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We just had our agency Leadership Conference in New Delhi - at The Oreroi Hotel.
What a fantastic place.
The rooms rooms were spectacular. The food excellent. The staff were delightful.
On my second day I found this note (shown above) and some deodorant and shaving gel in my room.
Did it delight me? Absolutely.
Will I go back to the Oberoi next time I am in NewDelhi (repeat business)? Of course - it will be my first choice.
Have I talked about (advocacy)? I have talked about in the office (off-line). I have Twittered it. I have put it on Facebook. I have blogged about it (on-line).
Did it take much effort or cost a lot? No.
This for me epitomises what great brand experiences are about.
I have blogged about great hotels that get it...and rubbish hotels that don't.
All brand organisations should be looking at how they can deliver great brand experiences that delight at every part of the path to advocacy. As this example shows, it can be a very powerful way to build a competitive advantage that gets consumers' to buy again and advocate your brand.
In case you can not read the note it says:
"Dear Mr Weir,
While servicing your room I noticed that your deodorant and shaving gel is getting over and hence I have taken the liberty of placing the same for you.
I hope you are happy with the quality of housekeeping in your room.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
Regards.."
A key tenet of my view on brand success is that is is vital that a brand delivers what it promises.
There is an excellent article in Forbes.com (written by Kerry Bodin at Forrester) about how brands need to carefully match what they promise in their communications with what they are capable of delivering.
The article talks about two airline ads:
A United Airlines ad run a couple of years ago showing a dad (depicted as a cartoon character) being transformed into an unreal world where he slays dragons, receives a crown from 2 beautiful girls, etc. The implicit promise being - "You're going to feel like a king on our airline" - is one that United has had trouble living up to.
There is clearly a massive gap between the promise and the reality.
In contrast a recent JetBlue ad pokes fun at airlines competitors by imposing buggage fees on unsuspecting New York taxi passengers who rapidly become irate. The ads explicit message is - "if you would't take it on the ground, don't take it in the air" - also has a promise behind it.
This approach is totally in-sync with what the airline delivers.
It isn't complicated. Check-out the PDD™
- If you over-promise it will result in disappointed consumers - who may not buy again.
- If you deliver what you promise then you are more likely to have happy consumers who will buy again.
- The winning approach however is to over-deliver your promise in a way that delights consumers. Delighted consumers are more likely to buy again and even tell their friends. This is a powerful way to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
The Forbes article goes onto explain that brand organisations should map out their consumers' journeys and design ways to deliver at every stage.
This echoes my thoughts on what I call the path to advocacy framework.
Why not use it and collaborate with the appropriate leaders in your organisation to ensure that great brand experiences are designed for each stage of the path; and that the whole organisation is focused on delivering and delighting.
Another ad with dancing babies.
It seems to be an effective way to get this Kit Kat ad noticed (disclosure: Kit Kat are a client).
The PR Newswire article says: Creative, Cute, Cool are the 'cornerstones' of this campaign.
1.6 million views in 2 weeks.
I can't argue with that.
I love this car ad.
It is fun and full of entertaining insight.
The role of the Fiat 500L is relatively incidental but I am not sure that matters given that 'The Motherhood' - arguably the most important decision makers when it comes to car purchase - (and a lot of dads) are sharing it (over 2 million already).I am sure this ad will continue to get noticed and talked about.
Thanks to the Huffington Post for highlighting some other fun rap videos that are also worth watching:
Nice one.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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