Marketing evolves rapidly, with today’s game changers often becoming yesterday’s news. This fast pace is driven by shifts in customer behaviours, how they expect to be served, interact with brands, and what they seek from products has changed significantly in recent years.
Did you know, a huge 86% of customers are willing to spend more on a better brand experience and the same number would abandon a brand after two poor experiences with them?
With social media platforms, immersive experiences and pop-up shops all helping enhance the messaging of a brand, it’s become more competitive, and therefore more difficult for businesses to succeed. For customers though, it’s perhaps become easier to pin their loyalty to one brand. Where in the past they may have spent time and money with a host of businesses, the marketing efforts of some businesses are resonating much more than others, leading to a much more enhanced level of brand loyalty but also brand desertion. Now think about those percentages we mentioned a few seconds ago!
This is where brand experience comes in. For many businesses, this is a well-worn path, and one they have constantly trod, for others brand experience is no more than a buzzword, and it is that approach that is seeing many fall behind.
In this blog, we look at brand experience and how to create a brand experience strategy.
What does brand experience mean?
You can think of brand experience as every element of interaction a customer has with a business. From the meet and greet in-store to the social media post offering a discount through to the complaint handling should something go wrong. Then, of course, you have everything else in between such as the memorable product launch, the cool advert on TV or the association with influencers. Whether the person spends with you or not, these marketing efforts build the brand experience for each individual who stumbles across them.
Brand experience is wide-ranging—it shapes why customers choose you over the competition. Every thought and feeling about a business, whether from a customer or non-customer, is curated through these interactions. Getting it right is crucial for long-term success.
Unfortunately, though, there is no one-size-fits-all all approach. What appeals to some might push others away. So, you then have to narrow your view a little. Why target everyone and hope they all love you when targeting your core audience allows you to build the experience around them? And it is this that stands to benefit you more over the long term.
With a brand experience that resonates well among those you are targeting; you are much better placed than pitching your hopes on a host of demographics and hoping the result is universally positive.
So, brand experience is like customer service?
Sort of but also sort of not. When you are a customer, you are actively engaging in the brand via a purchase or a use of a service. Of course, customer service requires a great deal of attention. After all, if you can’t retain those who choose to spend on your brand, what hope have you got of any market longevity?
Brand experience on the other hand focuses on the association, feelings and opinion of a brand regardless of whether you are actually a customer or user of their services.
Think Apple for example, by some, they are seen as innovative, by others they are seen as pretentious. Yet not everyone who has those thoughts owns an Apple product. The experience of the brand is either positive or negative, regardless of product use or ownership.
How do we create a brand experience strategy?
If you have thought that your business is either not getting the reputation it deserves, is struggling with sales or just can’t get off the ground in the way you hope it would, it may be time to implement a brand experience strategy.
This can be daunting, especially for the smaller businesses who feel they are competing against the monoliths of their sector. Even for larger businesses it can be a new or complex venture, and that is why many companies recruit a brand experience agency to help them get the best possible outcome. With an experienced team helping you strategise; such an agency will use their marketing knowledge and fuse it with your product knowledge to help you curate something worthwhile.
We’ve put together a selection of the steps to follow for your brand experience strategy so you can get off on the right foot, whether you embrace the help of an agency or not.
Define your brand identity
What does your brand really stand for and who are you targeting? Look at what you bring to the market that is unique to the others in your sector.
Do your products or services offer something the competition doesn’t? Have you got a unique feature that could set you apart and perhaps be utilised for marketing purposes?
Perhaps you have values that need to be shouted about and a personality that taps into the mindset of an audience.
Think of this as your mission statement which you’ll then use as a base for all aspects of your marketing.
Assess your current performance against past performance
Are you on a downward trajectory or are things constantly heading upwards? Maybe look at recent customer feedback and see where your strengths are and what people are unhappy with. Consider looking at not just the feedback but how people interact with your online content. Is it being consumed and shared, or simply scrolled past? Then of course look at the revenue. You might have gained 100,000 followers on social media but if revenue is falling, you might need to make adjustments.
Understand your customer
With performance now assessed, you’ll have a clearer understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Break customers down into personas so you can see how all elements of your customers behave. Carry out research to discover what customers like, what they don’t like and how they navigate their way through the funnel.
Map the customer journey
How do people interact with your brand both online and offline? Uncover these touchpoints to see how you can enhance each one. Do people simply walk in, purchase and walk out? Do they land on a page, purchase and leave? Maybe factor in how this customer journey can be further enhanced. Could add-on products be factored in? Could video demonstrations be advantageous? Would heightened product knowledge from the team extend the length of time a customer spends in store or online?
Discover the areas for improvement
With your customer journey map now pinpointing how people get from A-2-B, and your feedback showing what people may think is lacking, you can discover where on the map these areas become prominent. Together with the agency, or by yourselves if going it alone, you can now put plans in place to rectify these areas of inconsistency or problems.
Become a storyteller – Tell your brand story
People feel more of a connection with a brand if they find a way to associate with it. Tell your story, how did you become what you are, why do you have the goals you have, and what has taken you on this journey? Become personable rather than corporate and you’ll find a connection with the customer that was perhaps otherwise missing.
Leverage emotion
Much like becoming a storyteller, you should use emotion to help convey messaging. Customers today want to see that the business they use understands typical human feelings.
Consider how your messaging resonates on social media, in email campaigns, or TV ads. Does it evoke the emotions that align with your audience’s values? If not, it’s time to rethink how you connect.
A brand that I have recently found who does this well is White Fox. The Australian clothing brand is riding high right now and has crafted its messaging around fun, friendship and girls loving life. It fuses style with humour and greatly enhances what you think and feel for the brand. This approach plays out through landing on the site to purchasing a product to signing up for their mailing list.
Incorporate tech wisely
Leveraging the latest tech can be useful but it can also remove an element of the human connection. Plan to use AI, AR and more to enhance brand experience but don’t let them dominate. People thrive off interaction and when it’s just an automated service they engage with, it soon dilutes the value of the experience. Especially if the AI tool suffers a glitch for example.
Huge numbers of people now shop via mobile, so factor this into your strategy. You want the experience to be universal and not favour one platform over the other.
Keep monitoring and improving
It is no good to think you have the optimal brand strategy without accepting it may need to be improved upon. Tastes, preferences and habits change fast, and you need to be ready to adapt. How do you know when to adapt though? Through monitoring your results and recording them. Actively monitor customer and employee engagement, look at customer feedback, find what parts of the website keep people engaged and what social content resonates.
Then of course, see if the sales are moving up or down.
A successful brand experience strategy shapes every aspect of how customers, both current and prospective, perceive your brand. It should create lasting, positive impressions that resonate deeply with your target audience, driving loyalty while positioning your brand as a leader in your industry. By continuously evaluating and adapting your approach, you can ensure your brand experience remains fresh, relevant, and impactful, securing long-term success.
