But I have learned a few things essential to brand experience that apply heavily to start-ups and growing businesses. We could dive deep into the question “What is a brand?”, however for sake of this article let’s just ackowledge a few points to answer this question.
All art and design is an experience. When you see a Red Bull commercial, how do you feel? What do you want to do next? It’s more than just a robotic “I want to drink Red Bull”, instead you have this rush of excitement in wanting to do something epic, something exhilarating, something out of your daily routine.
This isn’t an accident.
There is a reason Red Bull spent 100’s of thousands of dollars to put Felix Baumgartner in the national spotlight with his World Record setting skydive jump from space (24 miles up). What is a convenience store energy drink putting a man in space for?
The Experience.
Red Bull has thoroughly thought through the experience they want their viewers or audience to have, and they nailed it through all the different touch points we have with the Red Bull brand.
Don’t come up with this on the fly. Even if you have been “in the business” for years now, don’t assume you are up to date with your audience. Industries change and your audiences preferences change. The smart move would be to do some good ‘ol fashion market research.
If you can do this in-house, great. If you need to hire a marketing agency for this data, then do it!
The absolute last thing you want to do is just follow your competitors lead, and do as they do. Don’t make yourself look like accumulation or conglomeration of all your competitors. How do you know they did it right?! How do you know if anyone in the industry has done it right? You could assume that someone has done their research, but in the end it is still an assumption.
Don’t just follow conventions.
“Everyone in my industry has an e-book for download on their landing pages, so I need an e-book.”
“Everyone in my industry is using big orange buttons, so I guess big orange buttons convert the best.”
“Let’s put a slash through the original price on our products page, and then make the discounted price BIG so that our audience can see how much money they are saving”
Unless you have data to back up these decisions you are making, then you are just shooting in the dark out of your own personal preference. Make Data Driven Decisions!
As your marketing and advertising efforts roll forward, are all the different touch points giving the viewer the desired experience? From the look, smell, weight, texture, sound (etc.)… do they help get the desired experience across?
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