Is Customer Experience the New Brand?

The onset of dig­i­tal and sub­se­quent trans­for­ma­tion of mar­ket­ing has been on a clear path for quite some time, and the oppor­tu­ni­ty this trans­for­ma­tion presents to mar­keters sim­ply can­not be missed. The mul­ti­ple chan­nels now open to reach­ing con­sumers at any giv­en time—be it on their phone, in their car, on their watch, through their fit­ness track­er, etc.—creates a sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ty for a cross-chan­nel brand expe­ri­ence that con­nects with con­sumers in mean­ing­ful, rel­e­vant ways.

Invit­ing a brand to be on your wrist via a dig­i­tal watch or a fit­ness track­er is a lev­el of inti­ma­cy that com­mands respect; this is some­thing mar­keters’ today have nev­er before had to bat­tle. Just because you _can _put your brand on a wrist, should you? Can you do it effec­tive­ly? Tech­nol­o­gy and the mobile rev­o­lu­tion is mas­sive­ly rais­ing con­sumer pre­sump­tions. They expect be able to engage with brands when­ev­er and wher­ev­er they want—and they expect to be wel­comed with open arms when they do. They want to be known and loved, like an old friend com­ing home.

And so, the instincts and cre­ativ­i­ty that have always exist­ed behind mar­ket­ing now have an even shinier role. As con­sumers become increas­ing­ly more inti­mate with brands thanks to the era of dig­i­tal, suc­cess­ful mar­keters will build a very spe­cif­ic con­nec­tion with them in return. They will be dili­gent in col­lect­ing data and look close­ly at insights gath­ered. They will cre­ate pow­er­ful, meang­ing­ful con­tent that is more per­son­al­ized in every interaction—it sim­ply must be. Marketing’s chal­lenge has always been in prov­ing self-worth. How­ev­er, we’ve nev­er before had the tools to real­ly check and pro­vide evi­dence that what we cre­ate and deliv­er tru­ly works, until now. And so, we must use these tools to cre­ate even more pow­er­ful con­tent, and to con­nect and com­mu­ni­cate with con­sumers on a high­ly per­son­al lev­el. In turn, this will alter their cus­tomer expe­ri­ence and thus, vast­ly improve your brand.

Too much of what con­sumers do, how and where they do it, is now chang­ing and it’s chang­ing quick­ly. Mar­keters are only now com­ing to grips with a mobile rev­o­lu­tion that has been under­way for the bet­ter part of a decade. Mobile dra­mat­i­cal­ly increas­es the veloc­i­ty at which con­sumers inter­act with brands, which means as mar­keters, we have more oppor­tu­ni­ties to delight cus­tomers at every turn; it also means we have more oppor­tu­ni­ties to dis­sat­is­fy and dis­ap­point our clien­tele. And as tech­nol­o­gy and behav­iors change, so too, does the nature of mar­ket­ing. No mat­ter what indus­try you’re in, the new dig­i­tal real­i­ty is bring­ing about a mas­sive trans­for­ma­tion in which cus­tomer expe­ri­ence has become the brand of your organization—and the best gauge of your success.