Tag Archives: Brand Experience
The newest Apple Store that just opened in Austin on March 11 will be closing in 2 weeks… as planned.
It’s no surprise that the company that ‘thinks different’ thought differently about how to position themselves (and the new iPad 2) to the 13,000+ temporary SxSW residents of Austin. Once again, they did what now seems obvious… they found a great retail location, installed hardwood floors, painted the walls white and put oversized product hero shots in the windows… and they created this ‘pop-up’ store in 3 days.
What resulted was what we’ve now come to expect from the launch of any new Apple Product (read as slight upgrade): long line-ups, sold out product and lots and lots of conversation. The interesting part however was being there to witness the process of how that conversation radiated. From pre-opening tweets about a possible store (due to unusual amounts of Apple hooded employee sightings) to the posts and critiques about how Etsy had an even better temporary store, the conversation about the Apple Pop-Up moved like a wave into the presentations of keynotes and material of stand-up comedy and podcasts.
Photo Credit: Richard Tseng
No one argues that games are a huge part of our culture (especially here, btw), but I’ve been hearing something you don’t often hear; we as marketers ought to be integrating the principles and qualities that make games enjoyable into our brand experience.
In yesterday’s keynote, Seth Prietbatsch showed how the mechanics of game play are being used successfully in some unexpected places. From the classroom to loyalty marketing programs, game mechanics can improve poorly designed systems. For example, “Grades are a naïve implementation of a status mechanic,” Prietbasch said.
After a few other examples, he used a crowd participation exercise to illustrate the power of a large group to achieve surprising results. Each of the 2,500+ members of the audience was given a card with different colors on each side. There were 5 or 6 different colors in all. He issued a challenge to the audience; organize each row into holding up the same color, by trading cards with neighbors in front or back if needed, within 90 seconds.He said that he’d only tested the exercise on a group of about 25 prior to this, and in the end it worked. Through cooperation, we were able to self-organize without the benefit of a leader and without being able to communicate to people beyond just a few feet from us. This exercise was used to show how large unorganized groups could overcome complex challenges.
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The last session of the day was chosen solely on its ballsy, provocative title: “Brand Consistency is Killing Digital Advertising.” Now this just seemed intentionally inflammatory. And even up to the moment the guy started talking I was ready to bolt in case it turned into overly cerebral planner talk.
Then the guy started talking, Justin Cox, a planner from Pereira & O’Dell.
And I dug it
Methodically, he challenged everything I’ve been led to believe in the last 5 years about how integrated marketing should work, ye ol’ hub and spoke, the 360° campaign, every channel serving the same big idea. He showed a slide of cross channel pieces from a recent Gillette campaign. From the print, to the TV, to the display banners, everything looked exactly the same, sharing the same art direction and assets and messaging. And it was easy to see. It all added up to crap. Consistency did not, as I’ve espoused to many clients, amplify their message; rather it seemed pointless and trivial.
Repetition diluted any possible hope of more meaningful engagement.
And then he made his big, bold claim. Across channels, brands don’t need to look the same, they just need to feel the same.
Motorola, VW, and Chrysler scored with critics and viewers in the Super Bowl advertising game. Yet, in the weeks following the game, they’ve missed (and are still missing) opportunities to convert viewers into customers through their online channels. These three brands all replay their ads on their sites, but that is not enough. Advertisers in the Super Bowl — and other big events like the Oscars — must create online experiences that get viewers more deeply involved with their products and the brand. That’s what pays off the huge advertising investments.
VW’s endearing “Darth Vader” spot speaks to affluent parents who are the primary market for the Passat. When those viewers visit VW.com, however, the most easily found content for the new Passat a snarky but flat-footed video, “VW Academy with Bill Hader.” The video’s sarcasm seems off-key compared to “Darth Vader” and more akin to a Bud Light commercial. Plus, the video is slow to communicate a handful of the model’s key features. It risks diffusing the goodwill earned by “Darth Vader.”
Worse, there is little information on the new Passat anywhere on VW.com. If you click on Passat, under the Models menu on the home page, you get information on the current model. The lack of details on the new Passat is a huge missed opportunity for VW to keep potential customers engaged and feed their curiosity about the new model.
Motorola does a better job following up on its “Empower the People” spot for the Xoom tablet. After viewers find their way to the Motorola Mobility consumer site, the Xoom is featured on the home page. The Xoom product page leads with a replay of the TV ad, but it’s easy to skip the ad and get to an overview of the Xoom.
After the daring TV ad however, the product page is a let down. The Xoom ad, like it’s 1984 inspiration, promises change, but visitors get a typical, staid list of specs and features. The Xoom page could have related tech specs and features to human needs and situations. Read More
I just finished reading the results of this year’s Customer Experience Index (log in required for full access) published by Forrester Research. Each year, Forrester asks a few thousand U.S. consumers to rate the experiences they have with companies when buying everyday things like clothing, cars, cell phone service and health insurance. Forrester tallies the scores, ranking 154 brands and 13 industries on a scale from “excellent” to “very poor” based on the customer experiences they deliver. The results are eye opening. Just one-third of companies scored high enough to be considered “good” or better. The rest earned scores of “okay,” “poor,” and “very poor.” According to the report, consumers are generally not satisfied with the experiences they have with companies they patronize.
Looking over the list, the question “why” kept coming to mind. Why, with all the focus on the value of customer experience, with all the attention the business press heaps on this experience-based economy, do two-thirds of companies persist in turning in such poor performances? Forrester’s own research “shows that improving customer experience can have an enormous positive impact on a firm’s bottom line.” Didn’t these folks get the memo?
While money-saving promotions are effective for increasing fans or followers on social networking sites, many companies don’t go beyond this. They offer promotions to increase their number of fans, see their numbers growing, and throw a massive party. Unfortunately, by the time their hangover wears off, they realize their ‘fans’ aren’t really fans at all, but rather coupon zombies with a singular goal: to save money on stuff they would buy anyway.
So how do you build a social networking presence which goes beyond coupons? Curious asked members of its research community, ShopTalk, why they were fans of companies and we found they liked companies that acted as ‘brand butlers’. A brand butler is a Trendwatching term for companies that assist consumers in making the most out of their lives, rather than try to sell them a lifestyle. When it comes to social networking sites, it’s all about providing value to your fans/followers through content that is unique, relevant, and useful. To become an effective brand butler on social networking websites, consider the following traits: Personality, Share-ability, Brevity, Channel Integration, Responsiveness.
