The key for effective brand management is creating a positive and memorable brand experience for customers.A Brand experience is the ecosystem that exists around a brand or product, manifested in the sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses evoked by a brand. The Brandberries has exclusively interviewed Lina Fateen, Managing Director of Momentum Egypt, to get her take on how brands win with building experiences.

 

BB: There is a general understanding that brand experience is all about appealing to human emotions to create a connection to drive customer behaviour. In your opinion, what is brand experience really all about?

LF: Brand experience campaigns connect brands to their consumers in a way no other form of advertising has the ability to do. You can’t smell a perfume through a TV ad, you can’t hold a phone through a newspaper ad and you can’t test the feel of a car through a website banner. Brand experiences put brands directly into  consumers’ hands.

Brand experience is all about having a one-on-one experience with the brand itself. Not hearing it speak, which is the traditional form of advertising, but actually meeting a brand using as many senses as possible. It’s not about the product or its usage, it’s about curating an experience with and through that brand. This experience can and should redefine your point of view and open your mind to new ways of seeing and thinking about the specific brand. It connects to your human emotions at a direct and subconscious level.

BB: What makes a brand experience “connect” with customers? What are the building blocks that result in great brand experiences? How important is consistency and relevance in crafting experience strategies?

LF: It’s never been more of a challenge to engage! Consumers are bombarded with such a high volume of messaging, input and stimulation that it can be overwhelming. It becomes increasingly difficult to absorb information or process what is presented. To create a successful brand experience, you need to create authentic, engaging and positive stories that leave a lasting impression.

For a brand experience to connect, it has to answer to a consumer desire, need or aspiration. It must be an additive, seamless experience and enrich their journey. Gone are the days when an image or sound bite in passing is enough to garner attention or influence consumer behavior. Experiences must be relevant, enriching and transparently connected to both brand objectives and core values.

In terms of crafting unique, engaging experience strategies in the academic arena, these same guideposts apply when developing the user journey. Each consumer, customer and activation is and must be different—one size does not fit all. The consumer has become increasingly aware of being “marketed” to. They want a unique feeling, not a refurbished “big idea.” The fascinating element of crafting experience strategies is that as a planner, you also go through a journey. You get a chance to explore, play and experiment with a focused goal in mind. How can you make the journey and experience as enriching as possible? How will you impress and leave a positive, lasting impression for the customer?

BB: Can brand experience make or break a brand? What does an unpleasant brand experience cost a brand ?

LF: Absolutely. An unpleasant brand experience risks loss of consumer affinity for life. Which is to say that we must always be aware of the strong lasting impact of negative social media, which could that cost potential future clients and partnerships, client relationships, etc.

BB: Are brand experiences measurable ? Can you mention some of the proven to be successful methodologies to measure the impact of a brand experience ?

LF: Brand experiences are indeed measurable. At the end of the day, we must quantify and measure the benefits of those experiences, and take a hard look if the budget and time were used to diminishing tracked returns. When measuring footfall, for example, we see numbers for engagement and interaction within the experience. We measure earned media and press hits, social media reactions and interactions. If your experience is coupled with ticket or product sales, those are definite parameters to learn from.

Momentum has a suite of tools that allows us to measure experiential advertising. They allow brands to unify deep data in a meaningful and user-friendly format across disciplines.

BB: One of the crucial touch points where consumers experience a brand is the retail brand experience. How can brand marketers design the next big retail experience ?

LF: Work with Momentum. J We have a deep and trusted expertise in shopper marketing and retail experiences. It’s about moving beyond the classic approach pursued by most brands and retailers—developing POS (point of sale) material for a client at the point of purchase. Incredible advancements in the retail brand experience arena have been made in recent years. We know more, we can do more—and the opportunities to listen to our clients and their consumer grow constantly. There are seemingly endless opportunities to ensure that part of the journey is much more rewarding.

BB: Can you name three brands that you believe are hallmarks in experience strategies?

LF: IKEA, The Coca-Cola Company and American Express.