Chances are, if someone mention GoPro, you think of a super-sturdy adventure action camera.
Why's that? Because GoPro has done a good job defining its brand. Great brands like GoPro are easy to recognize. Their missions are clear, and they foster that customer loyalty all businesses crave.
A brand is one of the most valuable assets of a business, and it needs to be carefully crafted to ensure it properly and authentically represents the business.
Crafting a brand is a shared endeavor, though.
A companyâs brand identity is how that business wants to be perceived by consumers. The components of the brand are created by the business to reflect the value the company is trying to bring to the market and to appeal to its customers.
On the other hand, a brand experience is a term used to describe the total impression of a potential consumer of a brand. As a matter of fact, itâs the customers and not companies that define brands. Brands are only relevant if they are in alignment with the customers. Itâs no longer the brand who spends the most money in advertising and marketing that attracts more customers.
In todayâs advanced technological world, customers are not brand loyal anymore, or at least they are loyal to a brand as long as the brand remains relevant to them, which can be a few weeks, or a few seconds at the speed of the click of a button on their mobile phones or tablets.
Brand experience attract customers to connect with the business and buy products, but only if the business delivers on its promise. Brand experience must be simple, contextual (engage with the audience at the right time and place), and personalized.
âYouâll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture canât be copied.â ~ Jerry Fritz
Brand experience harnesses the power of consumer influence, which is important when you consider that word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertisement. So, what does it take to create an awesome brand experience for your business?
Lets take a look at these 5 often take-for-granted steps in creating and managing Brand Experience.
STEP 1 â FIRST IMPRESSION LAST
1. Business name/logo: You want to choose a name that will last and, if possible, will embody both your values and your company's distinguishing characteristics.
2. Tagline: It actually fulfill a very important purpose: they let you quickly and efficiently sum up what your company is all about.
3. Product: Other than highlighting your products/services features, functions and benefits, also highlight the opportunity that your products/services will bring to the customers.
âDesign is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. The iMac is not just the colour or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays togetherâ ~ Steve Jobs
4. Elevator pitch: By preparing an elevator pitch not only do you have a script ready for whenever the opportunity arises, but it allows you to put down in writing why your company or product is the best of its kind.
5. Business cards: A memorable business card does a lot more than just pass on an email address or phone number.
6. Brochure/Catalog: You can tell a story in the brochure/catalog over the course of the layout and end it with a call to action. Coupons with special deals and discounts are also commonly included, which may prompt immediate business.
7. Packaging: Packaging is powerful because it tells consumers why your product and brand are different. Great packaging is especially significant for growing startups because it can have a direct impact on sales and a company's overall appeal.
STEP 2 â MAKE YOUR BUSINESS VISUALLY APPEALING
1. Website: There are hundreds of reasons why every business must have a website because it is seen as a business basic and no-one wants to deal with a company thatâs not serious about what they are doing.
2. Location: If your business draws customers to a store location, the site must be convenient to the customer. The location must be easily accessible and provide the customer with a feeling of safety upon their arrival and exit.
3. Furnishing: Appearance is so important in a retail shop that you should put a great deal of thought into planning and executing your displays. You can get some pretty good ideas by going to trade shows and noticing the displays of the vendors. Some are really professional, while some obviously did not put much thought into displaying their wares. Trade magazines are also good research sources, or just magazines in general.
4. Colour: Shoppers most often choose what they buy based on color. In fact, it can account for up to 85 percent of the reason people buy one product over another. The colors surrounding customers while they're shopping also can influence whether they make a purchase.
5. Signage: Signs can be an essential component of a business's overall marketing strategy. A sign that contains a business's logo can help reinforce its brand. Signs are also used to draw attention to promotions and to convey information about the business.
6. Vehicle graphic: With well-designed vehicle graphics; your van, car, truck, bus or trailer will generate huge awareness of your brand or service. But do remember, that well designed, striking graphics is the key. Your brand and details must be visually pleasing, with a nice balance between branding, colour, placement and text.
7. Pricing: Consumers are price-savvy, and an overpriced product will sit on the shelf if the competition sells it cheaper. As much as customers look for quality, they will also protect their pocketbooks. Overpriced merchandise will lead to a decrease in sales, as it's possible to price products beyond the customer's ability and willingness to pay.
âThe moment you make a mistake in pricing, you're eating into your reputation or your profits.â ~ Katharine Paine
Step 3 â START WRITING AND CURATING CONTENTS
1. Social media: Donât sign up for every social media sites because they are new or popular. Determine which is most relevant to your business. Be proficient and excellent with one or two sites before adding more. (You can learn more about social media marketing at GrindMediaDesign)
âWe donât have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do itâ ~ Erik Qualman
2. Company blog: It helps drive new traffic to your website and works closely with search engines and social media to do that.
3. Newsletter: While newsletters are useful in getting attention from prospects, their primary importance is in maintaining ongoing connections with contacts and existing customers. A core benefit of a company newsletter is to keep your brand in front of customers who buy infrequently.
4. Loyalty program: For retail stores, restaurants, and travel companies, maintaining a customer rewards program is almost a necessity to stay competitive because programs are so widespread in those sectors.
5. Private sales: Every business needs new customers, but the easiest and most predictable source of continuous revenue comes from the loyal customers who already know your company. Launch a private sale specifically catered for the existing customers. Create a VVIP membership program.
6. Product demos: Visually showing how the product works or sampling a small size enables consumers to see and experience how products perform without having to risk buying first. A product demonstration should never be a tour of a product's features and functions. Instead, it should tell the customer's story, with the product playing a key role.
7. Service advisors: Although it can take extra resources, time and money, excellent service advisors can generate positive word-of-mouth for your business, keep your customers happy and encourage them to purchase from your business again. Good service advisors can help your business grow and prosper.
STEP 4 â YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE MATTERS HERE
1. Founding story: Â A new business represents the unknown, and that means unknown results for the consumer. That is why it is so vital that startups market themselves by sharing their origin story with consumers.
Incorporating your companyâs story into your marketing overcome the hesitations of your target consumers. Telling your story gives you the opportunity to present who is running the company, what qualifies you to do so, why what youâre doing is different from others in the space, and what prompted you to start this business in the first place.
2. Thought leadership: Buyers crave personalized experiences, and businesses need to up their game to connect with customers in meaningful ways. One of the most effective ways to do this is as a thought leader.
âThought Leadership is simply about becoming an authority on relevant topics by delivering the answers to the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience.â ~ Michael Brenner
3. Book publishing: Consumers in general assume that if youâve written a book on a particular subject, you probably know a whole lot about it and therefore, youâre an expert. Expert status and credibility are also helpful if youâre looking to gain more media attention.
4. Employees training: Training helps your business run better. Trained employees will be better equipped to handle customer inquiries, make a sale or use computer systems. You can cross-train employees to be capable in more than one aspect of the business. Teach them to be competent in sales, customer service, administration and operations.
5. Welcome packets: A client welcome packet is a set of files that welcomes a client to your company and provides all of the information he or she needs to work with you effectively. Itâs like a roadmap that leads the client through your services, your policies, and your work processes.
6. Community givebacks: Successful small businesses need the support of their local communities. You can give back in different ways, by giving money or giving your time. No matter how you do it, giving back to your community will touch many peopleâs lives.
7. Sponsorships: Having a presence at a conference or business event positions you and your business as an authority in your industry. You gain respect and credibility by standing out from the pack of attendees and prominently displaying your products and marketing materials.
STEP 5 - BE DIFFERENT FROM YOUR COMPETITORS
1. Free samples: Many shoppers use retail stores merely for browsing, before buying online. What better way than to convert visitors into customers than with a small, tasty bribe?
2. Product use: Even if a product was designed to fulfill specific and known user needs, customers donât always use it the way and for the purpose the product was originally intended. Never take the design of your product for granted and always collect feedback on how customers actually used your product will reveal the real user needs and to get ideas of innovation.
3. Userâs manual: What better way to make it easier for customers to use your products or services. Make them so happy that they will never ask for refund.
4. Customer reviews: Persuasive testimonials from satisfied customers can sway even the most hesitant and skeptical prospect. Potential customers want the honest opinion about your business, and when evaluating you they heavily favour the opinion of the crowd.
âIf you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerfulâ ~ Jeff Bezos
5. Advocacy: Who sells your products or services? The common answer is the sales & marketing team. But the actual answer is the most important person selling what youâre offering is your customer.
6. Seminars: One of the keys to growing a business or increasing revenue is to increase awareness of your product and services by conducting seminars.
It allows you to connect, in person, with an audience of prospective consumers and appeal to them.
7. Workshops: Create closer interactions with your customers and potential prospects. A successful workshop provides participants with new skills, information, and a sense of accomplishment. The ideal workshop also provides opportunities for participants to interact and learn actively.
8. Customer events: Customer events capture what is important to the customer and provide a logical way to organise priorities and align improvement efforts.
9. Open houses: Whether youâre a new business owner or been around for years in the business world, your company can reap the benefits of holding an open house. Not only does it attract interested consumers, it allows you to showcase your products and services to gain new customers.
There you have it the 5 steps to creating and managing Brand Experience for your business. Positive âBrand Experiencesâ are what keep customers coming back for more. Itâs the magical formulas that businesses either mildly or wildly succeed at achieving.
Customers want to see that the business and products they support have a life, a personality, and a passion to which they can relate. As such, businesses should always be on the lookout for ways to improve or evolve. The needs of the customers always present new opportunities for business to create new and improve upon existing products and services.
You now have all the principles within the 5 steps. Lots of work needed to be done in each step. Go do some magic with it.
âAs to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have troubleâ ~ Harrington Emerson
If you found any value at all from this, my humble request from you is to recommend and share this article â it has taken a lot of effort to put this together.
