The Experience Effect

Engage Your Customers with a Consistent and Memorable Brand Experience

Jim Joseph

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780814415559
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Advertising
• Index: Business

The overall experience of the buying process ultimately determines whether consumers will pay money for a product or service: they weigh what they are purchasing with their responses to the marketing message, the advertising, the sales approach, the website, the interaction with company personnel, and more. Jim Joseph calls the ideal combination these elements the "experience effect." In this book, he shows how any business can create one for its brand to ensure customers leave satisfied. The Experience Effect does this by teaching readers how to understand their brand's target audience, conduct more effective market research, connect with customers on an emotional level, establish appropriate and engaging customer touchpoints, link digital and nondigital media, and perform a gap analysis of their brands' marketing. Filled with practical advice and real-life examples, this insightful guide helps companies of any type and size coalesce the varied elements of their business into a seamless consumer experience that resonates deeply, builds brand loyalty, and keeps customers coming back.

CHAPTER 1

Buzzwords Need Not Apply
Defining the Experience Effect

LET’S START OUT BY defining the experience effect. How consumers feel about brands is completely shaped by the interactons they have with them. As we define the meaning, think of your own experiences with brands you have incorporated into your life. That will help us to create a meaningful, practical definition to guide the process.

If we consciously analyze our own experiences with brands in our lives, we’ll witness the experience effect in real time, both positively and negatively. I’m sure if you stop and think about it, you could easily pick a few of your favorite or not-so-favorite brands that you interact with on a regular basis and break down your feelings about them. Maybe it’s a luxurious skin cream or the car you love driving. Or the brand that you keep saying you’ll never buy again yet somehow find back in your life again and again, much like my own experience with Starbucks, which I discussed in the Prologue.

I have to admit that I hate business definitions because they are always so theoretical. Like the classic one that comes up in job interviews all the time: Define leadership and explain how it is different from management. Only a professor could possibly answer that off the cuff! Show me a good leader who also has great management qualities and there’s the definition—live and in person. It’s the same with marketing. You’ve probably read a bunch of definitions for marketing in your time, many of which are filled with buzzwords.

I’ve known several great businesspeople who can’t seem to talk about marketing unless they are using buzzwords. They string them along in sentences that end up all over the place. Something like: “Let us all gain alignment around the deliverables set forth in the action standards that the sponsor presented to the steering committee for the integrated marketing initiative that will require full collaboration from all key constituents.”

No buzzwords here. Just plain English.

When marketing is done well, the product becomes a brand.

For me, the definition of marketing is simple: creating demand for a product or service by fulfilling a specific need for consumers in a way no one else can. When marketing is done well, the product becomes a brand.

Fortunes and careers have been made on developing a decisive strategy, breakthrough creativity, and effective media selection for brands. The direction of the brand, the creative look of the brand, the messaging, and how and where to connect with consumers in their busy lives—these are the areas where marketers need logical advice and a thorough process to accomplish their goals. Marketers need these elements to build an experience effect.

So when I am asked to define the experience effect, here’s what I say:

• The “experience” is the connection the brand makes with consumers. It should be unique and consistent each time.

• The “effect” is the impact those consistent brand experiences have on consumers’ lives. The impact should add value.

The experience effect connects the expressions of the brand together across all the elements of the marketing plan, over periods of time. It can be linear and follow a straight and narrow path where every single interaction is essentially the same, which may indeed make perfect sense for a brand.

This linearity is what McDonald’s certainly strives for from location to location and from item to item. From the start of the brand, the advertising and promotion have aimed for this. Linear means entirely consistent from element to element, exactly what consumers would expect from McDonald’s.

Or maybe not. For McDonald’s the brand experience is not quite as linear as the company thinks. The advertising and the website are similar to each other, but they are completely different from most of the restaurants. I believe that the advertising sets up a certain expectation about the restaurants that they just do not deliver. The website too depicts an experience that is very different from that of the restaurants, at least the ones that I’ve been in lately. The advertising and the website portray a clean, friendly, wholesome place where happy children dip apples into a healthy sauce while Mom sits across an immaculate table munching on a garden-fresh salad in a clean environment where people are genuinely interacting with each other. Not to get cynical here, but that has not been my experience in the “real” restaurants, which are often dirty, unfriendly, and anything but wholesome. While the food is certainly consistent from location to location, it doesn’t stack up to the beautiful and healthy imagery shown on the website and in the advertising.

Now McDonald’s has done an amazing job revamping the menu to appeal to both kids and their parents (particularly with new salad options, McCafe premium coffees, and healthier options in the Happy Meals), but I would maintain that the brand experience in the restaurants is not consistent with that in other parts of the marketing mix, so much so that it’s hard to imagine that it’s the same brand. The food and the service portrayed in the advertising and on the website look like one brand of McDonald’s, while my less-than-ideal experiences in the restaurants look like another brand of McDonald’s. But there should be only one consistent brand experience.

Check out the synergy between the McDonald’s restaurants and their website versus that of Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants and their website.

Just to illustrate the point, check out the synergy between the McDonald’s restaurants and their website versus that of Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants and their website. Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants are clean and simple, with clearly stated menus that guide consumers through the food selection process. The website has the same feel, but is loaded with information. In addition to compelling content such as videos, desktop reminders, screen savers, and ingredient information, the Chipotle Mexican Grill website also has a data-capture mechanism to build relationships with consumers who frequent the restaurant. The brand captures this data either directly from the website or from click-throughs from search engines. This is excellent marketing and a great vehicle to extend the brand experience, completely consistent with the healthy food choices and clean environments of the restaurants.

By registering on the Chipotle Mexican Grill site, loyal consumers can save time by preordering and prepaying for food to either pick up or eat in the restaurants. They can also save their menu favorites to make ordering even easier next time, either through the website or through an iPhone app. The food menus and photography are exactly as they appear in the restaurants, so there is clearly a consistent experience from website to restaurant, much more so than with McDonald’s. Of course the content is all provided with a unique Chipotle Mexican Grill brand tone and character, making for entertaining navigation while exploring the brand. You can even watch a video of avocados ripening, which is consistent with the delicious guacamole in the restaurants and with the brand personality.

While some brand experiences like McDonald’s attempt to be linear across marketing elements, others are more fluid, with deliberate twists and turns. These brands offer more of a spectrum of experiences with their marketing mix. Some interactions create an experience that is deeper or more robust, while other interactions are planned to be relatively superficial and quick for the consumer. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as it’s intentional and coming from the same brand. It’s actually smart marketing. For Chipotle Mexican Grill, the iPhone app is meant to be quick and easy, while the website is meant to be filled with a variety of rich and extended experiences. Yet they are both within the same brand character.

A simple example of the fluid type would be a brand that uses television advertising merely to create brand awareness and to drive traffic to a website where consumers can then find more detailed product information. The interactions have two totally different goals and create two different experiences, yet they are both from the same brand. Healthcare marketers use this type of approach as standard practice because the information they distribute is far too complicated for a television advertising campaign to deliver. It’s technically impossible and fiscally inefficient to fit all the proper information within the constraints of the television advertising format. So healthcare marketers often use television advertising to create awareness and to redirect consumers to a website, where the brand then completes the experience with detailed information.

Mapping consistent yet tailored brand experiences is in fact creating the experience effect, whether it’s online, offline, or at retail—all points within the marketing mix. It’s consciously mapped out to work together, building deliberate interactions along the way, like a puzzle that wonderfully fits together from the obvious marketing elements like the advertising or the website to the less obvious elements like the company receptionist or a Facebook page.

I’ve worked on a number of brands across a broad range of consumer categories from prescription and over-the-counter drugs, to food, hospitality, automotive, financial services, beauty, and retail (both online and offline). I’ve also worked across virtually every consumer segment from babies and young kids to teens, seniors, moms, and dads; from rural to urban to domestic, international, male, female, straight, and gay. And I’ve also seen—in focus groups, quantitative research, and in the marketplace—the differences between generations, genders, and regions of the country. The many nuances within categories and among consumer targets are what make marketing so challenging, frustrating, fascinating, and rewarding, all at the same time.

On my brand assignments through the years, we would always follow a very rigorous process to consciously decide how we wanted to build a brand experience for consumers in every marketing venue, whether it was a promotion for Kellogg’s cereal that would appear both in store and on the package, a website for AFLAC to augment the television advertising, packaging for a Reach toothbrush, or a print campaign on the many uses of Arm & Hammer baking soda. We might use television advertising to create brand equity, to communicate a core set of benefits, or to drive traffic to a website (a strategy certainly not exclusive to healthcare). The website might deliver deeper educational information, entertain, or connect consumers together through chat rooms, blogs, or message boards. The retail environment could be used to ease the purchase decision or to close the sale. And the packaging could be used to continue the experience at home. Follow-up customer service either live or online may further help to avoid any buyer’s regret, when it makes sense for the brand. When appropriate, we would use online social media to get even more imbedded in consumers’ lives, on their terms and with each other.

Each time and with each marketing vehicle, we consciously build a positive experience with the same brand equity and same brand voice at every occasion, yet tailored to fit that vehicle. There we go, a perfect definition of the experience effect. And I didn’t even have to quote a dictionary!

It’s time for a real-world example to bring our definition home.

Disney. I hesitate to use Disney only because the brand is so often showcased when talking about marketing. The truth is, though, when talking about the experience effect it is hard to find a better example. I might even go so far as to say that the Disney experience is the perfect example. Disney is a mixture of youthfulness, magic, entertainment, escapism, and fantasy, all uniquely Disney. The Disney brand is far-reaching, extending from the theme parks (obviously) to movies, television shows, merchandise, live entertainment, music, hospitality, the Internet, and travel. The source of all these is one magical place, Mickey Mouse and the Magic Kingdom, but they reach way beyond a single entity to literally dominate a child’s world, right from birth and, as they say, for children of all ages.

As a marketer, part of the magic is in the incredible consistency. No matter which Disney venue, the consumer lives the true Disney experience. Cruise ships, at-home DVDs, music CDs, websites, hotels, restaurants, retail stores; it is different each time, but all of it is always Disney.

This is what great marketing is all about—turning a standard product that could be available anywhere into an incredible and ownable brand experience.

Start at the website and witness how the Disney experience unfolds as it flows to retail or to a children’s movie or to the vacation planner. The magic is also in how consumers interact with the products. Disney products are so much more than just the products alone; they are the Disney brand experience. As I said, this is what great marketing is all about—turning a standard product that could be available anywhere into an incredible and ownable brand experience. A Disney T-shirt is so much more than just a piece of clothing to a little girl. It’s a magical way for that little girl to transform herself into a princess for a day. No other T-shirt in the world can have quite that same result because of the Disney experience effect. It is truly an ownable brand experience.

A Disney hotel is not just a place to sleep at night while on vacation with the kids; it is the magic of being on a fantastical vacation and spending the kind of quality family time that never seems to happen the rest of the year.

The Disney Store is so much more than just a retail outlet where consumers can buy play clothes, toys, and costumes for the kids. It’s a fantastical escape to a magical land, conveniently located at the local mall, or magically situated on New York’s Fifth Avenue or Chicago’s Miracle Mile. It’s an easy field trip that keeps the kids occupied while the parents get some shopping done.

Every Disney venue is also just a little bit different. It’s not the exact same experience every single time. It transforms from element to element and has evolved over the years, yet it is still uniquely Disney. As consumers age and grow, the Disney experience evolves at the various venues for various ages, from princess videos to children’s television programming to entertainment for preteens, teens, and even for parents. The Disney Channel is not just for toddlers. Many of the television shows and movies shown at night appeal to teenagers, and there’s also a part of Disney World called Pleasure Island where adults can go and party. Completely different experiences are available for consumers as they age and as their entertainment needs change, but they are all uniquely Disney. And all of it is available on demand and even on Twitter.

Every single employee, particularly at the theme parks, is trained to embody the Disney experience and to deliver it to customers consistently every single day, no matter the Disney venue. I have not even mentioned the number of Disney marketing partnerships across a range of categories—Disney characters on cereal boxes, cookies, crackers, and other food products. These partnerships offer a magical extension of the Disney experience to other family brands as well. I created a few Disney promotional partnerships when doing work for Kellogg’s cereals, and we were thrilled to leverage the Disney experience effect. Free toys from the movie Cars in specially marked packages, for example, complete with large in-store displays were specifically designed to sell Kellogg’s cereals this way.

The Disney experience is quite inspirational but can also be very hard to live up to. Employees who don’t deliver on it don’t stay in customer service very long, and they probably don’t stay at the company either.

Now consider another example that might be closer to the challenges facing a more “ordinary” brand. As an example, let’s look at the experience effect of a small brand in a highly competitive market: skin cream. Any given brand of skin cream is so much more than just the product alone. It could be said that it is hope in a bottle, the hope of looking younger, fres...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword: Thoughts from Two Icons
• Foreword: “Just Stick It Between Your Legs”
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Marketing Is a Spectator Sport: Observing, Learning, and Then Applying
• Prologue: The Experience Effect In Action: Two Personal Examples
• 1. Buzzwords Need Not Apply: Defining the Experience Effect
• 2. Best Pasta In Town: Positioning the Experience Effect
• 3. Brand Soundtrack: Making the Right Decisions for the Brand
• 4. Not By Numbers Alone: Understanding the Brand’s Target Audience
• 5. Kiss a Few Babies: Constructing a Consumer Profile
• 6. Get Emotional: Connecting With Customers On Multiple Levels
• 7. Reach Out and Touch: Mapping Effective and Engaging Touchpoints
• 8. Squishees from Kwik-E-Mart: Activating Touchpoints
• 9. Avoiding the Cookie Cutter: Creating Unique Touchpoints
• 10. Meet Martha, Louis, and Some Elves: Finding Inspiration
• 11. Madonna and Tide: Learning from Celebrities
• 12. Everyone Else Bring Data: Researching the Experience Effect
• 13. A Flash of Color: Owning the Experience Effect
• 14. Mind the Gap: Assessing What’s Missing On the Brand
• 15. A Room With a View: Keeping the Team On Track
• Afterword: Click-Through: Making It Real
• Index
• About the Author