Most companies believe that they are delivering meaningful brand experiences for consumers. Unfortunately, most of these experiences fall short because they are not robust enough and usually lack consistency across all touchpoints. According to Gallup, customers that feel emotionally connected are more loyal to businesses than not. I am sure we can all attest to experiencing the employee that makes you question why you chose that particular establishment. The ability for an organization to deliver a meaningful brand experience is more complex because it essentially functions on behavioral economics, which is difficult to master.
In 2009’s May edition of Journal of Marketing, a brand experience was described “as sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand’s design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments.” In short, brand experience is an aggregate of all touchpoints across all channels: social media, website, sales staff, etc.
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So, how do brands create meaningful and robust brand experiences? They must listen first! Most brands do not create a feedback loop to ensure they are capturing consumers’ perception of their product or service. Here are three quick open-ended questions to help engage consumers:
- What do you like about our product or service?
- Does the product or service offer value over an alternative?
- How can we make the product or service better?
However, this is just the first step in an ongoing process of ensuring that you are communicating the true value of your product or service. By default, consumers feel more valued and connected because they are being heard. Brands should focus on building robust experiences and awareness will grow organically. According to McKinsey, there are three C’s of customer satisfaction: consistency, consistency, consistency. I concur!
Building powerful brand experiences is difficult because it is part art and part science. In addition, most companies fall short because they are not utilizing the proper metrics. Brand experience must be all-inclusive and communicated effectively. These two factors must be the lockstep or your brand may be in jeopardy. So my question to you is “What is your brand experience?”
Image: Stephan Geyer