Pepsi video ad in a magazine will be deliver a super-charged brand experience

This sounds incredibly smart.

In September CBS magazine Entertainment Weekly will insert a mini screen that plays 40 minutes of TV show clips and an ad for Pepsi.

Wow. Top marks to Pepsi.

This is will deliver a very powerful brand experience that undoubtedly will get noticed and talked about.

I hope I can get to see a copy.

Augmented reality delivers a powerful brand experience

This film does a good job showcasing augmented reality.

It’s pretty cool and relatively new. [I am just starting to get my head round it.]

One thing that is clear to me is that any brand organisation that works out how to incorporate augmented reality effectively into an overall brand experience strategy will get a head start over competitors.

Here are some other films - from BMW, Magic Symbol and University of Tokyo - that help explain it.

Please let me know if you see any good examples.

Consumers want better food labelling

I read at Customer Experience about a new survey from Guiding Stars Licensing Co., which suggests that food grocery shoppers in US are getting fed up with arcane, hard-to-read and misleading nutritional information on the foods they buy.

Surely this information is not new news to brand organisations.

Here is some more (worrying) data:

• 24% think labels are "difficult to understand."
• 28% think labels are "exhausting to read"
• 67% are only somewhat confident, at best, they can select healthy foods from the Nutrition Facts Panel alone.
• 74% hold negative views of the Nutrition Facts Panel on their food products

So, if you are involved in package design in any category (not just food), please consider the brand experience you are delivering to the consumer when the information on your brand’s packaging is not clear.

Get it right and you should gain a strong competitive advantage.

Has the power of TV eroded?

This engaging film has been created by ThinkBox to promote the power of TV.

It cleverly highlights some of the famous TV tag-lines from the UK in the 80s and 90s. It ends with the line: ‘Funny how thirty seconds can last a lifetime.’

It works for me because I can very easily conjure-up all these old ads in my mind when I hear their tag-lines.

However, the world has changed so much and how people, particularly the young, consume media has changed dramatically. I therefore wonder whether my kids will remember any of the campaigns they are currently exposed to when they have grown-up. I doubt it.

When I first started in the media and communications business at Saatchi & Saatchi, the model was simple. A brand built sales by delivering sufficient levels of consumer awareness. In those days TV was king.

These days it is a lot more complicated. To compete brands have to deliver relevant and engaging consumer brand experiences across an array of touchpoints. Digital (in its broadest sense) is now king.

My advice to brand organisations is to look at their consumers’ journey [maybe using the PDD and Path to Advocacy frameworks] and identify the types of brand experiences that need to be delivered to delight consumers.

It is worth the investment in time and resource because getting it right will drive loyalty and maybe even get your brand talked about.

So, back to the original question: “has the power of TV eroded?”

Yes and no.

No.... TV ads viewed in the traditional way is not as effective as it used to be [see research by Forrester for the Association of National Advertisers].

Yes....TV films consumed via screens (TV, computer, mobile, etc) can be extremely effective when part of an integrated brand experience strategy.

While I’m on the subject of old TV ads, here are some of my favourites: British Airways 'Global'; BASF 'Dear John'; Heineken ‘Majorca’ :

Self service machines undermine the shopping experience

My local Boots and Tesco’s have just installed self service machines.

I am not a fan.

I think it is a mistake for retailers to install them as it merely ‘commoditises’ the whole shopping experience.

The best way to win in-store is to deliver a WOW brand experience that shoppers will love. That way they will reward you with further visits; and maybe even tell their friends about you.

I was therefore very interested to get an invitation from Retail Customer Experience to participate in a webinar: ‘Implementing self service to gain competitive advantage’.

They promise to show, among other things, how to reduce costs and deliver a differentiated experience with self service that will create new consumer loyalty.

Okay…. I get that these machines reduce costs (surely the main reason).

But come on….how can they increase loyalty?

I have registered to join this webinar so I will keep you posted.

[BTW, my thanks to Timothy Belmont for his excellent picture.]

Winning brands understand the power of emotion

It is well understood that delivering winning brand experiences that forge strong relationships with consumers is an effective way to build consumer loyalty and advocacy.

What may not be so well recognised is that emotion is a key ingredient of a winning brand experience.

Marketing & Strategy Innovation blog have just posted hard data that shows that emotional ads work better than rationale ads. However, ads are just one type of brand experience, and only part of the story

To be successful it is vital for brands to deliver: a) the promise [made in the carefully crafted ads] and b) experiences that delight consumers.

Without doubt the best way to deliver brand experiences with meaningful emotion is through the use of human contact.

Brand organisations should think carefully about how their people are dealing with consumers, and look for ways to build elegant brand experiences at every stage of the path to advocacy – particularly in-store and customer service.

There are plenty of brands that do this really well (Zappos, Hyundai, Virgin and Nordstrom). They are a smart place to start if you are looking for compelling examples about how to do it.

Come on Amazon, you can tweet better than that

I got this randon Tweet from Amazon.

I was both surprised and disappointed.

The item they offered is completely irrelevant to me, and the cost was in dollars (I'm UK based).

It adds up to a really poor digital strategy....poor targeting...poor offer

What a poor brand experience.

What a shame.

Amazon buys Zappos, the brand experience grand master

This probably shouldn't be a surprise...Amazon buys Zappos.

Or rather, as Tony Heist (CEO Zappos) would rather say (see email to employees): "Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree..."

Like many, I have posted before about Zappos' core values - that focus on WOWing consumers with winning brand experiences - and how these have helped them grow from strength to strength.

The challenge for Zappos will be to maintain their strong culture and build on the massive success achieved to date with this new business relationship.

I wonder what happens next. A global roll-out would seem like a real possiblity.

I will watch with interest.

[Read this good article Retail Customer Experience]

Brand experiences from Phillips and Toyota that will get noticed

I've recently seen some 'making of' blockbuster films that I think are better than the final ads.

Here are two of my personal favourites.

I love this film. It shows that Phillips really understand the passion their target consumers have for cinema.

There is something about this Toyota Prius that makes me smile.



The number of viewings are pretty small but the depth of viewing and number of comments means they are Brand Experiences that are getting noticed and being talked about.

I think that makes them effective.

Brand experience is a strategy, not a slogan

I’ve borrowed (and slightly changed) this quote from an article in a new Peppers and Rodgers on-line journal

It is a great article; take a look [Customer Strategist]

It supports a number of points I've made before...

Delivering great brand experience will grow the bottom-line:

“.. several recent studies confirm the link between customer experience and bottom-line performance”

Emotion contact is more effective than rational communication. It’s about what you do and how you treat consumers, not what you say, that is more influential:

“Customers feel first and think second—and interactions with a company strongly influence their heart and produce a longer lasting impact than communications directed toward their heads.”

Training and culture are key:

“Many companies lack the employee training and automated processes necessary to create the insight, interaction, improvement, and orientation necessary for a successful customer experience program.”

“Simply revising structure and technology doesn't suffice; company culture has to be changed for improvement."

If you want to build a competitive advantage consider seriously how you can work with others in your organisation, maybe using the PDD framework, to find ways to deliver compelling and relevant brand experiences that will genuinely WOW consumers.

Electrolux create a fantastic brand experience for diners in Paris

Wow, how about this for a unique and really cool eating experience.

A restaurant built of glass on top of the Palais de Tokyo that has spectacular views overlooking the Eiffel Tower.

Check out the story [New Media Age]:

"... created a 12-person ‘food experience’ in Paris, which allows diners to host their own dinner parties or food workshops encased in a glass room on top of the Palais de Tokyo museum."

Brands in the laundry and cooking category are generally regarded as pretty dull by consumers, so they tend not to get talked about.

This Brand Experience however will get talked about.

They are apparently going to do something similar in London.

Smart move Electrolux.

How they try to get employees to delight train passengers in Japan

Thanks to Guardian.co.uk I recently heard about the Japanese train company that is scanning its employees to make sure they smile properly.

What an extraordinary story.

Okay, I am a great believer that customer facing employees in any organisation should be delivering experiences that delight shoppers/users/passengers.

However, I don’t think that a smile scanner is the answer.

I think this Japanese company should provide training that guides and inspires their employees to deliver positive experiences every day, in a way that will genuinely WOW its passengers

A start point is look at what other organisations are doing [check out my Brand Experience Culture posting]

Hyundai go from strength to strength

I think Hyundai are doing things right.

They are rapidly progressing up the reliability rankings and have developed some smart promotion strategies designed to get noticed by price sensitive consumers who are anxious about the recession.

This is helping them grow market share, which is clearly great news for them.

However, in my view, this is just the start.

Each new buyer gives Hyundai 3-5 years to deliver two of the most positive brand experiences:

1. Driving the car (one of the most powerful).
2. Visiting the dealer (to enjoy 5 year warranty)

These brand experiences should give Hyundai loads of opportunities to provide great customer service and build strong relationships.

Assuming Hyundai continues to get it right they should be able to convince owners to buy again, and possibly even make them advocates.

This is great as these advocates will promote Hyundai to their friends and family, who in turn may consider and possibly buy a Hyundai.

And so it should go on....more owners; deeper brand experiences; more advocates; more sales.

I shall watch their progress with interest.

[By the way, I just bought a new Hyundai .]

Flyers don't always care about the brand experience

I spend most of my time blogging about the importance of delivering great brand experiences that drive advocacy.

I focus mainly on approaches and brands that get this right.

I also occasionally talk about brands that get it spectacularly wrong.

Ryan Air, however, falls into a completely different category.

I read in Brand Republic that Michael O'Leary, chief executive, is currently talking to Boeing about designing airplanes with standing room.

Unbelievable.

Ryan Air are already planning to charge 'cattle' (fka passengers) for going to the toilet, as well as abolishing check-in facilities and instead demanding that all check-in on-line at a cost of £5.

Oh well... there will be proportion of flyers for whom price is the only factor and Ryan Air are doing an extremely efficient job finding new ways to cater for this group.

Importance of a Brand Experience Culture

A recent article in MediaPost (‘Branding meets customer service’) explains how some companies are guiding employee behaviour so that during every ‘interaction’ with consumers they are aiming to deliver and delight.

There are a couple of quotes that are important:

“How your employees speak with your customers is, quite literally, your brand brought to life.”

“.. each brand has its own unique brand personality characteristics that should colour the language employees use to help differentiate the company from its competition.”

Ensuring these interactions are right is clearly vital.

Brand organisations should train employees to ensure they deliver brand experiences that delight consumers.

The article highlights how companies set-out to get this right.

Nordstrom's corporate culture is humbly taught to their employees from their first day on the job with only one rule for customer service:

Welcome to Nordstrom.
We're glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them. Nordstrom Rule #1: Use good judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.

One of Abbott Vascular’s (five operating) Principles is: We keep customers first. Our ability to significantly impact our patients' lives requires that we always keep their needs in mind. We have a responsibility to be responsive, and a commitment to care about our customer."

Key for me is: a) the need to define clearly the customer brand experience culture and b) to ensure that everyone in the brand organisation commits to delivering it from day one.

Delighted customer hotline

I love this idea from John Caddel (Marketing & Innovation Blog).

A telephone in your hotel room that you can call when you are happy (or not).

What a great way to get actionable consumer feedback.

All brands want to delight consumers.

Why not set-up a way to find the brand experiences that do delight, so you can work out how to deliver them to others.

Okay, the hotline might invite critism...but that is okay, finding out what customers don't like is equally valuable.

I'm sure this idea is tranferrable.

Brand organisations should think about how they can apply this approach to gain competitive advantage vs competitors

How to plan role of social media on the Path to Advocacy

I love this film (made by by twentytwosquared).

It is a fun and simple way to explain the powerful role social media plays in building advocacy.

I blog about Brand Experience and the Promise ~ Deliver ~ Delight framework.

The framework is designed to help stakeholder silos (marketing, sales, customer service, etc), within a brand organisation, to think more deeply about the brand experiences they need to build to help move consumers through each part of the Path to Advocacy.

This framework is particularly useful when developing a social media strategy as it highlights the different role each channel can play (Search, Twitter, PR, DM, etc), and the importance of having a joined-up approach.

Any brand team that is developing a social media strategy should use this framework and reflect on whether the brand experiences they plan to deliver will really ‘delight’ people and get them to talk about the brand

After all, it is worth getting it right given that positive advocacy will drive long term sales success.

Deliver customer service brand experiences that build sales

There is a great post at ICC│Decisions.

It basically says that brand organisations should flip there thinking about customer service and regard it as an investment not a cost.

When brands get customer service right it can have dramatic effect on sales.

It is not a new idea.

I’ve posted about it before. I think it’s simple.

A consumer that contacts customer service usually has a problem. This is terrific opportunity to deliver a brand experience that delights.

The more magical the better.

As Jeff Jarvis says in his recent book ‘What Would Google Do?’: “Your customers are your ad agency.”

A delighted consumer will buy again; and maybe even talk about the brand.

This film (for Dream Job Brazil) should get noticed

This is a good way to get noticed.

It's a simple formula. 

Make a film that viewers will:

• enjoy watching (in this case I guess it will be mainly men)
  
• laugh at 
• pass on to their mates
  

That's how social marketing works. It can be a very effective way to deliver a brand experience. 

[Read previous post about how other brands have done this well]. 

Best Buy & Wells Fargo use digital to help deliver winning brand experiences

To win brand organisations have to deliver the brand experience promised (usually via advertising).

Moreover, the brand experience has to be aligned with the expectation, every time the consumer touches the brand.

Smart organisation work with employees using the type of approaches made possible by digital technology (social networking, tweeting, texting, etc), to design guidelines that ensure delivery to the consumer is consistent at every level of an organisation.

Forbes.com had a useful post about two brand organisations that do this well.

The first is Best Buy, where Michele Azar say:

"The Web is a platform for customer delight. Tapping into this delight requires leaders to be open to new ways of listening and learning through social technology and open approaches....”

Another company is Wells Fargo. In a speech at a recent Association of National Advertisers conference, Kate Frohling told participants:

 "We all know that customers can form their impressions of a company from a phone call, a web site, a retail counter, a reservation agent, or any number of other encounters. To make employees not just advocates for their corporate culture, but allow them to operate with the same voice, 'our voice,' it's essential to make customer conversations part of our training. The customer's experience is our No. 1 priority. We give our employees the digital tools they need to ensure the customer's experience is consistent wherever they touch the Wells Fargo brand."

These brands get it.

Any brand organisation that truly aspires to deliver and consumers should work-out how to use digital approaches that enables them to listen to consumers, and develop guidelines that will ensure they exceed consumer expectations at every touchpoint.

That’s how you can build loyalty and advocacy.

These are two consumer actions that will ‘turbo-charge’ brand success in today’s inter-connected world.