Fusing Strategies: Brand & CX
When launching a new company or strengthening an existing one, the first thing marketers are typically tasked with is defining the brand. Brand equity, brand loyalty, and brand affinity all start (literally and figuratively) with the brand. A clear brand identity framework should have purpose, value proposition, and mission as essential elements for both consistency and differentiation in the marketplace.
Simply put, your brand is a promise on what you will provide to your customers.
Brand creative elements, such as the visual design and messaging, are the clearest way to convey a company's message and values. However, having a solid brand creative strategy to deliver that message is not enough. A strong customer experience - including the content and capabilities of a website or app, customer service, and overall interactions with your brand - is what will pay off on that promise.
When it comes to your brand, creative writes the check that a strong CX will cash.
Industries are crowded with competition, and as a result customers are expecting more from the brands that they’re interacting with. Leading with a strong brand message to break through the noise is incredibly important, but that message needs to be validated by an experience that at the very least leaves the customers with a good feeling about the (value) exchange and at best creates a clear sense of differentiation.
Consumers can be unforgiving when it comes to where they spend their dollars (i.e. you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression) so it’s imperative to think of both brand and CX as a part of a cohesive strategy from the start.
By creating a unified strategy across brand creative and customer experiences, you can successfully build trust and loyalty with your customers by not only promising value, but actually demonstrating it at every touchpoint along their journey.
Creating a cohesive brand and CX strategy
Establish a clear brand identity. This is the framework that should define all parts of your creative and experience strategies. Why do you exist as a company? Who are you talking to? Why would they choose to interact with your brand? How do you talk to your customers and what are the main messages you use to convey all this?
Understand your customers’ journey. Once you know who your customers are, think about all the stages they go through prior to a transaction with you. What are the potential triggers that set someone off towards a purchase? What are the motivations and hesitations they experience along their journey? What is their level of excitement, anxiety, and other needs at each stage?
Leverage brand creative to drive awareness. Before your customers can consider your brand, they first need to know who you are. This is the first place brand creative comes in and it should always be reflective of your brand identity. Create a splash and be top of mind when they experience a trigger (e.g. new job, new life stage, new vacation, new hunger craving).
Identify impactful points along the journey. Flag the moments that matter as your customers move from research & inspiration, to decision, to purchase. These can be places where they are particularly open to influence or areas of heightened excitement or anxiety. Connecting with them along the way requires a deep understanding of your audience and they types of communication they are most likely to engage in at the different touch points (e.g. email, text, search, social, influencers, etc.)
Create “wow” moments thorough digital CX. Consider the products, solutions, and features you can build that will provide value to your customers in a way that makes them say “wow”.
Like the brand creative, these solutions need to be rooted in your brand identity. They also need to be practical and founded in your current business and customer needs. A “wow” moment can be a cool new AI experience, but also as straight-forward as executing a 360 customer CRM strategy so that when someone walks into your store, you have all their digital information at your fingertips.
Reinforce loyalty post-purchase. Think of your relationship with your customer beyond just the initial transaction. How can you continue to reach them with brand creative and provide valuable digital experiences so that they are more likely to be a repeat customer the next time they experience a trigger.?
When planned and executed in a thoughtful way, brand creative and digital CX have the ability to not only promise value to customers, but also deliver on that promise. By first establishing a brand identity, then designing creative and digital experience strategies that ladder up to that framework and complement each other, you will continuously reinforce loyalty, advocacy, and ultimately connection along the way.
Ready to get started? Reach out and let us know what questions you have about fusing your brand creative and CX strategies!