Secrets of Creating Great Brand Experiences

Recently, the Luxury Marketing Council asked me to share some thoughts about creating great brand experiences. I was eager to oblige. Over years of working with clients, helping them stand out with their authentic voice, certain tenants for creating great experiences have bubbled up. Here is what we have come to learn at Groove 11 as the 11 essentials for creating great experiences.  

1. Lore

Lore is your story. Think about it. Everyone loves to hear to great story. Your story and how you tell is critical to attracting folks to you. Crafting a great lore is all about knowing where you came from, the stories of the people behind your brand and sharing your essence. This means going beyond the facts. It is not about features and benefits. It is about creating magic – magic starts with a story. It’s a story that is distinct. That no one else can own. Know your story. Tell your story. Take a look at Title Nine and Coach and see how great these brands are at creating great lore.

2. Romance

How many times have your heard it said, “Romance the product.” Well once you have a lore, romance is all about getting people to fall in love with you. If you are a destination for example, romance the experience that awaits your guests.  If you sell running shoes, how is the product going to make me feel? Romance means creating an emotional expectation. Romance creates the desire, desire creates anticipation and anticipation sets the stage for experience.

3. Discovery

Discovery is about letting your customers into the process on their terms. It is about literally letting them discover something on their own perhaps something new that they may have not known before. Discovery includes your customers in the process. In travel and destination marketing we hear this all the time – travelers want to discover something new and off the beaten path.  With any brand customers want to accept and explore as if they found it themselves. It only makes the experience richer. You can facilitate that process by leaving room for an authentic experience to unfold by letting discovery occur.

4. Inspiration

This is the part of the talk where I get down on my knees and I beg of you – please move me! Nothing is worse than mediocre marketing. And the problem with most marketing – is that it is simply bland, void of any inspiration. People: You can do so much better. Create an experience that truly inspires.  This can be done with any business or product, believe me. I once had a client in the refrigerated container business – we created inspiring marketing materials by hiring a fashion photographer to shoot containers in a ship yard. We could have bought stock photography but that would have been more of the same. How is your brand inspiring people to feel, learn, do, or be something? If not, why not?  Make it personal. Touch my spirit. Make me feel it. Move me. Inspire me.

5. Occasions

Create occasions for customers to enjoy and experience you – occasions they may not have otherwise considered, but for your suggestion. There are many current examples of marketers who created all new occasions and increased opportunities for brand engagement as a result. A few years ago, W Hotel created “Girls Night Out” Events in a promotion with the USA network and later HBO.  The hosted evenings included a cocktail party, show viewings, manicures, makeup applications, gift bags with host products. Creating these occasions allowed the brand to reach a whole new group of locals and create word of mouth and buzz among women.  Think about suggesting occasions to your community.

6. Know thy audience

Knowing your audience is SUCH an important marketing imperative that it should be considered in the 10 commandments of marketing. How can you begin to create an experience that will resonate unless you really know what makes them tick? Ask yourself what you know about audience.  Do you know who they are? Do you know where they are? What do they care about? What do they know about you? It is only by really knowing audience that you can craft marketing that is relevant and that reaches them through the clutter.

7. Make it personal

When talking about creating great experiences, consider that experiences are intrinsically personal - driven by emotion, logic, vision, perspective, common sense. Making the experience personal, taps into these basic human emotions to create something unforgettable. It is these personal experiences that drive and enable lasting relationships. From the little touches – the handwritten thank you card, the gift bag, remembering my name and what I like to drink to allowing a rewards program or guest services based on my preferences. Make it personal and you have me for life.

8. Paint a picture

A picture paints a thousand words. Throughout your marketing, paint a picture through words, visual and demonstrations of an experience they can see themselves in. Get them to imagination themselves interacting with you. Show them how it can happen. Disney for example has a current campaign featuring parents going online and realizing they can afford to make their dream family vacation happen for their entire family. The commercial paints a picture of how you too can make it happen. Help them see themselves there and facilitate the next step in the process.

9. Reach out to segments

Segment marketing all about leveraging  powerful niches within the general market. Such groups include Women, LGBT, Hispanic, you get the idea.  Kimpton Hotels has successfully supplemented the success of its “In Touch” loyalty rewards program by running specials for its LGBT customers. This segment contributes multiple millions of  dollars a year in extra revenue to Kimpton nationwide. Segment marketing – by gender, culture, ethnicity and more - can create great loyalty, and lift Think about where the opportunities in the market exist and what segments match the persona of your brand.

10. Share it

Once you have a story, get it out there, evangelize it. Share your story and get others sharing it with you. Design a sharing strategy – whether it is word of mouth or social media leveraging happy customers and getting them to share their experiences about YOU. It is demonstrated that referrals and word of mouth actually has much more impact and believability than other forms of marketing. Incent your customers to share their stories.

11. Measure it 

And finally we have the 11^th tenant of creating great experiences, measurement. So many times meaningful measurement is neglected. And when the CFO asks for real ROI marketers are left with anecdotal evidence.  You can benchmark at the outset of campaigns and you should design measurements – however simplified into the program. One of the most basic things to do is to ask and record  how people are finding out about you. Ask questions after sale like “How are doing? What’s working? What’s not working? Why or why not? Would you share your experience with others? How is this experience better/worse than others?” Having measurement in place is key to adjusting strategies and refining again and again. This can be for a year over year campaign or optimizing on the fly. Measurement creates efficiency and helps hone and prove marketing success. And it improves the discipline of instinctual marketers.