What's Shaping Brand Experiences

Brand experiences have the tremendous responsibility of shaping our brands. Customers today have the deep desire to experience brands and be part of a brand’s journey. They don't want to be only told why a brand is superior. As brands, we need to be deliberate in shaping our brand experiences. It needs to be thoughtful and have the ability to change our customers’ lives.

It’s easy for brands to get lost in their own hype, forgetting that at the end of the day our brand is made up of customers who purchase our products. The question becomes how do we create meaningful experiences? What’s that secret formula to shaping brand experiences that get our customers’ to evoke curiosity?

Connect Emotionally
Emotions are the key to tapping into our customers' desires. It’s also through emotions that we create a bond. Most buying decisions are made on emotions, designing emotional experiences will give brands the ability to create better relationships.

Authentically Transparent
This has been something that’s been drilled over so many times but it’s worth the reminder. Transparency has been a big thing for the millennials. Today it's more prevalent as these millennial parents are raising Gen Z’s in the same way. Consumers want to know what and brands must make the information available in order to retain the trust.

Cross-Functioning Experience
The brand experience isn’t just outward facing to our customers but it also has to be represented in-house. If your employees are not on board with the experience, it becomes harder for them to really deliver that same experience to customers. The brand experience must be demonstrated across all departments whether it’s HR, marketing, sales, operations, etc.

Customer Collabs are Key
We mentioned before that customers want to be part of your brand’s journey, so getting them involved is a great way to also get feedback. For example getting them to participate in a challenge alongside your brand. Think about why Drake’s #inmyfeelings challenge was so wildly popular? It allowed listeners to be part of something that’s real. Who doesn’t have feelings and who doesn’t want to express themselves to be seen and heard?

Cross-Channel Marketing
Gone are the days of utilizing a singular form of marketing. In today’s hyper content-driven world we are consuming content in many various forms. Customers connect with brands through many different medians so brands need to have a 360 approach to how they reach their future customers which includes both online and offline experiences. Whatever channel you choose to express your experiences the one thing to keep in mind is that it must be consistent.