One of the recurring themes of this blog, and the philosophy of Prodigal as a whole, is the importance of brands providing a comprehensive and rewarding experience to their customers.
At the end of the day, it’s up to the consumer to determine whether they want to engage with the material being put in front of them. The modern consumer is smart, they have a myriad of options to spend their time and money with, and they’re not under any sort of obligation to seek content or product exclusively from one brand. Now more than ever, fortunes are spent on the development and cultivation of brand loyalty, often in the way of providing the user with an engaging and rewarding experience with the brand.
In a recent article published by AdAge, this practice is referred to “customer experience”, or CX. It cites a 2014 study in which “89% of companies expect to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience, versus 36% four years ago.” The piece identifies two primary reasons for this shift.
- Large-scale advertising has become substantially more difficult.
- The connectedness of the modern world means that, more than ever, customer opinion is shaped more by the unbiased opinions of peers than traditional advertising.
So what does this mean, really? What makes a “customer experience?”
A customer’s experience can be anything from the tangible interaction they have with a product to the emotions brought on by watching a branded video, and everything in between. It’s the interplay between a brand and an individual, and how that satisfies that person’s needs, whether it’s purchasing a product or consuming media.
As 2017 quickly approaches, these experiences will carry far more weight in the minds of consumers than ever before.
For marketers and brand strategists (i.e. us) this is what makes things tricky. What’s the ideal method of marketing to consumers who desire an engaging experience to coincide with their actual consumption of product? What tactics must be executed to advertise to those who are largely unaffected by traditional advertising?
Rule one, always, is to know your audience. What aspects of your brand do they value most? Are these attributes in line with your primary selling points for your content or products? The answers to these questions can be obtained from quality research. Evaluating users’ motivation for choosing your brand and comparing it to the reasons you perhaps assumed can be a very insightful practice.
The purpose your brand serves and the needs it fulfills for your users should be demonstrated in its communication. Your brand’s current marketing efforts may be focused on the exact benefits your consumers value most, or your efforts may be entirely missing the mark. Only research will tell.
Once this position is established, grab it and make it your own. Get the word out about why the experience you offer is the best at what it does. If customers say they shop at your store because they know they’ll receive excellent customer service from your associates, focus on that. Get them to tell their friends. Incentivize a positive review on Yelp or Facebook with a special offer.
Have a cooking blog? Have your followers share their attempts at your recipes and create a custom hashtag to extend your reach. Encourage sharing and reward those who spread the word about your brand’s content.
At the end of the day, your audience will evaluate the worth of your brand on how well their needs are met. By knowing what they want, and the best way to deliver it to them, you have a definitive leg up on the competition that may be ignoring these practices. Stay informed, give the people what they want, and you’ll find your communication to be much more effective.
