothes, scents, hairstyles and makeup that best highlight her feminine energy and fully embraces everything that makes her attractive. Confidence is her weapon of choice.
WHY DID WE THINK THIS, EXACTLY?
Through my investigation for this project along with years of experience doing the same for other clients (along with studies done on women), it’s clear that women suffer hugely from issues of self-esteem. One study by Dove revealed that only 4% of women consider themselves beautiful. Only 4%! And among that enormous percentage, we know that there is a smaller percentage of women that we consider The Renouncer – women that have given up on even attempting to feel or look attractive, either because they genuinely don’t believe they are or they’ve lost themselves in the day-to-day grind of their lives. Mothers, especially, fall into this category with tremendous regularity in our experience.
WE’D SEEN THIS PROBLEM BEFORE
The last time we encountered this archetype transformation was when I was working on the content strategy for Merlili Bridal Boutique, a wedding dress boutique in the heart of Coral Gables, Miami. A recurring theme we saw as we did some digging into their audiences was that plus size brides were woefully disadvantaged when shopping for their dream dress. Not only did many stores not stock dresses in larger sizes (and bridal fashion runs notoriously small to begin with) but they also didn’t have the customer service skills to make them feel special and beautiful. Some boutiques, the brides told us, were even rude or outright refused to attend brides over a certain size!
So we realized that there was a group of brides, especially plus size brides, that were absolutely Renouncers. They were brides that, sadly, were coming into bridal shopping with trepidation and low expectations. They either didn’t expect to have a good appointment experience from the get-go, or didn’t expect to find anything they loved. They had given up on feeling or looking like a special bride.
THE TRANSFORMATION
We began by deciding that the customer journey needed to transform these brides in the same way, from Denouncer to Sensual. We did this in a number of ways that hinged on a combination of fundamental changes to the business as well as communication strategies:
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- The boutique invested in more plus size stock gowns, bringing up the top end of their sizing availability from a size 18 to a size 34, giving brides the ability to physically try on more dresses in sizes that actually fit. And if possible, not only fit, but are too large, giving her the incredible sensation of being clipped into a gown that brides love so much.
- We also procured stock in all types of styles, from shape-hugging mermaid gowns to traditional ball gowns. We made sure the boutique never shied away from bringing in sexy styles in plus size sizing, giving all women the ability to choose from a normal spectrum of styles.
- Then we trained the staff on how to approach plus size bridal appointments so they knew how to navigate this type of bride with confidence and sensitivity. Knowing what the customer transformation needed to be, the staff was on the same page about making sure all brides felt beautiful, attractive, and confident.
- All social media communication began to shift towards a more positive, inclusive messaging. We coordinated plus size styled shoots with models, began showcasing more real brides on social media instead of stock images with size 2 models, and began conveying that Merlili was a welcoming, supportive environment where every bride could find her special “say yes” moment without judgment or exclusion.
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THE RESULTS
The new strategy worked! And in the span of a single appointment, you could transform a shy, tentative plus size bride that thought she would have to hide her curves to feel beautiful into a vixen, who was confidently saying yes to a form-hugging mermaid dress with a strapless neckline. You could take away all that trepidation, low self-esteem, and anxiety and transform her into a woman beaming on the pedestal looking at herself in the mirror. All with some simple but profound changes.
So when this current customer showed shock at my recommendation of a new customer journey while on Zoom one evening, saying “I see the distance between one archetype and the other as so vast and uncrossable,” II assured him that not only is it highly possible, it can also be simple.
This is the power of knowing your audiences, the archetypes that define who they are now, and where we want to take them. This is only one part of the narrative journey we prepare for customers, but armed with this information and our guide of recommended action plans, we can achieve real transformative change in business. Real, tangible results.