WHY BRAND EXPERIENCE CREATION IS THE NEW KING OF MARKETING

WHY BRAND EXPERIENCE CREATION IS THE NEW KING OF MARKETING

If you find yourself on the receiving end of another “content is king” pitch from a marketer, disengage.

And run.

King Content has long been vanquished and a new king has risen from the ashes. Don’t be a fool by following the old adage. The new king of effective, results driven, customer centric marketing, that produces an ROI is – Brand Experience Development.

THE CONCEPT OF BRAND EXPERIENCE

So, What is Brand Experience Creation?

Marty Neumeir, author of The Dictionary of a Brand states it very simple & eloquently, explaining it as, “all the interactions people have with a product, service, or organization; the raw material of a brand.”

Think of a user experience optimization for a website and, using the same principles, apply it to all facets of your company. A more thorough explanation of brand experience is the following:

“…{consider everything} referring to any of the interactions you have with either the specific company or its products or services. This can include your own personal use of the product or brand, your conversations or interactions with employees or people who represent the Online brand or anything you learn from that brand’s marketing, word-of-mouth, recommendations from your friends, colleagues or social network.”

A well crafted brand experience results in brand loyalty that is unparalleled by any of your competitors. Brand experience is vast, and because of that, it is often overlooked. If you want marketing campaigns that convert, and cult-like brand advocates, you must cultivate a brand experience for all avenues of your business.

USE THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

The key to creating a brand experience that converts consistently lies in understanding the fundamental human needs and desires.

As humans, we care infinitely more about ourselves than we do about any individual person, brand, opinion, or news headline. It’s in the core of our nature, and it’s in the core of your target customers. They don’t care what you want, or what you think they should want. Rather, they care solely about what THEY want.

“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.”

― Dale Carnegie

QUIT BEING SELFISH & GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT

Leave Them with Warm Fuzzies

In order to build a brand experience that your customers crave, you must have the discipline to set aside your own objectives and focus solely on the needs, hopes, dreams, and wants of your potential clientele. You must understand what makes them tick, and why they pick you over other vendors.

To make your brand as sticky as Apple is to the entire finicky and entitled millennial generation, you must be thorough, and you must know your prospective and current customers’ “why.”

Once you know the “why” you can optimize and build your entire business around giving them the warm fuzzies that leave them feeling satisfied and coming back for more.

If you don’t know what drives someone to purchase from you, you’re losing money. Get up and light a fire under your marketing, sales, and customer solutions teams to do the research.

*What message do they want to hear?

*What is the most effective way to capture their attention?

*What distinctions are important to them?

*How do they feel about you versus your competitors?

FIND THEIR ``WHY``

Before you can accurately identify the “why” of your customers, you first must know who your customers truly are.

As Jim Collins famously states in Good to Great, focus first on “who”, then “what”. In order to know the “why” of your customers, you must first know “who” they are.

If you don’t already know the exact demographics, interests, hopes and dreams, and weird habits of your customers, then you must start identifying them. Once you have the “who” you can focus on the “what” and the “why”.

Perform surveys, create buyer personas, look into the data in paid social or PPC campaigns, do market research, and identify who really buys from you,not just who you think buys from you. Get as data driven as humanly possible, and identify your ideal buyers.

DEFINE YOUR BRAND EXPERIENCE - AND BE CONSISTENT

Once you have a concrete understanding of your customers and their needs, use that information to build your empire of incredible customer experiences. Make every interaction you have with your customer contribute to those needs.

Your challenge is to build a holistic customer experience that is consistent across the board. Everyone in the company must be aligned with your brand experience strategy, and everyone should be always seeking to exemplify the strategy.

You will need to make a hefty investment into your employees who interact with your consumers, but this investment will create employees who CARE. They will become brand ambassadors who breathe your brand values and differentiators, and work hard to provide world-class experiences for your customers. By the way, one not-so-minor benefit of this is an increased ROI for your company.

If you aren’t positioning your marketing initiatives, your ads, your content, your blogs, etc., with a full comprehensive view of the brand experience of your customers, you’re not marketing effectively. You’re also missing the big picture of your brand.

LEARN FROM AMAZON

Think of Amazon and their fast shipping, built in social proof on all of their products, detailed descriptions and product images, and their website’s beautiful UI. Think about how you feel when you purchase from Amazon, and the experience when you receive a product.

How does Amazon position themselves across the board to their consumers?

Remember when they adding a “one click” ordering solution, and how much it made you love them for the convenience?

Or, remark on how their return/ refund system is simply a matter of a few clicks?

What can you do for your customers, that will show them you’re listening to their needs?

Your brand experience should be so phenomenally crafted that customers stay forever, bring their friends and family to you as well, and won’t freaking shut up about how much they love you. Oh, and by the way, if for some crazy reason they do have to part ways with you, it sure as hell won’t be because they didn’t have a good experience.