A journey of brand experience

-"Brand experience" is the core of constructing consumer psychological mechanism.

With the advent of the era of experience economy, customer demand has gradually shifted from material factors to emotional factors, from the lowest level of Maslow's demand level to a higher level (such as self-realization demand). Marketers have re-recognized the role of irrational factors in customer purchase decisions, thus cultivating good customer experience and conducting experiential marketing has become another new demand for enterprises to implement brand differentiation strategy.

First, brand experience and experience branding

We're dealing with Sean. In Smith's discussion and communication about "branded customer experience", he also felt that branded experience and branded experience are the same. The former starts from the brand value, transforms the brand value into a commitment to the target customers, and then transmits brand promise through every interaction between customers and people, processes and products. The latter is to design new experiences for target customers and then develop corresponding brands.

Happy-imaginative brand experience makes Heineken beer sell well 170 countries.

Ogut brand experts personally experienced and comprehensively and systematically investigated the development history, brand growth process, overall production line, beer culture experience hall and experience activities of Heineken beer bar. Heineken beer has developed into a prestigious international beer brand, and the fourth largest beer company in the world has become the top beer brand in the world with its excellent brand strategy and excellent quality assurance. I was deeply touched by visiting Heineken Beer Factory in Amsterdam and completing the brand experience tour of Heineken Beer. Heineken beer said, "We create happiness". Pursuing happiness and having Heineken beer; Ogut experts believe that Heineken's brand strategic management strategy in subdividing consumers' emotional release is really worth learning, analyzing and learning from. Happiness-expresses the eternal theme of life, and we practitioners of brand building should seriously understand and understand the inner heart of consumers-people's inner motives and desires.

Sean. Sean Smith did not define and classify experience, but he gave four criteria to judge the brand of experience. Through case study, it is found that only the four characteristics of persistence, purpose, difference and value can become an experience brand. Because there is no continuity and purpose, all we get are accidental experiences. Even in the same store, different salespeople provide different services at different times.

Second, the characteristics of the experience brand

What is an "experience brand"? Enterprises take service as the stage, commodities as props, and create activities worthy of consumers' memories around consumers. She should be different from goods and services: on the one hand, goods are tangible, services are intangible, and the experience created is unforgettable; On the other hand, goods and services are external to consumers, but experience is internal and exists in the heart, which is the result of people's participation in form, emotion and knowledge. We believe that experience can be divided into four categories: entertainment experience, educational experience, seclusion experience and aesthetic experience, according to whether consumers actively participate or passively participate and whether customers are immersed in the situation or just absorb information. We believe that it is the "sweet zone" where four dimensions meet that makes people feel the richest experience. For example, Apple, Starbucks, Disney, Haagen-Dazs and so on.

What is different from this is-Who first put forward the theory of experiential marketing? Professor Bernd H. Schmitt divides customer experience into five different types: sense, emotion, thinking, action and relevance, which are called strategic experience modules. It is divided into two categories: one is the individual psychological and physiological experience of consumers, that is, personal experience, such as senses, emotions, thinking, etc.; The other is the inevitable experience of the interaction between related groups, that is, * * *, such as action, contact and other experiences. In reality, there are few marketing activities with a single experience, which are generally a combination of several experiences, that is, experience abnormity. Only when all five types of experience participate at the same time can it become a comprehensive experience. Sean. Sean Smith and Joe? Although Joe Wheeler did not define and classify experience, they gave four criteria to judge the brand of experience. Through case studies, they found that only when they have the four characteristics of continuity, purpose, difference and value at the same time can they become an experience brand. Because there is no continuity and purpose, what we get in the mass commodity market is accidental experience. Even in the same store, different salespeople provide different services at different times. On the contrary, the experience brand will purposefully standardize the customer experience through staff training, standard setting, workflow and other management means, so as to keep it consistent with the brand, and change from accidental experience to predictable experience of customers. At the same time, a successful customer experience must be different from competitors. Only by distinguishing themselves from their competitors can customers choose themselves, not their competitors. However, this difference must be valuable, in other words, this difference must be recognized by the target customers and bring value to customers.

Third, strive to exceed customer satisfaction.

According to the modern marketing theory centered on customer demand, whether a customer buys depends on whether he is satisfied, and customer satisfaction is defined as the emotional response made by customers after comparing their perceived value with their expected value. The closer customers' perceived value is to their expectations, the more satisfied they are. Higher satisfaction usually leads to buying or recommending products to others again, thus enhancing brand reputation and loyalty, and developing from new customers to old customers.

The 3C model proposed by James C. Anderson and Jmas A. Narus in 1998 introduces the concept of competition into the theory of customer value, puts forward the second frame of reference of customer value-competitors, and emphasizes that customer value is only a relative concept. They believe that only when customers get more "net benefits" from their products than their competitors will customers buy their products and get satisfaction from them. Sean. Smith and Joe? Wheeler seems to disagree with this. They think that satisfied customers are not necessarily loyal customers. According to a survey conducted by this forum, they found that 80% of customers who switched suppliers were satisfied with their former suppliers, but they switched to competitors because satisfaction had been taken for granted by customers. Obviously, just achieving customer satisfaction is not enough to retain customers.

Fourth, repeated purchases do not represent loyal customers.

Repeated purchase is not equal to loyal customers. Many times I choose you, but it is because it is inconvenient to change to other manufacturers, far from feeling that you are the only one. The widely adopted loyal customer plan may bring customers repeated purchases, but it fails to create customer loyalty. In fact, most customers in loyalty programs are just disguised price promotions, and customers are more interested in getting better price discounts. Once other manufacturers offer a bigger discount, you will have no nostalgia. Their repeated purchase behavior is only a purchase strategy aimed at maximizing profits, not out of the need for emotional closeness.

External behavioral loyalty measured by behavioral observation and statistical data is sometimes unreliable, and truly loyal customers will continue to buy the brand products and show high emotional loyalty. In other words, only customers who have both behavioral loyalty and emotional loyalty are truly loyal customers. Consumers' repeated purchase behavior is only a purchase strategy aimed at obtaining the maximum income, not out of the need of emotional closeness.

We say that "brand can only come from customer experience" and propose that this experience can be direct experience or indirect experience. The former comes from customers' personal consumption experience, while the latter is formed in the minds of potential customers by enterprises spreading, strengthening and accumulating the direct experience of existing customers through a series of marketing means such as advertising, promotion and public relations. Sean. Smith and Joe? Wheeler said that the phenomenon of becoming a brand advocate without personal experience is the result of this indirect experience. They believe that loyal customers should be brand advocates: "Advocates are those who are prepared to argue for you. They are not only willing to do business with you, but also willing to provide their support. " If we can create a differentiated customer experience, even people who have never experienced it personally will become advocates, willing to act as brand salesmen and escort product sales. Obviously consistent with the previous point of view.

Five, brand experience feeling

Inadvertently, we entered the brand era, and brand competition has become the theme of the economic trend of the times. How to effectively spread the brand's core values to consumers has become an important step to promote brand marketing.

1, experiential-brand communication

When it comes to experiential communication, you can't help but mention Disney. Among the 100 top brands in the world surveyed by Businessweek in 2004, Disney ranked sixth and became a leader among the major brands in the entertainment industry. There are many factors contributing to Disney's success, but the key to its success is closely related to the experiential communication methods they adopt in brand promotion. "It all started with a mouse!" Is this Walter? Disney's favorite sentence before his death. As we all know, Disney first made a fortune by animation, and a series of classic characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Mount Tai are household names. Now, Disney has extended its reach to all information media, affecting people in almost every corner of the world. However, Disney Company has experienced ups and downs during its decades of growth. Fortunately, it always turns the corner at the last minute and spreads happiness. This is all due to Disney's entrepreneurial spirit-"happiness = wealth". In order to convey this brand image to every audience more deeply, Disney has come up with a wonderful way to establish a large-scale theme park through experiential brand communication and implant the brand image in people's hearts.

2. Experience the coffee culture

Starbucks sells services, not coffee, and customer experience makes brands.

Starbucks has successfully used this sales model to promote its coffee or coffee culture to the whole world. In order to make Starbucks coffee culture have a deeper influence on consumers, they used antique murals, pictures of coffee history, the display of coffee utensils and a big bar at hand, which was full of DIY tools of customers. Unique small sofas, green and dark red tones that imitate coffee color changes as much as possible, dynamic, relaxed and soothing music, Starbucks snacks and big white mugs that are always arranged neatly are silently, continuously and invisibly implanted in consumers. They manage ordinary coffee into a very unique experience, and use it as a selling point to slowly push their coffee beans to the world, slowly change people's consumption habits with their own coffee culture, and create their own brilliance.

3. Experience-warmth and romance

Let's discuss the example of Haagen-Dazs again. Although many "knowledgeable people" and "well-informed people" have been exposed countless times: Haagen-Dazs is only a hypermarket brand in the United States, but it is because of her marketing methods that it has changed from an experience brand to a "brand experience"!

What Haagen-Dazs consumers need to surpass quality and place is the inner feelings brought by emotional experience. Taste the happiness of Haagen-Dazs with your lover; The satisfaction of self-reward and self-affirmation when independent women buy; The excitement when a boy gives a gift to his beloved object and is accepted ... Haagen-Dazs wants to create this high-level inner experience for consumers, which is different from the consumption experience of any ice cream brand. How did Haagen-Dazs do it? Pay attention to the emotional loyalty of consumers! It's not just harsh and high-quality raw materials, it's not just constantly introducing new product lines, it's not just setting up high-end consumption places in high-end business districts ... Haagen-Dazs pays more attention to evoking consumers' emotions, especially female consumers, and arousing their demand for beautiful things in life through their favorite foods and warmest places. Can you imagine what effect the advertising words of Haagen-Dazs will have if they are replaced by the brand names and products of Mengniu, Guangming and Yili? Although their sales volume is larger and their sales range is wider, some consumers may eat the above-mentioned brands in summer. But they can't call it "experience brand". Because they don't give consumers an internal experience, they are only low-level physiological satisfaction.

If you love her, take her to eat Haagen-Dazs. Domineering! It's so unreasonable! But from the heart of consumers, this is understandable. For consumers in China, especially lovers, Haagen-Dazs is no longer ice cream itself, but a love experience of "loving me", "valuing me" and "willing to give up for me", which is a "sweet zone".

Sixth, the brand mission of Ogut organization

Years of brand consulting services have made myself and my team members deeply realize that the brand concept can't really be implanted in consumers' minds. Without experience, how can consumers feel the unique charm of the brand? Only by participating in multi-dimensional experience can the penetration of brand culture occupy a place in consumers' minds. We are more aware of our own value, and we strive to help enterprises enhance their differentiated advantages through customer service and spread the brand through customer word of mouth. Style brand advocates and practitioners who share the experience value.

20 1 1, 65438+at the end of February, Ogut research institute and Singapore ACI Asian consumer research institute bird? Mr. Bemd Schmitt had an in-depth exchange on customer experience management and brand experience in Shanghai Marriott Hotel. Theoretical and practical project cooperation will also be carried out in China. ACI is facing the most cutting-edge research in Asia, the most thorough corporate strategy, and the most insightful networks and associations. Mr. Bemd Schmitt explained the research results of customer experience management. With the strong economic development of Asian countries, the consumption power of Asia has increased rapidly. We deeply understand and study the consumption psychology, behavior, motivation and preference of Asian consumers, which has become the only way for us and enterprises to successfully enhance their competitiveness. Ogut will maintain close cooperation with ACI Asia Consumer Research Institute for a long time.

I believe that in the process of brand building of service enterprises in the future, we should not only pay attention to the market, but also pay attention to and gain insight into consumers' mental journey and new inner desires.

Finally, colleagues in the industry and business friends are welcome to exchange experiences and feelings about branding.

Oget International welcomes colleagues in the industry to communicate with friends in the business world.

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