A positive customer experience is more important than brand story
Agencies need to focus more on improving the customer experience rather than emotional storytelling at scale, says Andrew Hardeman, because - despite what we may think - most consumers don't care about having an emotional connection to brands.
Kevin Costner said in his 1989 film Field Of Dreams, “Build it and they will come”. Great in theory; difficult in practice, right?
In 21st Century markets, there is now increased competition, less tangible differentiators amongst category players, and more control in the hands of consumers.
To extend the analogy, just ‘building it’ isn’t cutting it anymore. A lack of rational differentiation in products has meant companies have had to rely heavily on creating emotionally distinctive brands as a way of defining a unique market position.
Cue the current buzz around ‘emotional storytelling’ – the process of building a positive emotional connection between brands and consumers over time with an evolving message.
It makes sense; there is empirical evidence that supports the importance of emotions in influencing the consumer-purchase journey. But is an emotional connection with brands what consumers really want? Not really.
In a market becoming increasingly skeptical of brand motives, consumers are seeking out and connecting with brands that are ‘useful’, that provide real value, prove their worth and deliver a better customer experience across their entire purchase journey.
It’s actually a representation of the broader societal trend of people actively looking for ways to become more efficient and effective in everyday life.
While emotion may be seen as a point of differentiation now, a superior customer experience is competitive advantage for the future. And, it pays.
A recent study conducted by Avanade (the leading digital innovator on the Microsoft platform) found every dollar invested in improving customer experience generated three dollars in return. In addition, they expected to see an 11% increase in revenue over the next 12 months.
In what is now commonly described as ‘the age of the customer’, it is even more important for brands to understand that actions speak louder than words.
Why? In the minds of consumers, the customer experience is the brand. Now, for a few examples to highlight the point.
Airbnb and Uber have succeeded by satisfying an existing need with a better service.
Domino’s increased profitability in a society focused on health and declining traditional fast food consumption by developing innovative ways to provide customers with a better pizza experience.
ANZ claim its introduction of Apple Pay – a tangible point of value for its customers over other banks – is “prompting more customers to open accounts or start using credit cards that had been lying dormant”.
To give a broader societal example, Tinder has been successful because it has made the complex emotional rollercoaster of dating an easier, functional transaction. Whether this is a good or bad thing is your call.
Storytelling (‘the sizzle’) is important, but if it remains focused on emotion alone instead of ‘the steak’, the experience gap between perception and reality will increase and might actually hinder brands.
Moving forward, agencies and clients would benefit from re-defining their focus and considering an ‘experience storytelling’ approach: the process of first developing better, more innovative and tangible customer experiences that form the basis for storytelling at scale.
In essence, have something worth talking about before talking for the sake of being in market.
While the Field of Dreams concept of ‘build it and they will come’ may seem improbable in the current context, the time is now for brands and agencies to consider what they need to develop and communicate to attract consumers to their brand now and into the future.
Andrew Hardeman is a strategy director at Carat Melbourne
A nod to Telstra’s new brand campaign.
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I absolutely agree. Marketers need to understand that customers care more about themselves than they do about your brand.
Your brand story is still important in the mix, but not the most important aspect. Customer experience will always trump it.
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Excellent piece Andrew, and well said. Life’s to short to care about a brand’s story. Too many marketers throw good money after bad, trying to overcome a ho-hum product and underwhelming experience.
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I disagree.
Product quality and brand experiences are subjective. There’s little right or wrong, only different, which is why we rely on the brand to judge our subjective experience.
Saying “just make great products and be customer focused” suggests that’s not what every single business in this country tries to do every day. The only three examples proponents of this trendy view can come up with are still Uber, AirBnB and Tinder. The new outliers now that Apple has fallen out of favour.
The competitive advantage of Tinder’s innovation was sustained for about a day before others started copying it.
The reason for why AirBnB is successful is cultural, not functional: http://bit.ly/29IAmLZ
People want to be cool. These are cool brands. And cool does not come from functional utility. The fact that industry leaders think it does is kind of scary.
One problem is a simplistic understanding of “emotional branding”. Emotions in this context should be understood as social emotions (e.g. guilt, shame and pride), in other words the kind of emotions that help shape identity, status and group belonging/cohesion.
People are social beings and use brands to navigate their social lives. A strong brand helps people tell themselves and others the story of who they are and what they believe. This creates a favourable lens through which we perceive the actual experience: we are more likely to forgive weaknesses and judge it favourably.
Product experience is important, but it should be treated as a way of fulfilling a brand promise, not as an end in itself.
Here’s how we do exactly that: http://bit.ly/2atloIZ
Against Culture. For You.
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You spelled Avanade incorrectly.
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Hi Tex,
Thanks for flagging we missed that, fixed up now.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
UX is Airbnb’s priority. One look at their site and booking process is all you need to see clearly that UX is at the centre of it all.
Airbnb doesn’t really have a product, it’s a service. For people who want to secure their accommodation ASAP, they’ve got the Book Instantly feature. If you weren’t willing to travel too far from a specific destination, they’ve got the embedded map to show you convenient accommodation. If the place you stayed wasn’t up to scratch, every Airbnb user can hear about it on your review. Airbnb will also act as a mediator if it was required.
There are so many other features on it that just screams UX.
Sure there are cool apartments, tree-houses, and other unconventional accommodation that makes Airbnb more unique, however it is not up to Airbnb to track it down and make it available.
From working in the industry, we know to look further than the brand story. Savvy customers do too.
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