Google+: Subliminal is sublime

Google+ reminds subscribers all about birthdays in the stream, and in sending wishes to someone from Nexus 7 FHD this morning, the default message, “Happy Birthday, +person’s name!”, lit up my synapses.

I wonder about the hidden, subliminal positive connotations of Google using a plus-sign before all subscribers’ names. Does seeing it make us feel happier?

Facebook uses “Like”, which is loaded with positive connotations, and Google copied the approach with +1, which makes sense for a company where numbers are so important—from the math behind search to all the data associated with the search keyword business model.

But extending the plus-sign to Google+ achieves something else. Connotations and how something makes you feel is important marketing anything. Here’s what I wrote about Apple’s use of “i” in January 2004:

You don’t think that little ‘i’ in all those Apple product names is just shorthand for Internet? There are lots of subtle connotations carried in the use of ‘I’. Comes to mind: The book I, Claudius. The ‘I’ as statement of self, of something important. The name may read iDVD but we hear I, DVD. I Movie. I Photo. The ‘I’ denotes something special, something important, something you should take notice in. The best is when an Apple name makes that personal, as in I Chat for product iChat.

Other Apple product names are evocative in a different way. GarageBand is classic. Everyone knows what a garage band is and the hope said group has of breaking out, making the big time, if only the group practices hard enough and gets the sound just right. Apple’s approach to operating systems is to spice up the boring numerical name, like Mac OS X 10.2, with something catchy. Jaguar. It’s a fast cat or classic car. Mac OS X 10.3 as Panther, a cat that prowls and stalks, maybe in this case Windows.

“How effective are these names? Just look at iPod or iSight. My fourth grader refers to video conferencing as iSight. She’s convinced Apple invented the technology.

My fourth-grader is now a college sophomore, and she still uses Apple products. She grew up with that little “i” turned big.

The marketing, connotative impact isn’t as strong today in part because Apple products are so widely used, so broadly marketed. The “i” is more silent, because it’s so often seen but nevertheless still valuable.

So in that context I wonder about the plus-sign before each subscriber’s name. Plus-one is a positive integer. Plus your name is positive, too, and loaded with subliminal, positive connotations.

“Google+” packs positive connotations, also. The plus denotes something more—the better Google.

How funny: What if Google stumbled upon this marketing symbol by accident, rather than design? In marketing and brand-loyalty-building: Subliminal is sublime.