Another new experience

Several years ago Dutch Boy paints created a purple cow with their easy pour plastic, large mouth, twist on top paint can. Changing the painting and cleanup experience after nearly 100 years.

Well, looks like they have done it again. The have created Ready to Roll. A new 2.5 gallon bucket of paint that includes a built-in roller tray. No more sloppy cleanup of the tray, just snap the cover back on. If this works they way it is intended, then they have just moved the bar again.

This is a great example of changing the experience vs. improving products. In the later mode you would create new textures, colors, and maybe even some licensing tricks (ie. Disney or Ralph Lauren paints). When looking at experience you go beyond your product, and into your customer's world - and take on their world view.

The only thing Dutch Boy is lacking is a strong distribution channel - in my humble opinion. When searching for paint dealerships in my area I was presented with Kmart, Sears, and Mennards. All on the lower end of the pricing tier. Perhaps, Dutch Boy could expand by offering direct online purchases of their products along with some planning tools, and record storage of what rooms you applied your paints to - a simple capture at the point of order. If you have ever had to go into the paint can pile to find the one can to purchase some additional paint, you know how this might change your experience...

SavvySoloCAST #14

On Friday Michael Pollock from Small Business Branding , interviewed me on his SavvySoloCast podcast show #14.



We talked about the importance of incorporating a customer experience into any business, and how it is becoming the next economical shift - now, one of the few ways of increasing margin on the service business.

After the interview, I had some additional thoughts for the soloprenuer:

1. Learn about your customer's real needs by observing them in the natural habitat. You can do this by tagging along with a friend or family member while they interact with a similar or parallel service provider or product. Be present to:
- Expectations (before the interaction)
- Experience (during the interaction)
- Memory (after the interaction)

2. While observing just watch what is going on, take pictures, and jot down notes. After you are done, let it sit for a day and look at it fresh - you will be amazed by what you discover.

3. Branding and customer experience relationship posts we talked about during the interview.
Brand is What You Do
Brand is Experience

4. Create a "purple cow", and create something completely unique and different. Think about how your customer remembers you, and start creating clues that will stick in the memory as something unique, good, and worthwhile. Because it is more and more about how your customer feels before, during, and after the interaction with you. We describe it as the space in between (you and your customer).

5. Listen to what friends, family, and customers are saying about their experiences when interacting with other companies - inside and outside of your industry. The amazing thing you will find is that it is the experiences that people share more than products, services, or people.

6. Experiences are stored in memory. Those past experiences are building blocks for future experiences.

7. Strengthen your storytelling muscle - you must be able to consistently and simply tell your story and enroll others in the storyline.

Hope this helps open a new world of possibility for you! And don't forget to keep us posted about your successes and failures!

Thank you Michael for a great interview - keep up the great work...

Experience marketing

Here is a great example of experience marketing hijacking another real experience.

In a silly event where two gammers play the first two innings of a minor league baseball game on an Xbox. Yes, it includes play-by-play from the announcers and they are hoping for "fan participation".

According to Bryan Williams, director of community relations for the T-Bones, “Everybody in the world is going to want to do this after us...". Hmm... not sure about that...

Sometimes I wonder who comes up with these ideas. In this case, it was the six year-old niece of Mr. Williams.

Thanks to Boing Boing for this story

Message in a bottle

Another great post over at Confessions of a Brand Evangelist. Aaron has again captured the essence of experience in his observations about shampoo.

In this over crowded consumer goods arena, how are companies differentiating? Not by delivering a product that is simply better at cleaning (its primary purpose). Instead, they are focusing on niche needs, and experiences they want the customer to have. They are attempting to do this through branding. As Eric at ICE recently posted about his experience with a certain after shave label, the experience extends beyond the design of the packaging - it extends to how the customer actually uses the product. And based upon their worldview, what are they able to be when they use this product.

The philosophy of being is a cousin of the experience movement, and it is becoming a larger part of our conversation with experience prospects. I hope to spend some time articulating this relationship in further detail in the near future. However, simply stated; we don't buy things to have them, we buy them to be something...

Ok, I can't get the song out of my head now... "I'm sending an SOS to the world, I hope that someone gets my, message in a bottle - yeah..."

A commitment to blogging

Now this is real commitment. While I struggle at getting multiple posts per week, this amazing woman does it while hang gliding...

Imagine if bloggers started blogging their experiences with companines. I wonder what insight we might gain. In second thought, that might be as insipring as watching C-SPAN

Past, present, or future?

Interesting thoughts from Confessions of a Brand Evangelist...

In this post Aaron posits why we buy - I tend to agree.

As marketers, we often talk about demographics and customer segmentation as if people make buying decisions based on who they are right now. Yet personal experience tells a different story. I find that I buy based on who I want to be, not who I am.

If we accept this as an axiom, then what does that say about the experience the customer is expecting when they interact to purchase the product or service? Is it based upon where they are now, or where they want to be in the future? Or could it be both?

This is a good example where brand and experience have interdependent roles...

La La La

After some delays, we are getting close to releasing the first Experience Journal Podcast. So, I thought I would set up the release with a post of the lyrics from theme song for the show.

Read the words below from the song "La La La" written and performed by Mr. Kane - I think they paint a perfect picture of today's customers experience as they are bombarded by advertising from every angle.

While I doubt they wrote it for our application, I think you will understand why we chose it for an experience podcast.

Ever wondered if your prospects inner-voice said something like this to you:

Do you know what your saying?
I laughed out loud, but you weren't joking
Let me explain my condition, because I've got a slight case of ego addiction

If you won't shut up, I'll just turn you down
cause I won't give in

la la la I'm not listening
la la la to your babbling
la la la I Anita going to take your self righteous pitch

come on, you gotta be kidding
the story is there, but the facts are missing
you are a methodical liar, and I won't give in, get caught in your cross fire

Don't sign me up
Don't right me down
Don't count on me

la la la I'm not listening
la la la to your babbling
la la la I ain't going to take your self righteous pitch
la la la I'm not listening
la la la to your blabering
la la la make it up as you go, so you can't tell which is which

I am so sick of listening to you
With all these lies its hard to spot the truth
I close my eyes, and cover up my ears
I won't be wasting my best years

Metaphor zone

How do customers think? Correction, how do most humans think? Based upon new research, the region of the brain that actually handles metaphors has been identified. After reading How Customers Think

by Gerald Zaltman

this article got me thinking about how much of our daily thinking is done in this region of the brain? I have been listening closer to the use of metaphors in conversation and have been overwhelmed by the shear volume, ease of use, and immediate comprehension that occurs when they are used.

What happens then when a company that is so wrapped up in its literal reality forgets to provide metaphors that support the experience? Does the customer assign their own metaphor? What are the driving factors of the metaphor selection? Is it based upon the single experience or a collection of experiences?

Now that's a lot to contemplate... I think my metaphorical zone is over stimulated - how about yours?