Successful Brands Go Beyond
If you want to build a successful healthy brand, you have to do more than satisfy.
You have to delight, awaken, surprise, amaze, and wow people. Think about it. You don’t eat at your favorite restaurant because their food fills you up and doesn’t make you sick. You eat there because you enjoy the taste of the food, the experience, the atmosphere, etc. It’s better than the alternatives you have to choose from. It brings you happiness. You don’t wear the clothes you wear because they solve the problem of protection from the environment. You wear them because you are happy with how you look, how the clothes feel, the vehicle of expression, and what you can do when you wear them.
The world is incredibly crowded with information and people vying for our attention. With so many choices, we are looking for more than just satisfaction. We are looking for deeper, richer, more meaningful experiences that add to our life, give it greater meaning and purpose and augment our happiness. We want products and services that make life better. Anything else is just clutter in an increasingly cluttered world. And guess what eventually happens to all clutter? It’s cleaned out. People tune it out, push it out of their lives, and consciously avoid it.
Successful brands go above and beyond to delight their customers. Anything you can do to make the brand experience better matters.
Here are six ways to improve your brand experience:
Website
Design for your audience 100% of the time instead of designing to flatter your own ego. Work to make sure your website is easy to use. Make it simple and intuitive. Then make it even better. Usability is a minimum standard. Find ways to infuse the brand personality and make meaningful connections. Look for little ways to delight users. Connect to users on a more personal level.
Check out this delightfully interactive website for PillCam, a medical device you can swallow that helps people with Crohn’s disease. They could have easily gone with the standard, plain website with stock images of people smiling, but they decided to do something more interactive and engaging.
Access to someone’s inbox should be treated as a sacred privilege. Only send emails that will provide your audience value. Force yourself to be especially discerning about what “value” is. Avoid justifying overly promotional, product-pushy content as helpful information. Segment your emails to give people what they want, instead of sending everyone the same thing. Sending out blanket emails is like giving someone a gift card for their birthday. It’s very obvious they don’t know you that well and didn’t put much thought into it. You’re way happier when you get something personalized that shows the other person cares.
Social Media
Don’t waste your time or your audiences’ time with product pushing tweets and updates. Don’t pat yourself on the back with self-congratulatory content. Be there for one reason: your customers. Make them happy. Then find ways to make them happier. Don’t send people on circuitous routes to find the content they’re looking for. Make it simple and easy to access great content. Provide excellent customer service. Act like a human. Be empathetic, understanding, and honest.
Key to the customer’s heart:
- Always be responsive
- Go out of your way to make someone’s day
- Provide content people enjoy reading and sharing instead of talking about yourself
Content
Make content interesting, educational, informative, entertaining, and easy to consume. Avoid using link bait. Tricking people into going to your content isn’t a healthy way to build a lasting relationship. Break text up into small chunks. Use headlines and bullet points to make it easier to read.
Key to the customer’s heart:
- Be entertaining
- Make people laugh
- Make content that gets people excited, warms their hearts, or provides vital information
Customer Service
Make sure every single person in your company knows, understands, and can effectively communicate your company’s value proposition. Learn how Starbucks trains its employees (known as partners), to identify customer problems and amend them. They go way out of their way to ensure customers are happy with their experience. Find ways to emulate these values in your own organization.
Key to the customer’s heart:
- Services (shipping and returns)
- Going out of your way to help people out
- Being honest and supportive
- Admit when you’re wrong and take the necessary steps to improve the situation
- Do the little things
Schering-Plough, the maker of Claritin, pays for pet owners’ calls to the SPCA’s poison control center in regards to their products.
It can be as small as helping someone tie their shoes.
Packaging
Make it easy to understand. Make it easy to open. Use materials that can be recycled so people don’t have to feel bad about consuming your products. Think of little ways to make people smile. Find ways to surprise people and amaze them. Incorporate design elements that are playful and enjoyable to interact with.
Key to the customer’s heart:
- Pay attention to materials – sustainability and environmental impact matter
- Think of packaging as a robust, multidimensional experience
- Find creative ways to incorporate the brand and its personality
What is your brand doing to create memorable, enjoyable brand experiences that make customers happy?
Looking to re-evaluate? ParkerWhite can audit your brand and provide you with key insights and strategic recommendations to create success. Let's talk.
