The 4 Components of Brand Experience
How to Design an Unforgettable Experience & Create Loyal, Enthusiastic Customers
A brand experience is a journey - one that you craft with every touchpoint your customers have with your brand.
It goes beyond simply thinking about your product or service to being intentional with every interaction that customers experience, from initial awareness to post-purchase engagement. Brand experiences can include interactions with a website, social media presence, physical stores (if applicable), customer service, packaging, advertising, and more.
Understanding Brand Experience
What is brand experience?
Your brand experience is the sum of every interaction and touchpoint your customer has with your brand. Think about all the small details that can elevate their experience from average to excellent.
It can be from your most forward-facing platforms like your website and social media, to smaller details like the tissue paper you use in your packaging.
When someone has mastered their brand experience you notice these small details. I’m willing to bet before the end of the next sentence you can name the company I’m thinking of.
Imagine you’re walking into a loud, dimly lit retail store, larger-than-life black and white photos span the walls, tees are neatly folded on dark wood tables, and a very specific perfume greets you as you walk in the door. Abercrombie and Fitch in their heyday anyone? If you shopped there in the early-mid 2000s, you can close your eyes and practically transport yourself to the t-shirt rack, picking out your must-haves and heading to the dressing room.
Abercrombie did a great job of paying attention to all four key components:
Creating an Emotional Connection
Being Consistent
Being Memorable
Staying Relevant (more on this below)
Key Components of Brand Experience
01. Emotional Connection
This is something you are doing whether you’re paying attention to it or not! It is human nature to form subconscious opinions about everything. Even things you feel fully indifferent to, you will have a subconscious opinion about. Based on a logo alone, you are likely thinking about whether or not you’re drawn to that logo, what kind of company it is (modern or traditional, fun or serious)
Your brand experience is what you project - which means you have a HUGE influence over the way your audience perceives you.
You can determine the emotions and feelings you hope to instill in customers. If you execute your experience well, you tap into their perception of your brand and successfully reach your target customers!
Positive experiences can foster a sense of trust, loyalty, and affinity, while negative experiences can lead to dissatisfaction and alienation.
02. Consistency
Consistency is crucial in brand experiences to reinforce brand identity. Remember the brand experience is the sum of the experience for ALL touchpoints of your brand.
One of my favorite quotes is:
“Repetition makes reputation. And reputation makes customers.”
Trust me when I say, your customers aren’t tired or seeing the same thing from you. If you have strong, effective branding in place - you don’t need to “mix it up.” I can’t tell you how many times I have worked with clients, and after meticulously choosing their fonts and colors, I see them implementing it so well and SO consistently…for about 5 months.
Then.
One post will sneak in. A little bit of “variety.” Annnnnnd womp womp. It’s all downhill from there. Repetition is what helps you achieve recognition!
Pay attention to the tone of your messaging, your visuals, and customer interactions. When customers know what to expect from you, they trust you, and they keep coming back to you!
For instance - an American in a Parisian Starbucks isn’t there because it’s the best cup of coffee they could find - they are there because it’s familiar, and they know exactly what to expect. Consistency creates a seamless experience and keeps people coming back!
03. Memorability
Memorable brand experiences leave a lasting impression on customers, making the brand stand out in their minds. There are a lot of ways to make your brand memorable. It could be through exceptional service, innovative design, or personalized interactions.
The way you choose to be memorable should relate to your brand experience. For instance, I recently heard about a restaurant in Italy that offers a free bottle of wine for patrons willing to turn their phone into the restaurant for the duration of their dinner. This is a really memorable detail - and something that you would certainly tell others about. You can reasonably assume that they are aiming for a subtle, old-fashioned, quaint, and intentional with brand experience. If they were only going for memorable, they could also choose to have the waiter use a megaphone every time they want diners to put their phones away - and while it would be memorable that would be loud, aggressive, obnoxious, and at odds with the brand experience.
Memorable experiences contribute to stronger brand recall, differentiation, and enthusiastic customers who will share your story for you!
04. Relevance
Brand experiences should be relevant and meaningful to the target audience, addressing their needs, preferences, and aspirations. Establishing this from the get-go will give you a really stong foundation with your customers. But one of the ideas of relevancy is that your audience’s needs and preferences may change.
Remember our Abercrombie example?
They were in hot water for a minute, for plenty of good reasons.
But they’re still around today, primarily because they listened to what was important to society and to their customers and (after some time) they reacted appropriately and rebranded effectively.
The clothes are better quality, the hiring practices are more equitable, and the brand messaging is relevant to today’s customers. These are all things that were explicitly important to their customer base and they took measures to fix it!
The tricky element is that you want to be able to strike the balance of:
Being confident enough in your brand to know where you stay consistent and steadfast
Know where to stay nimble and evolve with your audience
Brands that understand their customers and tailor their experiences accordingly are more likely to resonate and connect with them on a deeper level. Being willing to have an ongoing approach to your brand experience will help you stay relevant and set you up for long-term success.