So, I recently went on vacation. I was staying at what appeared to be a fairly nice hotel/timeshare. The website was professional, the pictures were beautiful, the listed attractions and activities were titillating and the overall reviews were quite good. I couldn’t wait to get there.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the experience wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. And it definitely wasn’t an experience that wowed.

Upon my arrival, the lobby was overflowing; I was rushed through, told to come back in a ½ hour because my room wasn’t ready, sent on my way without any resort map or information and, upon my return, a set of keys that didn’t work. My shower didn’t drain properly, two requests for a repair resulted in nothing. The garbage disposal wasn’t working and my screen door, which was barely on the track, went whipping across my patio and woke me up at 3 am during a wind storm. As I lounged by the pool in the sunshine, the bartender on duty stayed in his shaded bar cage, never once coming by to offer me a nice cool beverage—and I would have gladly ordered one. And, when the concierge found out I wasn’t inclined to purchase a timeshare, well, helping me book activities wasn’t really worth his time. In short, my expectations, needs and wants weren’t fully met.

Now, I know it’s challenging to keep everyone happy—myself included. But, it’s also why I believe customer feedback (and by customer feedback I mean truly understanding what your experience looks like through your customers’ eyes), is key if you want your business to achieve continued success.

But, it seems like many of today’s feedback mechanisms—like the online survey I completed after my vacation—aren’t designed with the customer in mind and seem like little more than a default gesture. As I chronicled my visit, I found that there wasn’t enough room to type; the questions were generic and didn’t really get to the heart of my experience; and, aside from the “thanks for completing our survey” email, I am left with no idea as to what happens to all this rich feedback I took the time to share? If I go back, will my experience actually be any better?

Do they analyze this data? Will they apply this information in ways that help improve their brand experience? Will they use it to redesign the customer flow during check-in so it’s less chaotic?  Will they consider changing how concierges are incented so booking activities becomes a more rewarding and enjoyable experience for both the staff and the customers? Will they create training programs that help staff identify sales opportunities, like selling a tray full of margaritas to a pool full of thirsty people? Will they develop staff reward programs for keeping the grounds well-maintained and addressing customer issues efficiently?  Well, they should, but who knows!

My advice:  whether you’re a big corporation or a small business, as you develop your voice of the customer program, make sure it too is a rich and rewarding experience for customers AND that your truly listening and integrating your customers’ great feedback and ideas into the experience. Because it’s the experiences that we remember and that keep us coming back for more.

- Rachel Olmsted

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Consumers these days are clearly favoring experiences over messages. Think Apple’s interface. Think warm chocolate chips cookies from Double Tree.  Think of the scent of a Singapore Airlines airplane.  These are what we’d call brand defining experiences. They’re memorable, unique and emotionally resonant. And they demonstrate the promise of the brand without having to actually say it. This is where brand and marketing are heading and for good reason. Saturated marketing channels are making us deaf. Instead, give us a test drive of what we can expect from you and then we’ll decide if it’s something we want or not.

When I saw Ann Taylor, Gap, and Urban Outfitters announce their quest to beautify fitting rooms it also occurred to me that focusing exclusively on these types of experiences can be dangerous.

There is real risk in creating experiences that are disconnected from the rest of your customer experiences. If a customer has a fantastic experience in your dressing room but then waits too long in line at the check-out counter, your effort could be lost.  Inconsistency breeds confusion, and it’s hard to build a brand amidst confusion.

To help safeguard your investment in your brand defining experience, follow these three rules:

1)      Make sure these experiences are well rooted in your brand, not just a gimmick designed to garner attention. This means the experience will feel authentic, like a natural extension of you. It will also help ensure that over time the experiences themselves build on each other and all contribute back to the building of the brand.

2)      Look at the entire customer experience, not just one piece, and from the customer’s perspective. How does this fit in? Is it consistent with what the customer expects or needs? Is it helpful or does it get in the way? How does it relate to the rest of the experience we provide.

3)      Examine all the potential roadblocks, especially those related to staff, in your ability to deliver this experience. If this experience requires you to have super smart staff who are prepared to answer any question, but you’ve consistently underinvested in training, then this might not be the experience for you. Experiences are harder to deliver than messages because they take serious training, investment, and the right people to pull them off. Be honest with yourself about what you’re team is capable of doing.

Taking these three steps will help ensure your brand defining experience is more than window—or dressing room—dressing.

- Bianca Abate

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Frito-Lay made a big splash the other week when they suspended a replica of their “Flavor Kitchen” over Times Square. The “Flavor Kitchen” is Frito-Lay’s newest tactic in its “naturally delicious” campaign.  They used the kitchen as a place to demonstrate their promise around, “all natural ingredients,” showing the Executive Chef chopping fresh veggies for the next batch of chips.  Why did they choose to do this versus the more traditional method of telling customers about their commitment? First, it’s more transparent and therefore more believable. There’s a big difference between a company like Frito-Lay saying they’re all natural versus showing it.

But what’s also genius about this is that it’s become a brand-defining experience. They’re not just the company who pays lip service to all natural, they’re doing it, and they doing it big. The old saying “actions speak louder than words” couldn’t be more true in today’s over-saturated consumer market. If you saw this on the news or if you were a lucky passer-by, chances are you won’t forget it. If you were going to create a brand defining experience for your business, what would it be?

- Evelyn Jones

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I stumbled across the top 20 Facebook fan pages article on Inc. and saw “Steve Spangler Science” as the top ranked Facebook page.  I had to investigate. Who is Steve Spangler and why is he so popular?  If you go to Steve Spangler’s Facebook page you are first welcomed with a video. The video shows his science experiments in the community and guest appearances on TV shows, but basically the clip does a great job at saying why you should become fan and explaining what’s in it for you. Steve Spangler has a strategy. He draws people in with a simple video, is clear about the benefits of being his Facebook fan, and regularly monitors and contributes on the page once you’re in. The article mentions that Spangler has even hired a full time employee to do “nothing but listen” to who said what on which social media sites.

Steve Spangler and many other companies have nailed down their Facebook strategy in a way that is relevant to their fans and seeing real results.  SmartPak is tracking referrals from Facebook to their website and is seeing increased revenue as a result of their Facebook page.  Many other pages listed in the article have strategies of their own focusing on customer engagement, brand recognition, product contests, games, etc., with most all of the pages somehow creating an experience where fans can engage and interact with the company.

So I ask, how do your fans experience and interact with you on your Facebook page? And how does your social media presence deliver on your brand promise?

- Evelyn Jones

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Customers don’t wake up in the morning interested in your company and products, no matter how much you push out messaging to them.  Instead, they wake up in their world, trying to solve their problems and fill their lives with experiences that are relevant to them.

What if instead, you started with a customer focus?  If you turned the telescope around and saw the world from their point of view?  Would your products and services look the same?  Would you reframe your value and messaging?  Would you meet their needs and provide relevant experiences?  That’s what’s needed today, in a world where people can go anywhere on the Internet to find what they are looking for, where consumers no longer respond to advertising or corporate messaging, but instead are looking for experiences that make sense to them.  “Push” marketing no longer works because customers are only interested in things they have “pulled.”

So move from ME ME ME to YOU YOU YOU. Turn the telescope around and get into the customer’s frame of reference.

- Lynn Parker

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First of all, why? Well, because social media is all about authentic dialogue between people (not amorphous, talking logos). And, your people are your voice. They provide the human shape and character that is relatable, dynamic and engaging for customers. Corporate messaging on Twitter or Facebook is a one way push that rarely gets anyone’s attention. It’s like throwing a tennis ball at a wall to yourself–you get one-dimensional feedback: your own.

Secondly, how? By leveraging the talent, skills and amazingness of your employees. They have a lot to give beyond their basic job description and if you take the time to uncover those gems you will be doing two things: 1) recognizing and appreciating their value (something people need to thrive), and 2) empowering them to BE your brand (something YOUR BRAND needs to thrive). See how that works?

An example: TGI Fridays out of the UK realized their employees are the key to delivering the experience they want their customers to have. So, they highlight their rock star talents with videos on YouTube that do two things: 1) showcase the skills of their employees (which makes them feel important and valued), and 2) demonstrate the type of fun and entertaining experience one can expect when they go there. Bada bing, bada boom–two hits in one.

Take a look.

If you are in HR, corporate communications or a marketing manager who is trying to figure out how to engage employees in delivering on your brand promise, I’ll be talking more about this subject at The Conference Board Social Media Strategies for HR in New York next week. Follow the seminars on Twitter #tcbSM4HR. Oh, and I’ll post the presentation on Slideshare after the seminar too!

–Jen Travis

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Time for a personal anecdote:

I live in Upper Queen Anne. There are 3 choices to grocery shop: I can go to Safeway, Metropolitan Market, or Trader Joe’s.  No matter what’s on my grocery list or the distance, I always go to Trader Joe’s, which in marketing speak makes me a “loyalist.”

If you ask me why I love TJ’s so much, I could list a hundred things… the food, the artwork, the vibe. The fact that the employees know my name and ask me how my last snowboarding trip went. They actually want to be my friend and I look forward to seeing them and chit chatting about their day, as well as mine. I feel like I belong there.

Brand is the sum of all of these things. It’s the overall experience from the first impression the website makes to the final invoice in the mail. We absorb all of these interactions to form an impression in our minds. To be successful, a company’s goal should be to establish connections that truly resonate or real relationships with people that build collective momentum.

Brands can have good or bad reputations just like people do and reputations travel by word of mouth, just like we gossip about real people. But as overwhelming as it may seem to please the masses, if you’re an organization you just need to take a step back and remember the individual.

Just ask, what is that one connection, that one thing you can do to connect with one person? What is the one experience that defines your brand?

- Bianca Abate

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For those of you as behind in your movie watching as I am, here’s the synopsis: Nelson Mandela, during South Africa’s tough transition to democracy, leverages the nation’s love of rugby to cross racial lines and bring people together (a bit more). He does this by supporting, even promoting, the Springbok team and its name even though it’s associated with white rule. In exchange for his support, the team engages in outreach efforts all over the country, bringing rugby matches and lessons to poor black children. By supporting rather than alienating the team and its white followers he builds trust. And by modeling forgiveness he captures the hearts of blacks. By inspiring the team to their victory at the Rugby World Cup in 1995, he demonstrates to his fellow countrymen that they do have something in common after all.

What does this have to do with brand leadership? Any company working to define and strengthen its brand is embarking on a substantial change process. You’re asking people to change the way they work, what they say, who they work with, maybe even what they do. This is the kind of change that requires people to either get on board, or not.

I have seen many companies try to embark on this process by reasoning with employees, by explaining why this is important to the company’s future and to their jobs. In some cases that works, and in others it does not. When it doesn’t, the brand initiative lies dead in the water—an expensive experiment in what the company could be.

The problem is that people’s loyalty to a brand isn’t 100% logical. It might not even be 50% logical. So why should your internal effort to align people around the brand be any different? Effective brand leadership taps into people’s emotions. It inspires. It’s fun. It’s a little audacious. That’s often what gets people motivated to change.

This movie was a nice reminder that inspiration can often outweigh perspiration.

What will you do to inspire staff in your effort to build your brand?

–Briana Marrah

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We call these brand-defining experiences: experiences that clearly and compellingly demonstrate the meaning behind the brand. In very strong brands, those experiences go on to serve as an expression of the customer’s personal identity. (e.g. I have an iPad because it says that I am hip, smart and I like to be connected to anything and everything around me).

A lot of the time these brand-defining moments are supported by some kind of digital experience or technology (think Apple, Amazon, Facebook etc.), but they can also be seemingly simple gestures that showcase human sentiment and fulfill deeper emotional needs. We think this example is particularly great because it illustrates just that:

In this new year, we challenge all brands to think about how they can win a role in their customers’ lives and what their brand-defining experiences might be. And, as consumers, think about those brands that have won a role in your life. What experiences did they provide that sealed the deal for you?

–Jen Travis

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What’s the secret to getting through to your target audience?

It’s simple: just listen.

They’re not “consumers,” they’re real people with real emotions, triumphs, problems and goals. Listening helps you see the world through their eyes to truly understand where they’re coming from.

And when you truly “get” them, you see not just what matters to them, but how to connect.

I loved NPR’s coverage on Makeba Riddick, a songwriter for Rhianna, Beyonce, Toni Braxton and more. Whenever she’s writing a song, she keeps the teenage girl from Iowa (and mom) in her head the entire time. And her songs continue to top the charts.

Check it out here: How To Write A Hit- Think Like A Teenager (But Keep Parents In Mind)

- Bianca Abate

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