How does Starbucks get away with charging $3.50 for a cup of
coffee when there's plenty of good coffee for a lot less all over
town? Yes, their product is good, but the driver in their brand
success is about delivering a consistent experience that the
market values and will pay for.
Your brand or any brand for that matter is the sum of all you do.
It's something you earn over time by how you behave and treat
your market or customers. Your brand is the mental imprint that
you plant in your market's head. Like a brain tattoo, it's what
your market thinks when they see one of your ads, it's how they
feel when they hear your name and it's what they expect when they
select you over one of your competitors.
So many organizations miss the branding boat. They think the
brand starts and stops with the product or service they offer.
Those are important factors, but many buyers quickly lose sight
of product features and instead deeply store the memories of the
experience you deliver.
A brand experience is the journey, the adventure, the trip you
send your customers on when they decide to check you out and or
do business with you. And it also includes the experience after
they buy.
There are many branding opportunities you can leverage to land
your brand. Start by mapping out all the points of contact your
buyers have with your brand. If your brand of focus is your
company, then ask yourself what activities happen when customers
do business with you? Do they call you? Visit you? Do you visit
them? Do they meet you at a trade show? If so, then the following
should be explored: your customer service center, phone contact,
your office environment, your presentation and your trade show
presence. If you have a product brand, take a look at your
distribution points of contact. Are they retail, Internet or
direct sales? Whatever your path of contact, put yourself in
those shoes. How does it feel? Good? Or like a nightmare?
Does the experience tap into all the senses of the buyer? Does
it resonate through by touch, scent, sight, feel and sound?
Think about Starbucks again. The experience they offer includes
a very cool, hip environment; cozy chairs; great jazz tunes;
the smell of robust coffee; the choice of several intellectual
periodicals; informative literature about their product; buyer-
friendly merchandise displays and a friendly, well-informed
staff.
Your brand personality, purpose and market position should direct
the experience you offer. And remember the brand is not only
about impacting the buyer of your offering. It's about your
employees, who are your brand champions; the media, who can be
brand cheerleaders; and the stakeholders, who need confidence to
keep the resources coming.
Consider your environment. Is it consistent with your brand? Are
you selling high-tech innovation and your retail store looks like
1960 stopped in time? Is your brand about hip fashion and is your
staff dressed in dated garb?
Think about your customer contact. Is it supportive of your "We
truly care; we are the friendly company"? Or is your phone system
obnoxiously annoying, and is your receptionist rude and mumbles
all the time?
Most businesses have three stages of contact to infuse a great
experience: before customers buy, while they are buying and after
they buy. What can you do to make the experience great?
Here are a few ideas to consider:
* Bring the brand to your employees; enlist their ideas on
adding experience.
* Whatever you decide, train and communicate to the troops
and offer incentives to them to deliver it.
* Develop things you can give your customers that are about
giving value, not selling.
* Breathe brand in your behind-the-scenes operation areas.
Employees who get it will deliver it.
* Think about all the senses and how you can tap into them.
* Be the customer for a day and go through your buying
experience.
* Talk to your customers even when they are not buying. Send
thank-you notes and birthday cards. Know their names and
what they value.
In today's competitive business world, there are many good
companies vying for the same customers, singing the same song
and pitching the same products. Deliver a memorable experience
that solidifies your brand and customers will pay more for your
offering and stick with you for a lifetime.
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