Brand Experience

The term brand experience describes how and why customers notice a brand and keep it in their memory.

Controllable points of contact with a brand

For a specific group to perceive and internalize a brand, it is necessary for the target group to get in contact with it. Here, very many points of contact come into consideration. The following are a few examples:

• In the supermarket, the customer sees a packaging that depicts very specific, brand-typical components (e.g., a company logo).
• In the daily newspaper, there is a report about the training in a respective company or a sponsorship program of the local football youth (public relations).
• A beer advertisement placed on an advertising column at a crossroads.
• Brochures of the local supermarket placed in the daily newspaper.
• A customer drives past a company and notices the company logo that is placed above the main entrance.
• In a corporate blog or a social media channel, a company reports about interesting and current facts and thereby comes into contact with its readers.

The aforementioned points of contact where the consumer perceives and internalizes the brand are all controlled options. A company determines when the advertisement should appear, which teams it would like to sponsor, or how its employees should appear in public.

Uncontrollable points of contact with a brand

Even so, points of contact that a company cannot control still exist. A positive example in this case is an enthusiastic customer raving about a product or the company’s services to his friends and relatives (word of mouth). The company inactively benefits in terms of awareness and image. Such uncontrollable points of contact are however problematic when a customer is dissatisfied and wants to express his/her irritation. It does not matter whether he/she tells friends of the negative aspects, posts them on an online forum, a review site, or the wall of the company’s Facebook fan page, other people will certainly take note of the negative message. This gives them a negative brand experience in a situation where the company cannot intervene directly.

Every brand must at least try to control this type of brand experience, albeit indirectly. There are different approaches that can be used to do this. However, the most important thing is to maintain the business relationship with the customer and react promptly and fairly in case problems arise.

Ensuring a positive brand experience

In order to create a positive brand experience, it is important to ensure that as many contacts with the company as possible remain positive. A contact should be appealing, surprising, compelling, positive, and/or mutually beneficial. The following points can aid the corporate strategy in achieving this goal:

• be unique (differentiate your brand from competitors)
• fulfill promises made
• reaffirm advertisement messages through every point of contact (e.g., with the help of an meaningful slogan)
• be easy to access through multiple channels (e.g., by phone, fax, email, and different social media channels)
• offer personalized products
• focus on sustainability of the corporate communications (e.g., environmentally friendly production or good working conditions for the employees)

Web links

• How to Build a Brand Experience for Customers