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.

Great Customer Experience is the Ultimate Brand Experience - Top 100 UK

Hot on the heals of my last post, about the most admired customer experience companies in USA, I came across a Marketing Week article this week highlighting the top 100 UK brands for customer experience (survey by Nunwood).

Here is the ranking:

1. Amazon

2. John Lewis

3. Virgin Atlantic

4. Emirates

5. Marks & Spencer

6. M&S Simply Food

=7. Millies Cookies

=7. Greggs

9. Hilton
10. Krispy Kreme

The Marketing Week article then makes an important statement:

"Great customer service is the ultimate brand experience. Consumers on the receiving end of a positive retail experience may spend more than they intend, come back for more and tell their friends."

Absolutely. ..

This is what I go on about all the time.

The success of these brands is clear evidence that building an organisation that is capable of delivering winning brand experiences at every stage of the consumer journey is a winning strategy.

If you are serious about achieving success like these brands than consider the consumer experience at every stage of the Path to Purchase and think how you can WOW them.

Also, check-out the Marketing Week article because it has a number of interesting insights into the actions of some of the top 100 brands.

Here are some examples:

"John Lewis encourages consumers to interact with the brand through well-trained store staff" 

"People find that the Richer Sounds staff are concerned about meeting their needs rather than selling the most expensive item" 

"Virgin’s staff are generally felt to be fantastic....Virgin has become a customer service case study for other brands aiming to humanise their operations" 

"We have found that what people love about Millie’s Cookies is the variety, choice, personalisation and the fact that we don’t come across as a big corporate brand" http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/analysis/features/the-brands-that-run-rings-around-their-rivals/3030720.article

Surprise Surprise...Apple deliver most admired customer experience

It came as no surprise to me to see that Apple ranked the 'Most admired customer experience' brand based on  a recent survey by Beyond Philosophy.

In fact most of the brands ranked in the top ten are of no surprise to me.

Listed below is the top ten. It also shows some of my previous posts that will give you some insight into why they have performed so well in this survey and, as importantly, in terms of sustainable business success.

1. Apple - Apple understand the importance of in-store delivery and delight
2. Amazon - Great experience drive word of mouth
3. Zappos - Zappo win by focusing on WOWing consumers
4. Starbucks - Starbucks coffee launch will cause a stir
5. Tesco - Tesco's neat scan to van app
6. Disney - Apple and Disney deliver some in store magic
7. Virgin Atlantic - Virgin turns problem into PR master stroke
8. Vodafone - no post (yet?)
9. Nordstrom - 4 tips on howto deliver consistent winning brand experiences
10. First Direct - no post (yet?)

If you work in a brand organisation that is looking for ways to outperform your competitors then one effective approach is to review the brand experience your are delivering your consumers and consider how you can improve it. It would be smart use the path to advocacy model and also look closely how the above winning brands deliver.

Those bad boys at Carlsberg know how to party

I love this ad.


It is surprising.


It is charming.


It is simple.


It delivers a brand experience that is absolutely what Carlsberg is about.


It will get noticed.

A man without a smiling face must not open a shop

What a great Chinese proverb.


It is spot on and a key part of delivering a great brand experience at the buy stage of the path to purchase. The first moment of truth.


We all know shops we have visited when we had a poor brand experience with the sales person (rude, poor advice, no smile, etc). As a result we may have been put off buying or at least felt less inclined to rush back to buy again.


On the other hand, we have also all had a great interaction with a salesperson. A smile was probably a key part that left you with the feeling of a good buying experience.


It does not take much but can make a big difference.


Retailers know this but don't always have clear values or training in place.


Sure, it takes time and money but if you look at the loyalty and potential advocacy it is worth it [check-out advocacy drives growth paper from LSE].

Kia nail ad will get noticed

This is a nice ad for the Kia Picanto.


It is getting noticed on You Tube (over 3 million hits) and uses stop motion technique to promote Kia's small is beautiful message.


It delivers a fun, clever and easy to watch brand experience.


I like it.

What kills loyalty?

In a recent article Business Insider suggested 20 ways to kill loyalty. It admits to appearing negative but does provide a useful perspective - and check-list of what brand organisations have to avoid.


To me they the list is fairly obvious and a little repetitive, that said, the last point: 'a failed promise is a loyalty killer' is the deal breaker.


To be a successful brand you have to deliver the promises you are making (via brand communications). That is how you build loyalty, a key stage on the path to advocacy.


It is also important to remember that there are a number of different types of loyal customers [check-out Inertia, Transactional and Fanatical loyalists article], so for some consumers it is also important to find ways to delight them. 


That's how you build brand fans who are likely to advocate you and, as we all know, advocacy is the most powerful form of communication. 


Zappos know how to do this. They have a list of core values that everyone working there has to live and breathe. Top of the list is WOW through customer service.

Working out how to do delight/WOW isn't always obvious or easy but when you get it right, like Zappos, you will build a very successful business. 

Cadburys plays with Augmented Reality

To date I have failed to get particularly excited by the Cadburys Spots v stripes campaign.

This gaming idea (recently written about in Brand Republic) based on Augmented Reality looks fun and arguably a clever way to get consumers to engage in a unique brand experience.

Will it get noticed? Possibly. (It depends on the tactical support plan.)

Is it relevant? I guess so.

Will it get talked about? I have no idea but will watch with interest.

St Johns ad turns heads in the cinema

I came across this is brilliant St Johns Ambulance cinema ad thanks to utalkmarketing.com.

It would have delivered an extremely powerful brand experience.

It reminds me of a British Airways City Break campaign that I worked on at Saatchi & Saatchi many years ago which, like this ad, involved an actress in the cinema audience interacting with the screen.

It is a brilliant and simple idea but will get noticed and talked about.

I love it.

Wrigleys car park ticket trick

Wrigley's flavoured parking ticket from Gustavo Vieira on Vimeo.

This is a brilliant way for Wrigleys to deliver a brand experience that will surprise and get noticed.

It may even delight and get consumers to talk about it (the brand experience).

This should be the objective for all brands.