Talk To Your Customers For A More Integrated Brand Experience

Today, one of the largest problems that many brands must overcome is how to create integrated online and offline brand experiences for customers

.

Personally, I really think that it all comes down to conversation. If you consider the online brand experience, until fairly recently it all centred around functionality: the emphasis was on basics such as website navigation, the ability to find information and how visible websites were on search engines such as Google. In other words, it was all about brands talking TO customers.

But this is no longer good enough for modern consumers. You need look no further than social media and its recent impact on the online world to understand this: today's online audiences expect two-way engagement, not just a one-way broadcast.

Ultimately, this means that brand messaging needs to change in order to be effective. It needs to fundamentally be about creating experiences that are rich and engaging, and will give the consumer a really valuable and memorable experience.

If this is done right it can have the power to turn consumers into raving fans, just by ensuring that the brand is engaging WITH them rather than just talking TO them. This can take different forms, from funny virals to online interaction on social networking sites, but the common factor is a visible, experiential response from the brand and the ability for the consumer to shape the conversation to a certain extent.

What's interesting is that this kind of online experience - when carried out effectively and with the right strategic inputs - also positively impacts offline brand experiences.

Consumers want, and indeed expect, richer experiences - those which involve conversation, discovery and enlightenment (the holy grail of experiential marketing in many ways). When brands successfully integrate their on and off-line brand experiences, the amplification effect of each on the other is astonishing. T-mobile's flash mob dance is a good example. The result is a rich, diverse and powerful stream of conversation which good agencies can exploit across multiple channels to optimise campaign performance.

If you haven't yet fully considered how to integrate your offline and online brand experience, it might be a conversation worth having soon.

by: Jake Stevens

POST COMMENT

The Uses Of Blu Ray Disk A Review Of The Heat Wave Fes Series Portable Electric Heater Sell Your Own Digital Product My Creation Guide Electric Knife Why You Should Not Scrimp On Your Choice Of Electric Grills Electrical Service And Reasons For Power Outages Best Features Of A Great Blu Ray Player Looking For The Right Digital Hearing Aid With Digital Hearing Aid Reviews Having The Digital Hdtv Receiver Digital Printing Types 101 Digital Printing On A Wider Scope Buyers Guide To Electric Guitars Discover How Your Hdr Photography Image Is Created In Your Digital Camera