I can completely understand the frustration of not knowing why your customers are not returning. You want to be able grow your business so you can have the life you desire, but for some reason it isn’t working. This can be down to a number of elements such as your product not fulfilling the customers needs, but it could also be to do with one vital element – your brand experience.
To really understand how to create a successful brand experience, it’s important to see how experience relates to the different areas within your brand. In this article, we’ll do just that so you can build trust, loyalty and excitement in your brand.
What is brand experience?
Brand experience encompasses pretty much how a customer, or prospective customer feels at every time when they come across your brand. This varies at all customer levels and formats.
Cold person: Social media advertising, print advertising and branding.
Warm Person: Website and email campaigns.
Hot Person: Packaging, product and customer service.
Your ideal customer will be receiving an experience from you with every word you write and image you present – so it is important to get it right.
Brand experience quite literally describes how potential and existing customers experience your brand before, during and after any interactions with you from them first meeting you. Now we have outlined brand experience, let’s look at the difference between brand experience and user experience.
Brand experience vs User experience
Brand experience is how people feel about your brand. They don’t necessarily need to buy from you but they know what your brand stands for and understand why your brand exists.
The user experience should be in line with the brand experience, but should be a more memorable experience. The connection should be more personal and create a positive emotion. This can be from holding a physical product and buying it in person to viewing online and unwrapping it when receiving it through the post. When you get this right their connection and loyalty to you is extremely powerful and profitable.
The most well known brands that exist today place strong emphasis on brand experience. Apple is an obvious example. From the retail store, to the packaging, to the interface, all the points in which we interact with Apple are curated and harmonious with the overall brand experience. I know how powerful it is as my loyalty is with Apple.
What are the key areas that create a successful brand experience
The internet has changed the way we experience brands. Previously, we only came in contact with a brand through print, radio or television advertisements, and then with the product itself when we went to see it in the shops. Now, we experience it through social media, marketing emails and when visiting various online stores. Brands have now taken to having their own apps to control the whole user and brand experience.
A solid brand experience requires that you turn your entire business into an experience. Therefore you need to make sure you take all the different elements that make up your brand into consideration. Some of the most important of these elements are:
Brand design
Brand voice
User experience
Brand image
Customer support
All of these elements become significant under your whole brand experience.
Now you understand the impact a brand experience can have, you can now look at your own business to see what improvements you can make to generate that trust, loyalty and excitement in your brand.
