It is how brands make consumers feel that is really important

I love this quote:

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will not forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou

For me, brand organisations should care most about how consumers feel about their brand. To do that the have to do something special. It takes planning and alignment of the whole organisation around all consumer touchpoints.

It not just about glossy TV ads. It not just about having a clever social media activity. It not just about a slick service department. It is about all these touchpoints working together and making consumers feel really good about every interaction with the brand.

Brands need to deliver experiences that WOW. 

Check out Zappos, who do this really well. Alternatively check out this presentation.

Consumers will remember a brand experience more readily than a load of brand facts

In my first Brand Experience Matters post in 2008 I wrote:

“A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer”.

So, what shapes consumer perceptions?
A load of stuff will shape their perceptions but a key driver of it will be their experiences of a brand. It is each and every brand experience that shapes what the brand is in the mind of consumer.Since I started writing about brand experiences in 2008 I have been trying to find a good articulation of the power of experiences...."

I read an interesting post by Steve Davies's about content marketing (Skiddmark) in which he says this about experiences:

"We remember experiences more readily than facts, because experiences are more likely to be related to other experiences through one or more sensory triggers – the smell of a classic car reminds us of our childhood, the winding road in Jaguar’s F-TYPE video triggers memories of a favourite drive."

I like it. 

This for me helps highlight why brand organisations need to place more focus on delivering brand experiences that delight consumers not just making a load of brand promises (claims, reasons to believe, 'facts', or whatever..) that are likely to be at best forgotten and at worst not believed. 

British Airways use Google to deliver personalised brand experience

This is a really nice use of Google street view.


British Airways (disclosure: a client) invites viewers to submit their address/postcode before viewing the ad.


They can then watch the latest British Airways ad - showing a plane driving passed iconic parts of London (Houses of Parliament, the Chard, etc) - which ends up showing Google street view of the postcode/address entered.


Check-out the link and use ZenithOptimedia's London office address (24 Percy Street, London) to see where I spend some of my time.


This is a brand experience that will get noticed and get people talking about it.

Hot models get Abercrombie & Fitch video noticed

What can I say...


I guess this Abercrombie and Fitch video is spot on for it's brand and should appeal to it's core target consumer.


It is getting the brand noticed with an impressive 7 million+ Youtube views.


The store brand experience they deliver consumers - ' hench' models, queues to get in, dark lighting, loud music and indifferent customer service - isn't an approach that I'd typically recommend, but it seems to be a successful formula.


At the very least it seems to be  a film that people are sharing. A positive indicator of advocacy.

Hellmanns deliver an inspiring brand experience in-store

This is a really smart idea from Hellmann's.


In Brazil Hellmann's partnered with 100 stores and installed software at the check-out that provided consumers with Hellmann's recipe ideas based on the other ingredients in their shopping basket.


A neat idea that provides consumers' a great brand experience at the moment they buy.


I assume the objective was to drive usage. I guess it worked as sales increased 44%.


Check the full story at Mashable.

This is one way to get noticed...Add Drama

This video is great fun.


Imagine the situation.


~You are in the centre of a small town in Belgium.


~There is a large button that says: "Push button to add drama"


What do you do?


Of course, you push the button....go on watch the video.


What unfolds is over the top but the message is clear. TNT - your daily dose of drama.


A brand experience that people will talk about.


Good one.





~

Mercedes invisible car works for me

I like this.[posted in The Week]

The idea is clever but the message is simple. A good combination.


Anyone that saw the car when it was 'on tour' in Germany would have had a memorable and powerful brand experience. 


The 8+ million viewers that have seen it on Youtube will have had a different but engaging brand experience.


Both will have helped drive advocacy


Nice one.

Experience is the next Corporate Battleground

This is the type of headline I love. 


"Customer Experience: The Next corporate Battleground".


Absolutely.


Brand organisations are starting to catch-on that it isn't enough anymore to focus all effort on traditional marketing. 


As the article says, they need to build an experience so extraordinary that it differentiates them from their competitors and inspires people to become advocates...


To do that they need to build an operation that delivers fabulous brand experiences at every stage of what I call the path to purchase.


The article mentions Apple and Zappos. Two brands organisations that dominate all articles about successful organisations that get it.


Take a look at my previous posts on what these organisations do to win.


Zappos focus on WOWing consumers
Apple understand the importance of in-store delivery and delight.

Loyalty programmes usually don't deliver positive brand experiences

I have said before that fanatical loyalty should be a brands primary objective - but I am not a big fan of trying to do this via so called loyalty programmes.

Digital technology makes it easy to set them up but brand organisations should think very carefully before doing so.

Too many loyalty programmes are looking for quick sales but do nothing more than give regular purchasers discount cash-backs and coupons.

There is an interesting article from Colloquy about recent research that shows that only 17% of consumers say loyalty programs are a "very influential" factor in determining a purchase. They suggest that this is because loyalty programmes have fallen into a trap of copying one another with discount and cash-back rewards that increasingly look alike to consumers.

Brands that get it wrong waste resource, turn-off consumers and lose margin.

If a brand does decide to set-up a loyalty programme it should focus on demonstrating that the brand recognises and appreciates their consumers loyalty by adding value to the brand experience delivered.

The Colloquy articles suggest three tips:

1. Give consumers what they want - smart analysis of consumer data makes this possible.
2. Make consumers feel special – give them a sense of VIP insider status.
3. Keep it simple and be truly consumer-centric.

There may be more effective ways to deliver positive brand experiences that drive loyalty and potentially advocacy. 

Tread carefully.

Great brands make a promise and exceed it

Seth recently posted a great article.


One line jumped out at me:


"The ability to delight and surprise is at the core of every beloved brand"


Absolutely.


This is what my Promise Deliver Delight framework is all about.


Seth goes on to say:


"Research shows us that what people remember is far more important than what they experience. What's remembered:
--the peak of the experience (bad or good) and,

--the last part of the experience."

Designing and delivering a great brand experience - that exceed the brand promise - should be the primary focus for a brand organisation that is looking to differentiate in an increasingly 'me too' world.

This framework can help.

British Airways have plans to make them smell better

I hear British Airways are planning to create a fragrance that they spray in their planes [see article in Business 2 Community].


I like this idea.


It makes sense given that the smell of aeroplane chemicals and the body odour of other passengers are not always that pleasant.


Supermarkets have understood the positive power of smell for a long time, although it  can attract some media flack [Mailonline]


I think it is a dimension of brand experience that can be very powerful when it evokes positive and fond experiences - think cut grass, burning fireplace, or home cooking.

If British Airways get it right then good luck to them. I guess it is worth a try.

Real-time marketing paths the way to delight consumers

There is an excellent article in Adpulp: How To Win Big in 2012: Create Exceptional Brand Experiences For Your Clients’ Customers.


The article talks about 'real-time marketing' and how companies have to recognize that change as the new normal.


I totally agree.


The artticle tells a fabulous story about how Porterhouse Steakhouse made real-time one-to-one marketing possible by listening on Twitter. They basically saw a tweet from a fan jokingly asking for a Porterhouse after a hard days travelling (he had just landed at an airport 23 miles away). They responded by sending out a  tuxedo-clad waiter to meet him with his requested steak.


As the article says, this is textbook case of 'surprise and delight'.


I love it.


This type of brand behaviour is at the heart of what I mean when I say that to win brands need to surprise / delight / WOW their consumer.


We live in a time where there is huge opportunity to listen (to consumer's social conversations) and respond. 


Brand organisations that get this and start to deliver brand experiences like the Porterhouse story will win, because it will drive advocacy and usually loyalty.

5 Experience Enhancers That will Build Competitive Advantage

There is an excellent article in Forbes written by executives at PricewaterhouseCooper: 

"The Key to Customer Loyalty: The Total Shopper Experience."

The article offers excellent advice based on a study by PcWs that is designed to help businesses identify often hidden sources of value that lead to exceptional, differentiating customer experiences.

They recommend developing an experience action plan that’s built on the customer knowledge - extracted from your loyalty program—and that activates the following five “experience enhancers”. These points echo many of the things I have said in my previous posts:

• Focus first and foremost on the shopper experience - front line staff are key
• Make satisfied customers your brand ambassadors - your customer can be your best advertising
• Help consumers avoid risk - remove any psychological hurdles to making a purchase, e.g. shipping costs
• Embrace the any-time, anywhere economy - make it easy to search and find you
• When something bad happens, fix it - bad news travels fast

They end by saying: "Businesses that understand what their customers value most in the purchasing experience, and that build strong psychological bonds with them, will pull ahead of their rivals and strengthen their customer loyalty."

This is great advice. 

Apple, Disney and Google are top experience brands

I borrowed the idea for this chart from the recently published Best Brand experiences study (Jack Morton).


It highlights the different types of brand experiences that can influence a consumer.


It matches fairly closely the experiences I write about on the path to advocacy:


Notice - discovery experience
Choose - digital experience
Buy - shopping experience
Use - product  experience
Loyal - customer experience
Fan - community experience


The key point is that brand organisations need to consider the experiences they are delivering at all touchpoints. They then have to ensure that they are consistent, differentiating and ideally delightful.


That is how brands win consumer loyalty and advocacy.


Check out the  study to see why the following brands appear in the top ten

1. Apple
2. Disney
3. Google
4. Microsoft
5. Mercedes
6. Coca-Cola
7. Sony and IKEA
8. BMW
9. Amazon
10. Louis Vuitton

Also check my previous posts showing which brands win in other similare studies: 

Beyond Philosophy: Most admired customer experience - Apple, Amazon and Zappos
Nunwood: Top 100 brand for customer experience (UK) - Amazon, John Lewis and Virgin

British Airways were listening to me..

I regularly travel with British Airways, and am an executive club member and fan (check out my posted from March 2009).


I was very impresssed by how they recently handled a tweet I wrote  about being bumped-off one of their flights.

This is a great example of a smart brand organisation that have a social media startegy, including social listening tools, that can help them respond to customer issues.


Consumers will usually forgive a brand that says 'sorry'. 


Full marks to British Airways.

Dominoes app delivers a great take-away

This iPad app is an obvious but inspired idea from Dominoes Pizzas (the best ideas often are).


The app enables consumers to create their own pizza, win points, be social, etc.


Oh yes, Dominoes will also deliver the pizza you create.


What a great brand experience for the consumer.


What a smart idea that they will tell their friends about.


What a great way to improve operational efficiency (less telephone calls, etc).


Nice one.

Coke ads usually make me smile - that must be a good thing

This is a nice ad.


It is classic Coke.


Engaging and up-beat.


It makes you feel good about drinking one.

Brand purpose is vital to ensure organisation is in sync

This is a good post [Jakara Globe] that spells out why it is important to have a clearly defined vision and  mission.


This quote says it all:


"One of the most important and often overlooked factors that separate industry-leading iconic brands from the pack is their guiding corporate mission and vision."


If a brand organisation's vision is based on how to value and treat consumers (which most are) it is a recipe for success.


If everyone in a brand organisation knows how they should engage with consumers in a considered and consistent way, particularly if the focus is on delighting them (such as brands like Singapore Airlines, Apple and Zappos) then every brand experience their consumers have is more likely to lead to improved loyalty and potentially advocacy.


A winning force for sustainable sales success.

John Lewis create another sensational Christmas TV ad

John Lewis have done it again.


I posted 2 years ago about their Christmas TV which I loved.


I think years TV ad is even better.

Time shift viewing is fast becoming a real challenge for brands

A Guardian article recently pointed out that in UK TV time shift is now 10% of viewing.

This is not a new news.

The media communications industry - and our clients - are very aware of this challenge.

What is new is that distribution is accelerating (Tivo, Sky +, etc) and viewers are fast starting to learn new habits - so things are changing very rapidly.

To be honest, based on my observations (albeit sample size of one) 10% seems small.

In my household on Saturday night we record X factor and, as a family, sit down to watch the programme 15 minutes behind real time. That way we can fast forward through all the ads but still get to the end by the time it is broadcast live.

The recent rugby world cup was another example about how my family viewing habits have changed. Again, we start viewing 15 minutes late so we can fast forward through the annoying ad break just before kick-off and the subsequent half time breaks. That way by the second half we are watching the game in real time.

I think we are at a tipping point and acceleration over the next few years will become even more rapid - particularly with the important younger targets (everyone under 35s).

So, what to do?

TV remains one of the most effective communication channels to deliver mass awareness to attract new customers/acquisitions.

It is therefore becoming even more critical that brand organisations consider how to deliver life beyond conventional TV.

This is where digital come in.

Brand organisations need to review the first to stages of the path to advocacy (notice and choose) - and work out how to deliver persuasive brand experiences using TV content that will have a life in social media beyond paid for advertising.