The Experience is the Brand

A couple weeks ago, my flat mate, Roger, made a wrong turn and went to use the map on his Blackberry (having just switched from an iPhone - I should note not by choice), and it was anything but an intuitive experience. This led to an immediate trip to the Apple store, where he bought the new iPhone outright, and will never look back at Blackberry (BB) again.

This got us talking about where BB went wrong, and why the once market leader in smartphones seems to be stumbling all over the place.

I believe BB lost sight of its core competency - mobile business solutions. Rather than focusing on its bright spots (i.e. what it excels at), it became distracted by the seductive personal smartphone market that every smartphone manufacturer was after, forcing BB to think defensively. This caused BB to lose sight of who it is and what makes it unique, forcing BB to be reactive rather than a thought leader. Thinking defensively will always keep you at the very best #2 - you need to think individually to be #1.

BB would have been better off focusing on innovating business consumer-centric experiences that better enabled on-the-go communications.  In fact, within 2 blocks of chatting, Roger and I were able to come up with a long list of helpful solutions BB could have developed had it remained focused, such as enabling the use of its devices in-flight; or forming strategic partnerships with Microsoft for collaborative working/editing while on-the-go, etc.

Another brand that seems to be losing its focus is Tim Hortons, a popular Canadian bred coffee and donut shop. I recently read that it's launching more Starbucks style coffees, like lattes and cappuccinos, to the menu. Let me be clear, Timmy's is a place you go to get a donut and a cup of Joe, or as many lovingly call it a Double Double (two sugars; two creams) not a venti Americano.  To top it off, it's focusing less on donuts and introducing new foods like lasanga - sorry but a WTF is needed here. I was less than impressed when they started to bake their donuts off-site, something they used to do fresh in-store, but now this!?

This is a classic case of losing focus of the brand's essence and taking a competitive approach. Clearly, Timmy's core customer is being taken for granted, much like the BB business user, where they think, 'Ok, so we have that segment, lets go and find someone else' causing them to forget their core business and no longer develop experiences to leverage that area fully.

Lest we forget this happened to Apple in the 80s when Jobs left. Jobs started Apple with user-centered design at the heart, and when he left it switched to a competitive/defensive strategy. The company almost went under until Jobs returned in the 90s with a focused product line, which centred on its core purpose of making technology approachable, and it ensured every element of the experience communicated the brand in a way that resonated with the end user, from the products, to the stores, to the un-boxing experience. Doing this led to a 1000% increase in market value for the organisation, while practically forming a religious following of customers.

Focusing on great customer experiences pays off.

I mean, just look at one of my favourite brands, Lululemon who do this fabulously (as an aside I think it's awesome that all the brands I'm writing about today, minus Apple, are Canadian! How patriotic of me - LOL).

Lululemon has built its brand on a life philosophy, that by investing in your health, you are bettering yourself and society, elevating the world from mediocrity to greatness. What a wonderful and motivating philosophy to build a brand from.

All of its products are designed with the wearer in mind. I always love the surprise of having a new piece and thinking oh I wish it did this, then BOOM, they've already done it! They think of everything one needs to enjoy fitness, be comfortable and look great doing it.  

Additionally, the feng shui friendly stores are always buzzing with staff fully engaged in conversations with customers, or as they call them, Guests, about the latest wrap or a type of fabric. This is just chatting, this is community building! Engaging consumers with the brand's philosophy motivating them to associate and live the brand, so that when they buy something, they feels as though they are bettering themselves.

Lulu continues to enable this life philosophy with additional experiences like hosting free yoga sessions for staff and Guests in its stores after-hours. It was also one of the first retailers to offer reusable shopping bags covered in inspirational quotes on personal enrichment and health, so its Guests can take home the Lululemon philosophy.

Having a strong commitment to its life philosophy and delivering it through relevant consumer experiences (products and services), has allowed them to see a 250% gain year over year -- I think that says enough!

So, it is clear, yet often difficult to see when in the daily grind, that for a brand to be successful in the long term, it needs to create experiences that are relevant to the brand's purpose/philosophy and are designed with the consumer at its heart.

Remarkable Stories = Social Currency

I've been wanting to write this post for some time now, but oddly haven't got around to putting it down.

I want to talk about stories again. I did so a year-plus ago, but it's a topic that seems to be continually popping up.

Everyone has a story to share and/or are working towards creating them. I find it slightly amusing when I'm walking around London seeing people pose for the perfect picture, which immediately makes me think - profile pic!

People are continually striving for social currency.

Social currency is a concept that comes from the social capital theory, which is about increasing one's sense of community, access to information/knowledge to help shape his/her personal brand/identity and providing status and recognition.

Clearly this is not a new concept, but with the use of social media and instant communications through mobile technology, which can share a status, image or even location, increasing the importance of defining one's personal brand. Not only that, it's resulting in an increased understanding of creating a personal brand, which is a whole other interesting blog post!

Today, the majority of millennials spend less than one hour a day offline! Yes that's right - offline. We are a hugely connected generation. There are even stats proving that Facebook is the first thing people look at when they get up and the last thing they see before they go to bed. What's equally crazy, is that there are mobile apps that monitor your sleeping patterns! This means that people are now sleeping with their mobile phones - talk about a meaningful relationship!

So, where do corporate brands come in? Well, it's important to note that brand association is so important to people, especially millennials, that it's equally ranked in importance for expression of personal identity as religion and ethnicity!

This tells us that people care a lot about the brands they associate themselves with because it will greatly impact the personal brand he/she is trying to shape for themselves.  So, brands need to be able to connect with their audience on not just an emotional level, but a level that provides them with the tools to express or shape their personal brand. Making it important to feature a brands benefits in terms of the end state it creates, answering the inevitable question, "how is this going to help feature and define who I am [aka who I want to be perceived as]".

To adequately give the answer to this question, brands need to have a compelling story to tell. This enables the brand to create an experience around itself, which will captivate the audience and provide them with a increasingly meaningful end state of heightened social capital!

The root of these brand stories come from the organisation's purpose - its reason for existence; that big hairy audacious goal/idea/dream it has set out to accomplish. This provides the content to fuel the story and the way it's shared.

I believe there are 4 key ways to share your brand's story and give your hyper connected audience the social currency it wants:

1 - Movements:

This is where the brand takes an stand on something, and has the audience rally around its purpose to spread the gospel. People are usually proud to be a part of these movements if they align with their personal values and will give them the creds they're looking for, and make them feel a part of something bigger than just making another purchase.

TOMS Shoes, fits perfectly here. Its business model is designed to give back and wearing a pair of TOMS is more than wearing a pair of shoes, it says something about the kind of person you're striving to be - one that cares about the global community. We can even look to brands that are less philanthropic like Puma who has started a movement supporting After Hours Athletes, bringing people together online and offline in support of 'sports' like billiards.

2 - Legacy/Product Stories:

A classic, but I find people are craving meaningful companies with local flare or interesting background stories.  In fact, the last time I was in NYC, there wasn't a place I went to that didn't have a unique story behind it, from which, I had to tell everyone about, and, to that end, I wouldn't have even gone had there been no story fuelling our interest in checking out the spot.

This works really well for restaurants, cafes, etc. One place I was recommended was Levain Bakery - it's famous for its $4 cookies - yes $4 for one cookie! Each weighs like a brick, and is totally decadent, but if it was so outrageous it wouldn't be as remarkable, and instead it would just be another place that sold cookies, rather than a notable place that sells cookies.  In-n-Out Burger is another brand with a great story and discipline to live up to that story everyday.

Both of these places give people something interesting to talk about and share.

3 - Special Experiences:

Building off the desire to give people something interesting to talk about, why not give them something that also helps them seem a bit more interesting by involving them in a unique experience. This can range from involvement with the product or the brand experience on a whole.

For instance, there's this company, Wool and the Gang. It's a company that sells trendy knitting packages. In essence, this company is involving people in the creation of their products in a unique way that provides bragging rights because firstly, you made it and, second, you now have a new skill because of it!

Other experiences, can include creating a unique retail experience like Net-A-Porter did during Fashion's Night Out, where they took their online business offline and created a store window where people could actually buy items using their mobile app.

It's all about creating something that's remarkable -- something you will want to tell to others about because in doing so you will appear interesting, having taken part in these activities.

4 - Consumption Rituals

As we're seeing, the stories brands give their audiences don't have to only be about them, but rather are stories for consumers to share about themselves that happen to involve the brand.  I think consumption rituals, a special way you can/should consume a product, is another way to help consumers earn social currency with brand enabled stories. 

Take for instance the game of getting 'Iced'. This is where if a mate hands you a Smirnoff Ice you have to down it right there, but if you already have one, then your mate has to down both. Sure Smirnoff may never admit to creating this game, and I'm sure they didn't, because it probably came from one of their agencies. But this game has spread like wild fire, and the stories on how people are getting 'Iced' are hilarious, proving that creating a bizarre and entertaining way to consume a product can create buzz and give people stories to share

What we can take from these 4  activities is that they take the brand's purpose and turn it into remarkable experience, which involves the consumer, or story that they can't help but share with their mates! So how are you going to make your brand enable people to earn social currency and stand out?

Note: Above image from The Brand Gap