The Experience Effect: Engage Your Customers with a Consistent and Memorable Brand Experience

CHAPTER 14

Mind the Gap

Assessing What’s Missing on the Brand

WE’ VE WALKED THROUGH all the essential building blocks of the

experience effect and we’ve even described how we can make

sure we own it. It’s time to get to work.

Those who are launching a brand for the first time will be fac-

ing very different challenges than those with an established brand.

For a new brand that is just about to hit the marketplace, in some

ways it is easier to build the experience effect than for an estab-

lished brand, and in some ways it is much harder.

For new brands, the best part is starting from scratch. There

are no preconceived notions about what’s right and what’s wrong,

or at least not as many. And there are not as many voices point-

ing out what’s already been done and what can’t possibly work.

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This makes a marketer’s job much easier in some ways. When

starting from scratch, there’s a clean slate. No baggage, less

drama, and fewer arbitrary rules. A marketer’s dream, some might

say. For a new brand, simply start from the beginning of the

process and step through it as we’ve been outlining, beginning

with defining the brand.

While I won’t pretend that this book is the be-all and end-all

for marketers, the experience effect process that we’ve been dis-

cussing will get a new brand to a pretty good place. At least that’s

the goal—whether the brand is a new consumer packaged good,

retail store, clothing line, restaurant, or even a small business.

Keep in mind that starting fresh

means that everything must be done

for the first time, and that’s no small

task. Nothing exists, so everything has

to be created, along every single

touchpoint. And there might not be

much existing research to help skip a

step or two. When everything is new,

we have to define the brand, understand the consumer, and map

out the touchpoints. We need to unfold the entire process, which is

a lot of work.

When managing an existing brand, however, at least some of

that work is done or is in progress. Depending on how long the

brand has been around, there may be years of consumer research

studies, brand tracking results, and marketing analyses that can

provide a brand manager with a huge head start. There’s no ben-

efit of a clean slate, of course, but a history of market results can

certainly advance the process.

Having said all this, beginning the process is more or less the

same regardless of the brand’s tenure. We need to outline our

goals in either scenario. What are we trying to accomplish? We

192 The Experience Effect

When everything is

new, we have to define

the brand, understand

the consumer, and map

out the touchpoints.

need to create a quick list of what we want the experience effect

to do. This is the best way to start.

For a new brand, are you trying to innovate and steal market

share from a vulnerable leader within your category? For an estab-

lished brand, are you trying to update the offerings and keep the

brand contemporary? Or does the brand need a wholesale rein-

vention to stay current? I’ve learned that the best way to start any-

thing is to outline the goals. We can’t get started unless we know

what we are trying to do.

Keep the goals simple so we’ll know when we’ve reached

them. If it is overly complicated, we’ll spend all our time writing

goals and no time actually attaining them! Commit the goals to

paper and make them real for greater clarity.

We often forget to state our goals up front, which I believe is

half the battle. We dive right in and start solving, before we even

know what we are solving for. We start acting before we know

why. I’ve seen it all too often. Even in business meetings, I find

that team members often forget to communicate up front the

goals of the meeting. To be efficient and productive, in meetings

or in developing marketing programs, start everything with the

goals. Then everyone involved will know where the process

should end up, and they will know why they are working so hard.

Once we outline the goals, it’s time for an assessment of the

brand and its touchpoints. How far from the goals is the brand

right now? Are we talking little tweaks or are we heading toward

a whole new approach?

Goals must be clear and simple if we want to accomplish

them. Some examples could include:

• Be the market leader in the segment

• Attract a new consumer target market

• Stem share losses

193CHAPTER 14 Mind the Gap