The brand is the experience
"Your brand is created out of customer contact and the experience your customers have of you" - so begins the article at Marketing Web. Thanks to Karl Long who brought this to my attention through his post at Customer Experience Strategy.
This article captures some key elements for understanding customer experience design. The first thing it outlines is the difference between advertising and branding. It also brilliantly sets the stage for what really counts - once you strip away the old way of thinking, you arrive at the customer experience. This is the place where a firm directly interfaces with its chosen customer - and the source of all revenue (and if you do it right, some profit).
This article refers to three driving forces:
1. The Customers frame of reference This is the sum total of the customers background and perceptions and needs, created by experience, environmental and competitive activity.
* We like to think of this as the customers expectation - what they are thinking and anticipating when before they interact with your product or service.
2. The Customers expectations The sum total of the customers frame of reference and your marketing communication.
* Instead we look at the second important step when interacting with a product or service - the actual experience itself (completely from the customer's perspective)
3. The Customers actual experience the sum total of the organizations strategy, customer value proposition the design of the experience and the actual delivery of the designed customer experience.
* We follow up by looking at their memory of their interaction - this is the place where the experience is boiled down and stored...
Another article at Marketing Web discusses the demise of brand loyalty. While this might be a bit too extreme, it does touch on a point we see often - loyalty chasers. Loyalty chasers are those who believe that if they can simply track loyalty, they will be taken to another level. What they often fail to understand or acknowledge is that loyalty is an outcome of the customer's experience. Loyalty is earned, and epxeriences are designed and stagged...
This article captures some key elements for understanding customer experience design. The first thing it outlines is the difference between advertising and branding. It also brilliantly sets the stage for what really counts - once you strip away the old way of thinking, you arrive at the customer experience. This is the place where a firm directly interfaces with its chosen customer - and the source of all revenue (and if you do it right, some profit).
This article refers to three driving forces:
1. The Customers frame of reference This is the sum total of the customers background and perceptions and needs, created by experience, environmental and competitive activity.
* We like to think of this as the customers expectation - what they are thinking and anticipating when before they interact with your product or service.
2. The Customers expectations The sum total of the customers frame of reference and your marketing communication.
* Instead we look at the second important step when interacting with a product or service - the actual experience itself (completely from the customer's perspective)
3. The Customers actual experience the sum total of the organizations strategy, customer value proposition the design of the experience and the actual delivery of the designed customer experience.
* We follow up by looking at their memory of their interaction - this is the place where the experience is boiled down and stored...
Another article at Marketing Web discusses the demise of brand loyalty. While this might be a bit too extreme, it does touch on a point we see often - loyalty chasers. Loyalty chasers are those who believe that if they can simply track loyalty, they will be taken to another level. What they often fail to understand or acknowledge is that loyalty is an outcome of the customer's experience. Loyalty is earned, and epxeriences are designed and stagged...
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