The most important thing to keep in mind is that customer experience-based campaigns are not short-term focused sales messages. This especially holds true for those in the realm of selling a product. You can talk all day about why your product is superior or why a consumer should purchase your product, but that will only get you so far. Instead, completely switch gears and ask the question “how can I SHOW my potential customers why my product is superior through a fun, appealing experience?” P.S. We’re talking online AND offline experiences. This puts your consumer and their wants/needs first. That type of attitude will result in a far better success rate. Allow your potential customers to come to their own conclusions about your product through positive emotions. Truth is, the modern consumer is not going to listen to an advertiser telling them what to think anyway!

Here are some examples of customer experience/interactive initiatives that I love:

Burts Bees invites their visitors to “discover their naturally beautiful shade.”

Google gives tourists a great photo-op with this fun, interactive outdoor billboard.

LOFT gives their customers a chance to interact with stylists to perfect their fall wardrobe.

Make customer experience part of your marketing mix!

The end-user has the ability to “Check In” at your business through apps available for all smart phones. You can offer incentives and promotions for checking in and/or, your location’s mayor (the person who has checked in the most).

Those who check in also have the option to offer instant feedback about your business through the “Tips” feature (ie. try the french fries!). With the world of advertising going more social by the minute, it is hard to determine which networks work and which do not. Foursquare has cemented its place as a necessity, especially in a time when consumers rely mostly on customer feedback to make their buying decisions.

Foursquare has carved out their niche very well; you can tell because Facebook released a competing service (Places) this fall. Regardless of their efforts, Foursquare is still the king of geo-location and probably will be for quite some time.

image courtesy of sylvainpaillard.com

I found this awesome quote from Dustin Curtis on Stage Two. He says,

Customer experience is the new brand.

I’m not referring to a brand as a logo and a typeface. I’m referring to the new kind of brand, the one is formed by the entire experience of a customer’s interaction. That experience gets branded into his or her memory and leaks into the buzz of modern culture. If you can’t make a good customer experience from start to finish, you’ve failed to generate brand value that will attract customers to come back for repeat business and tell their friends to come back, too. That’s how good customer experience directly affects the bottom line.

I wanted to share this quote, because as advertisers and marketers sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the frills – the pretty ad, the funny campaign, the cool website, the unique direct mail piece, the awesome Facebook landing page, etc.- but we lose sight of what TRULY builds a brand. It boils down to the customer experience. Visual elements do play a role, especially when it comes to initially catching attention and creating an emotional connection in the minds of consumers. However, if that is not followed by a rock-solid customer experience, your well-designed pieces and clever campaigns will be wasted.

In this digital age that we live and breathe everyday, customers now have a voice unlike ever before. Immediately, their networks are informed about bad customer experiences. We’ve all heard the phrase “Word of Mouth is now World of Mouth” – and it’s true!

If you are not getting the desired results from your advertising or your social media efforts, perhaps it’s time to take a step back and evaluate the customer experience. What kind of customer service are you providing? Does the user-experience match what you are promoting (online and off)? Do you go above and beyond when pleasing your customer? If you don’t know the answers to these questions – ASK! Customers will tell you what they want if you are willing to listen.

You cannot watch television right now without seeing an ad for the new Windows 7 Phone. They look like fun, easy to use little creatures. But do I want to buy it? Not sure. I’m still pretty loyal to the iPhone4 (which has changed my life, again). And they promised that.

The current Windows 7 Phone commercials are a parody of those of us who can’t seem to peel ourselves away from the devices that have allowed us to communicate all too frequently. They present a series of anecdotes where the “smart phone” user is presented with extreme situations (like dropping the phone in the urinal they’ve just used, then retrieving it) and an on-looker quips, “really?”  They are begging the question, do we really care this much about these devices?

Windows 7 Phone is the answer to all of our smart phone woes. They claim the phone is designed to “get us in, get it done, and get out”.  They’re giving us our lives back. It is the phone that will save us from our phones.

To this I beg the question: “Do we want to be saved?”

Though I found this particular set of spots to be very entertaining and often saying, ‘hey, I’d do that.’ I don’t think the over-all message is successful. See, we’re not on our phones so much because of a lack of logical functionality, we’re on them because we need to be! Windows isn’t really solving this problem. My girlfriend loved these spots because she hates how much I use my phone (and complains to me quite a bit about only seeing the top of my head). I admit, I’ve gotten much better about not staying “connected” while out at dinner or with friends. BUT – it doesn’t mean I’m not going to pick the thing up at the next available “acceptable” moment.

By the way, she wants to upgrade her phone as soon as AT&T allows us…yup, to an iPhone4! Remember, she is the one who related most to the ad.

Any new smart phone won’t really save us from our phones — unless it disconnects us.

So, while the ads are entertaining and do a wonderful job pointing out a pretty bad habit facing society today, they don’t really give us a reason to buy. Although, Windows did sell 40,000 in day 1. So maybe I need to pull my head up and look around a bit more.

Perhaps, I’d want to spend less time on the phone if it ran Windows.

A great lesson here. Before you spend bank on your next set of clever ads, be sure you read all the possible messages they’re sending. Don’t sacrifice your dollars and potential customers in the name of being cute. Be cute… but be smart!

image courtesy of Hugh MacLeod

It seems like everyday we’re introduced to at least a half dozen new “Social media experts” who will gladly assist your business with Twitter, Facebook, Blogging and whatever else is popular that day. With unemployment so high right now, a lot of would-be entrepreneurs are diving into social media, simply thinking that just by knowing how to use the tools, they’re capable of overseeing a brand’s image online.

This new sentiment is scary to say the least.

What a lot of businesses fail to understand is the true power of social media and where it is going. Yes kids, social media is the future, and I’ve got news for you, the future has arrived.

There are a few key questions to ask yourself when hiring a self-proclaimed “Social media expert.”

1. Would I hire this person to create and build my brand?

2. Would I put this person in charge of my customer service ?

3. Would I put this person in charge of my advertising campaign?

If you cannot give a solid yes nod to any of these questions, then you might want to think twice.  Social media is about interaction with your customers, future customers, partners and associates. It is about building trust and solid relationships. Social Media is about communication on the most fundamental levels.  These people will all form an opinion about you and your business based upon that social media experience.  Is this something you really want to put in the hands of someone who just knows how to post some pictures, play Farmville and re-tweet a motivational quote?

No matter what you hear, Social Media is marketing, customer service and relationship building all wrapped up in one. When someone walks in for a meeting about building your new blog or managing your tweets, remember, they are the face of your business on the fastest growing form of communication ever. Proceed with caution.

One benefit of social media that should cause any business who has shunned the idea of participating to go to their computers right now and get involved is – customer service. We all know why good customer service is so important to a business’ well-being, but many forget the ease at which social media allows this interaction to take place.

Cute shoes!

The reason for my excitement over such customer service is a recent experience I had with a brand on Facebook. Anthropologie is probably my favorite store. (I wish there was one closer to Gettyburg!)  I was browsing their website as I normally do and found the cutest pair of peep toe wedges. Unfortunately, they didn’t come in my size. Normally, I would say “oh well” and move on, but these shoes were different. I really wanted them.  Since I am a fan of Anthropologie on Facebook I figured I might as well post something on their wall just to see if they would be getting more in. I expected someone to write back to me, but say something a long the lines of “we should be getting another shipment in the spring.. etc.”) But instead , the administrator posted a comment with an email address saying they would help me find the shoes. After emailing back and forth with them, they were able to locate the shoes for me at their Newport Beach store. Not only did they find the shoes I wanted, but they put them on hold for me!

Now that’s customer service. Not to mention, customer service that in my case I would have never received were it not for the ease Facebook brought to the situation. I would have not bothered inquiring on the website.

Social media is not something to fear, but should be seen as (among other things of course) a portal for amplified customer service. What are you doing to increase your customer service online? Anthropologie just earned me as a fan for life.

I would love to hear your experiences with customer service on social media!

Frank Streifler in his AdWeek post entitled “5 Marketing Principles Brands Should Embrace in 2010″ explains this so well:

A Bain & Co. survey notes that 80 percent of CEOs believe their product to be differentiated, but only 8 percent of consumers agree. And Y&R’s recent Brand Asset Valuator found a 90 percent erosion in brand differentiation over the last 10 years. These are not just sad examples of illusory superiority, but a staggering statement of our industry’s failure to add value in the past decade.

It’s critical that marketers realize that the product itself is the most powerful brand-building tool. We’ve all heard it before: “innovate or die.” But today’s hyper-connected society adds a sense of urgency to this broadly accepted mantra because mediocrity is getting extinguished with increasing speed via social networks.

Because reality always trumps image, marketing needs to create real value versus just adding a perceived value. Marketers need to shape the offer — the product, service and experiences consumer buy — not just communicate it. Marketing becomes the product and the product becomes the marketing.

I would love to hear your thoughts on creating real vs. perceived value!

So how can retailers make sure this holiday is merry and bright? These tips might help.

• Customer service. Customer service. Customer service. – need I say more? We all know a positive or negative customer experience can be detrimental to the success of retailers. Customer service plays a HUGE role in that experience. During shopping season, even more so than any other time, customers will thank you for exceptional service. Maybe you do not offer the cheapest discounts and your competitors beat you in price (this is especially true of smaller retailers competing with large giants). In this case, the customer service level you offer can set you leaps and bounds ahead and is very crucial.

• Add Value When Discounting is not an Option - Simply lowering prices and offering steep discounts sounds simple enough, but is impossible for many people. Instead of offering 50% try adding value in different ways. For example, a hardware store is advertising power tools for women to purchase for the men in their life. Store A is offering the tool at X amount and Store B is offering the tool at a slightly higher cost, but they are giving each customer a piece of wood so their husbands can try it out right away. They are offering free wrapping and will even hold onto the tool until Christmas so that the wife can hide it from her husband.  One may be less expensive, but the other is definitely a higher value.  Try thinking about what makes people’s shopping experience more convenient and time saving, while keeping your costs down. These added details make big differences.

• Show Love to your Current Customers. If you are participating in a customer relationship strategy (which is a must if you aren’t already!) Now is the time to get them extra excited and enticed by what you are offering. People forget easily. They may have had a great experience with you, but because of lack of communication they will forget. Customers are like other relationships: you must communicate! Make your current customers feel special. Reward them for their business. Offer “exclusive promotions” and get them engaged. Gaining repeat business from someone who already trusts and knows your products is much easier than acquiring brand new customers.

Any other tips? I would love to hear them! Happy Shopping!

The new Prius Billboard in Times Square gives iPhone users the chance to upload their drawings to be displayed on the board. This is a fantastic wave of creative advertising that breaks the boundaries of interactive. Out of the box ideas, like this one, get you noticed, get you viral and build up brand loyalty. This kind of advertising can be done on any level and at any scale.  Just because you’re a small business doesn’t mean you can’t think out of the box.

…And it works both ways: positively or negatively.

Advertising and the way people make purchasing decisions have shifted. This is not new information, yet there are still those clinging to the “way things used to be.” Now more than ever, companies must rely on word of mouth marketing and customer experiences to fuel their brand loyalty.  The modern consumer of today craves brand experiences instead of creative ad campaigns. Digitally and offline, customers want to connect with a brand and once they do, they will talk about it!

In the digital world, everything boils down to the experience. Consumers are interacting and communicating. Brands are being shaped by this interaction.

The statistics speak for themselves:

According to “FEED: The Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report 2009″, 97% of consumers report having searched for a brand online, 65% of U.S. consumers report a digital experience changing their perception about a brand, 97% report that the experience influenced a purchase and 96% say they may recommend that brand to others.

Whether online or off, customer experiences will continue to be the driving force of purchase decisions and brand loyalty. Talk to you customers… This is the first step in determing the experiences they crave.