This document discusses closing the "experience gap" between what brands promise and the actual experiences consumers have. It outlines 5 principles for improving customer experiences: 1) Add value for consumers, 2) Invite consumer participation, 3) Use user-first design, 4) Inspire sharing of brand experiences, and 5) Create brand content that consumers want to engage with rather than interrupting them. It provides examples of brands like KLM, Ikea, Dove, and Honda that have successfully implemented these principles through campaigns, programs and digital experiences. The overall message is that brands must shift from focusing on marketing messages to focusing on the experiences they provide and the value they deliver to consumers.
17. What people âš
say matters. âš
A lot.
â
Brands with highest levels of advocacy
averaged 27% higher topline growth
than the most criticized brands.
BCG 2015
25. 1. What should it be called?
2. What other words describe it?
3. Whatâs the tagline?
4. How do we make people aware of it?
5. What should its logo look like?
6. What should its logo look like in black and whit
7. Does it have a jingle?
8. How much space should be around its logo?
9. Is it time for an identity refresh?
10. Can we get a trademark on that?
people remember the name?
e energy to it?
Marketers thought of brands as
NOUNSthat they could âteachâ people.
26. But, in todayâs attention economy,
consumers have come to care less
about what brands are saying and
more about what theyâre doing.
!
27. But, in todayâs attention economy,
consumers have come to care less
about what brands are saying and
more about what theyâre doing.
!
social media
rise of the internet
desire for social currency
permanent recession
democratization of inïŹuence
mistrust of advertising
technology overload
demographic inversion
Mad Men
fragmentation
corporate skepticism
message fatigue
reïŹective self-identity
28. Which is why we see brands
today as more a function of how they
act ... how they engage with and
around consumers ... as verbs.
31. Does your brand
give good
experience?
â
Because in a world where brands
are verbs, what people remember,
what they use to advocate (or not)
is what they experience.
32. The ïŹve principles
of experience
â
An initial set of tools to help
brands begin closing the
experience gap.
33. PRINCIPLE 1
ADD VALUE
Brands that last are the ones that give more than they
take from consumersâ lives. In a world ïŹlled with
handheld â or even wearable â second screens,
consumers are better than ever at tuning out marketersâ
attempts to appeal to them. âš
âš
At the same time, consumers are seeking out and
signing up to hear from brands that offer them value: a
utility, a conversation starter, helpful how-to instructions
that help them through a challenge. The value scale is a
delicate one, but if brands stay focused on keeping it
balanced â or tipped towards consumers â it gives them
signiïŹcant credibility and access to share of wallet.
34. PRINCIPLE 1
ADD VALUE
KLM Meet & Seat
One of the worst parts of traveling is sitting
next to (or worse, between) total strangers.
KLM found a way to shift a negative aspect
of its customer experience into a potentially
very valuable one.
KLMâs Meet & Seat lets you ïŹnd out about
interesting people who will be on board
your KLM ïŹight by sharing your Facebook,
Google+ or LinkedIn proïŹle details. Then,
you can choose your seat based on who
youâd like to meet â perhaps a good
business contact, someone with similar
interests or an long lost college friend.
35. PRINCIPLE 1
ADD VALUE
Lean In & Getty Images
NonproïŹts often must tow the difïŹcult line
between the constant need to ask supporters for
funds, while also providing the value that is at the
core of their mission. Along the way, many come
off as needy, preachy or even inefïŹcient.
Facebookâs COO, Sheryl Sandberg, found a way
for her nonproïŹt, Lean In, to both further its cause
and generate funding at once.
In a partnership with Getty Images, a popular
stock photography site, Lean In launched a
collection of stock photos dedicated to womenâs
empowerment. The collection features over 2,500
images of female leadership in contemporary
work and life. A portion of proceeds from the
Lean In Collection go toward the creation of Getty
Images grants for images showcasing female
empowerment and to supporting the mission of
the nonproïŹt.
36. PRINCIPLE 1
ADD VALUE
Ikeaâs Second Hand
Campaign
Ikea doesnât exactly have a reputation for
making the most durable goods â but the
fact is that many customers own their home
furnishings for years without signiïŹcant
wear. Core to Ikeaâs value proposition,
however, is a price point that enables
consumers to refresh their environments well
before the furniture has tired.
So to help show the longevity of its products,
while also allowing consumers to move on to
its newly introduced products, Ikea launched
"The Second Hand Campaign." The
campaign advertised customers' used Ikea
products through outdoor, print, broadcast
and web banners. Beyond that, Ikea turned
its Facebook Page into a digital ïŹea market
for sellers and buyers to meet each Sunday.
37. PRINCIPLE 2
INVITEâš
PARTICIPATION
The best brands focus on managing a community of
supporters, rather than on managing a set of brand
standards. Brands that implicitly invite participation â
without demanding it â are the ones that rule in a world
where consumers will participate whether the brand asks
or not. âš
âš
When consumers can ïŹnd ways to contribute ideas or
inïŹuence the brand and its experiences, feeling a sense
of ownership and authorship, it makes it easier for the
brand to activate that person as an advocate. And
because participation requires engagement, consumersâ
brand encounters are also more memorable over time.
38. PRINCIPLE 2
INVITE PARTICIPATION
Cotton âš
24-Hour Runway
As the only fabric suitable for all 24 hours of the
day, Cotton has an annual tradition of hosting a
24 Hour Runway complete with a look every
minute â 1440 total. This time, Cotton employed
a Style Search Squad that traveled across the
country to ïŹnd the most diverse cotton looks and
celebrate consumersâ local style. Users were
invited to submit their looks for a chance to
inspire the ïŹnal style on the runway.âš
âš
Once ïŹnalists had been selected, users voted to
select the six regional style setters who have
inspired a nation of cotton style enthusiasts. They
represented their regional cotton style at Cottonâs
24-Hour Runway Show in South Beach. In doing
so, Cotton effectively moved a runway show from
passive viewers to active participants who
walked away with a compelling experience.
39. PRINCIPLE 2
INVITE PARTICIPATION
Pop Secretâs Pop Dongle
Some brands are so simple that in order to
invite participation and become closer with
their consumers, the brands must create
ancillary brand experiences beyond their core
offering. Enter Pop Secretâs Pop Dongle: a
mobile phone attachment that emits the sweet-
and-salty smell of popcorn as you play the
brand's mobile game, Poptopia.âš
âš
Each time users swipe the butter inside the
game, driving players to pop corn kernels, the
Dongle will emit a spritz of popcorn scent.
The Pop Dongle represents Pop Secret's ïŹrst
test of a non-edible product in the market. The
company has created three limited edition
Dongles being auctioned off on eBay, with
proceeds going to the American Red Cross.
40. PRINCIPLE 2
INVITE PARTICIPATION
San Pelligrinoâsâš
Robot Trips to Italy
A core part of San Pelligrinoâs brand is the
delivery of Italian culture with its product. To
help deliver on the sparkling water's promise,
it launched a "Three Minutes in Italy"
promotion. Leveraging ïŹve robots, on August
8th through 17th, Facebook users could
remotely control robots, in real-time that
toured around Italy â meeting new people
and taking in the culture. âš
âš
San Pellegrino's Facebook fans were able to
participate by signing up to drive the ground-
bots for 180 seconds, viewing the town in
live. The robots were equipped with tablets
displaying users' Facebook proïŹle pictures,
and a translation program allowed
participants to talk with local residents with
the help of an on-the-ground ambassador.
41. PRINCIPLE 3
USER FIRST
DESIGN
Great experiences start with a solid set of consumer
insights about how a brand ïŹts around its users. By
understanding consumersâ natural inclinations towards
and behaviors with your product, service or
organization and catering to it, experiences become
more efïŹcient and more effective. Investment required
to get people involved decreases, because people don't
need to be convinced.âš
âš
In addition to the broad success that user-ïŹrst design
creates, it also has a broader halo effect on the brand.
Often, empathetic brand experiences stand out from a
pack that appears deaf to consumers wants, needs âš
and dreams.
42. PRINCIPLE 3
USER FIRST DESIGN
LEGO Star Wars âš
Secrets to Reveal
To reignite brand loyalty for LEGO Star Wars
and build excitement for the TV launch of
Yoda Chronicles, LEGO got to the core of
what made its consumers tick. By
understanding the important collaborative
nature of LEGO building between parents and
kids, combined with the power of the Star
Wars property, the brand created an epic and
contagiously shareable campaign for adults
and kids alike.âš
âš
The campaign prompted participants to
discover what secrets Yoda had to reveal.
Through a series of in-store, digital and live
guessing experiences, Yoda ultimately
revealed his (and LEGOâs) biggest secret ever
â the largest LEGO creation ever, an X-Wing
ïŹghter, was revealed in Times Square, leading
to #LEGOstarwarsNYC trending on Twitter.
43. PRINCIPLE 3
USER FIRST DESIGN
Budweiser Canada
Hockey Alarm
Last year, Budweiser found an important
audience truth that tied to its product:
Budweiser is in hand at hockeyâs biggest
moments. The brand dedicated itself to taking
the fan experience to the next level by
creating the Bud Red Light â a wi-ïŹ enabled
iconic goal light and horn.âš
âš
Budweiser actually put the product on sale â
selling out its ïŹrst batch in 2013 in no time. It
even created content about a representative
from the brand installing Red Lights in its
consumers homes to generate further
demand. Though it certainly is unusual for a
beer company to get into an Internet of Things
product, Budweiserâs user-ïŹrst design guided
the brand to a huge success.
44. PRINCIPLE 3
USER FIRST DESIGN
Targetâs âš
Simplicity Challenge
As Target monitored the issues and conversations
that were important to its employees and guests, it
found that healthcare was one of the remaining
parts of its business that wasnât as straightforward
as consumers would have liked. Target launched a
means to draw from the wisdom of the end-users:
the Simplicity Challenge, a nationwide search for
innovative ideas to simplify healthcare.âš
âš
The initiative, built to crowdsource the best ideas
for healthcare from students, innovators, designers
and entrepreneurs, underscores the retailerâs
commitment to creating simple and engaging
experiences. The Target Simplicity Challenge
launched with the purpose of helping people make
positive lifestyle and prevention choices and
helping people live well with a chronic condition.
Ideas were put to a public vote prior to a grand
prize being dispensed and Target working to
implement it.
45. PRINCIPLE 4
INSPIRE
SHARING
Brands canât buy the most powerful form of advertising:
recommendations of family and friends. But marketers
can give consumers something that they actually want to
talk about and share. A combination between a brilliant
creative idea, execution that is native to social platforms
and in-person conversations and social purpose can
inspire third party endorsements that work to create the
shortest path to purchase possible.âš
âš
In a generation deïŹned by the âlikeâ button and prompts
to âtweet usâ, however, brands must be discerning. It
takes a lot more than the click of a button or 140
characters to truly develop a bond with a brand. And
thereâs a difference between demanding or incentivizing
sharing and truly inspiring it. At the end of the day, the
consumers sharing know the difference and so do the
recipients of their sentiments.
46. PRINCIPLE 4
INSPIRE SHARING
Dove Real âš
Beauty Sketches
Knowing that all great sharing success stories
start with great content, Dove found a
polarizing topic for the brand to speak out
about: Over half (54%) of women globally
agree that when it comes to how they look,
they are their own worst beauty critic, which
equates to 672 million women around the
world. âš
âš
Doveâs Real Beauty Sketches video, which uses
an FBI-trained sketch artist to show women
that theyâre seen as more beautiful than they
see themselves, garnered more than 114
million views in its ïŹrst month released. The
video was shared 3.74 million times, which
makes it the third most shared video of all
time â yielding one of the best share to view
rates of all time.
47. PRINCIPLE 4
INSPIRE SHARING
Hondaâs Project âš
Drive-In
Brands can also trigger sharing by
bringing underrepresented issues to light
for consumers. Honda recently launched
Project Drive-In, the brandâs national
effort to help save drive-ins facing
closure due to the end of 35mm ïŹlm
distribution. Through the effort, Honda
has been able to generate a groundswell
of support for drive-ins, encouraging
users to share the cause with family and
friends to help fund the theaters.âš
âš
By leveraging crowd-funding platform
Indiegogo along with ProjectDriveIn.com,
Honda has been able to save several of
the nationâs storied drive-ins. Meanwhile,
Honda has connected its brand with one
of Americaâs favorite past-times and a
feel-good mission.
48. PRINCIPLE 4
INSPIRE SHARING
Niveaâs Dare to Dip
Nivea believes women are at their best when
they feel conïŹdent in their natural skin. Yet
79% of women in the UK cover up their âbikini
belliesâ in public. Nivea set out to change that
and celebrate women who were willing to
break the mold and dare to take their ïŹrst dip
of the summer in a very exposed way.
Women were encouraged to sign up to take
their ïŹrst plunge of the summer in glass tanks
in Londonâs Covent Garden. So many women
were inspired by the call to action that tickets
sold out in 24 hours. Women were so excited
to share their newfound conïŹdence that they
demanded more opportunities to Dare to Dip,
so the campaign set out on the road. Nivea
crowdsourced the demand for other dipping
locations and over 70,000 women shared
their pledge online. The campaign since has
expanded across the continent.
49. PRINCIPLE 5
ON
(NOT IN)
THE WAY
Brands have evolved â from the interruptions between
the content you really wanted to view â to,
increasingly, the creators of content you canât help but
consume and share. âš
âš
The fuse on ânative advertisingâ is short (though it works
today), because not enough brands are taking its
quality seriously. As regulations tighten and consumers
grow wise to advertisersâ tricks, brands stand to once
again become barriers that consumers avoid, rather
than the destinations they seek.
50. PRINCIPLE 5
ON (NOT IN) THE WAY
IBM Smart Ideas for
Smarter Cities
One of the greatest examples of the
evolution of marketing from disruptive
product-based selling to an on the way
thought leadership campaign is IBMâs
work with Smarter Cities. The brandâs
campaign is a centrifuge of inspiration
and helpful content meant to inspire the
worldâs leaders to imagine solutions to
some of the worldâs greatest problems.âš
âš
As an extension of the campaign, IBM
launched a series of outdoor ads around
Paris that double as a bench, a shelter or
a ramp. The functional twist on otherwise
interruptive advertising delivers perfectly
on the sentiment behind IBMâs Smarter
Cities campaign.
51. PRINCIPLE 5
ON (NOT IN) THE WAY
Flower Council of
Holland Emergency
Flowers
This Valentineâs Day, the Flower Council of
Holland installed 1,500 âemergencyâ ïŹower
boxes containing a rose. Each one reads,
"In case of love at ïŹrst sight, break glass.â
The cellophane exterior allowed passer-bys
easy access to the ïŹower within and the
resulting video showing the boxes in use
was a romantic way to reach consumers
around one of the ïŹower industryâs biggest
days of the year. âš
âš
Consumers were sent to continue the
journey online, where they could use Twitter
and Facebook to get a chance to win their
very own boxes. They were also
encouraged to share the video with their
social networks.
52. PRINCIPLE 5
ON (NOT IN) THE WAY
Red Tomato Pizza âš
VIP Fridge Magnet
In Dubai, home delivery is the norm
when it comes to food, but restaurants
that consumers eat at frequently never
remember their customersâ orders. Red
Tomato Pizza knew that they wanted to
generate more loyalty and retain its best
customers and that this dynamic
presented a serious problem.âš
âš
Red Tomato changed the delivery playing
ïŹeld by creating a VIP Fridge Magnet
that was Bluetooth connected to
consumersâ smart devices. At the push of
a fridge magnet button, an order was
placed for that consumerâs favorite pizza
instantly. Preferences could be adjusted
online and the brand experience soared
as a result.
56. SVP, GROUP STRATEGY DIRECTOR
JACK MORTON WORLDWIDEâš
#ExperienceGap
#FutureM
e: ben_grossman@jackmorton.com
m: + 1.602.741.0314
t: @BenGrossman
w: www.ben-grossman.com
Read our blog: blog.jackmorton.com
Follow us on Twitter: @JackMorton
Visit us online: www.jackmorton.com
BEN GROSSMAN