Integrated Brand Touchpoints… owning customers across your

Brand’s proprietary experienceWhitepaper #8

In the UWizard of OzU, Dorothy asks: “But, how do I start for the Emerald City?” Glinda tells her, “It’s always best to start at the beginning – and all you do is follow the Yellow Brick Road.”

Likewise, robust brands see themselves as “Emerald City des-tinations” -- and, thus create well-defined and proprietary “yel-low brick roads” to draw customers in, connect, service, and engage. Brands, in this case, become experiential journeys integrating perfectly crafted images, service interactions, and moments of truth – or touchpoints.

A brand, so the theory goes, is represented by literally hun-dreds … if not thousands of individual touchpoints. Carl Sagan would be proud. Every piece of media, marketing, collateral, business cards, strategic partnerships, suppliers, packaging … they’re all thought to be touchpoints. This “thousand-points-of-light” definition, however, is too broad, too bland, and plainly unmanageable. The definition isn’t wrong … it just over-reaches and provides little strategic focus or operational priori-tization.

Rather, a brand’s key touchpoints should be those specific moments, interactions, and/or places where it inspires with compelling imagery, service delivery, and quality. Said anoth-er way, touchpoints are those discreet moments owned by and unique to a Brand.

As a customer journeys into and around a Brand, touchpoints successively introduce, welcome, engage, service, and retain. Brand imagery comes alive. Service personality is demon-strated; and customer information -- that drives personalization -- is captured.

All told, the Brand’s resources and intellect come together to Uown the customerU: their attention, their aspirations, and their affinities. This creates powerful moments for building trust, confidence, and fidelity.

Celebrating the 80/20 rule, having a manageable set of critical touchpoints (… let’s say 4 to 8) allows organizations to focus, have initial success, and greatly impact customer perceptions. Over time, these can expand to include back-of-house touch-points (… such as wardrobe, EDR, HR, and employee store) where the brand comes alive and demonstrates itself to team members. Ikea, for example, designed an obvious customer journey with branded pathways and touchpoints.

From arrival, through the showroom, their market hall, kids area, Swedish foods market, check-out and pick-up – each is a

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distinct and signatured touchpoint for the brand. Even at exit, the Ikea bistro (hot dogs and Cokes) dramatizes value and an

sney clearly owns and connects to a different state of mind.

Ikea embrace before leaving.

Disney, likewise, dramatizes itself at key moments. Perfecting the “wink,” Disney has a keen ability to make brand imagery, aspirations, and iconography come alive in subtle, yet powerful moments. Note below, the Disney Cruise promotional image of “Mickey in the clouds” elicits a dream-like state where Dis-ney will take you. While most cruise marketing leads with the ship’s name, Di

Disney: Perfecting the Art of Winks

Once on the boat, Mickey is core to the pool scene. It’s as if Mickey’s omni-presence (in subtle winks) reminds you that this

and the

here service greatness is achieved, and products come to life.

experience is clearly different and compelling.

Hilton Hotels Corporation’s Hampton Inn hotel brand has simi-larly re-defined itself … with a style, imagery, and personality that is distinctive and charismatic to its targeted customers. Assisted by Amicus, this brand’s re-conceptualization focused on four touchpoints: owning the welcome, the guest room first impression, the complimentary breakfast offering, “100% Hampton” service and experience guarantee.

Think of touchpoints as key moments along your brand’s expe-rience roadway. These are defined by landmarks and con-nected by a storyline with a distinct brand personality. They are moments of truth where the brand is challenged, w

UWhy Important? Why is this so important? Easy: noise, commoditization, and alternatives.

UNoiseU -- Competing noise and marketplace claims have con-sumers tuning-out in record numbers. Savvy consumers see well beyond the promises of media and direct marketing. To them, it’s all about trying it on … and giving it a spin. How well does it fit? Consumers want touchable brands.

UCommoditizationU -- Everything being equal – fewer and fewer brands have truly distinguishing characteristics. Stripped back to the basics, there’s more and more competition on price. Here, these lowest-cost brands often serve at the mercy new

gallon of Vlasic pickles (UFast Company

technologies and re-intermediation. Behold, Wal-Mart’s $2.97

U “The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know,” 12/2003)

UAlternativesU -- No doubt the greatest reason is choice – and consumers have it. How well does your brand engage, con-nect, and create relevancy to their needs, their motivations, their affinities, their aspirations, and their lifestyles? Don’t’ tell them – show them!

So whether it is segment splintering, emerging new markets, or media fragmentation … it’s best to own your customers (… and their lifetime value) across distinctive, well-conceived touchpoints.

With maturing core business growth rates, Federal Express and UPS have each aggressively expanded their proprietary touchpoints … as well as their value to small businesses and individuals.

Here, FedEx’s purchase and re-branding of Kinko’s (1200 lo-cations) and UPS’ doing likewise to MBE (Mail Boxes Etc.) with 1100 locations, significantly expands each brand’s reach and visibility.

Expanding Distribution Touchpoints

UConceptualizing Touchpoints The advantage is obvious. Rather than trying to differentiate and own an “entire experience” at once – break it down into consecutive components. Own distinct moments within the experience – but make sure that all operate in seamless conti-nuity.

Touchpoints serve many purposes: to welcome, orient, ser-vice, celebrate, persuade, excite … among others. Thus, first and foremost, conceptualize and design touchpoints from the customers’ perspective – their state of mind and their refer-ence points.

• What are customers’ most urgent needs, insecurities, and expectations upon first entering or approaching a touch-point? Are “approach points” well defined and inviting?

• What transactions and interactions take place? What are the basics? … How can you deliver them in impressive or expedited new ways?

• How should the touchpoint draw people in – and be a bea-con? What imageries instantaneously “connect” with customers … orient and welcome? What should be the

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first impression? In other words, how will the touchpoint “unfold” from the customer’s perspective?

• What proprietary products, services, and enhancements speak to target customer segment aspirations, motivations, and preferences and, how well do they capture the cus-tomer’s attention?

• How to customize, personalize, and signature the interac-tion? What information is captured? What knowledge is used? What is shared across other touchpoints?

Building on these core customer needs, next bring the brand’s iconography, imagery, personality, and values to life. Demon-strate “what the brand stands for” including its passion and expertise. • How does the touchpoint affect the customer’s perception

of the brand? … is it motivating? … what is the call to ac-tion?

• How do we celebrate with our highest-worth customers? What impressions do we make?

• How is brand imagery and brand uniqueness embedded in the built-environment? How substantial and subtle? How unique and charismatic is the physical space?

• Beyond transactional efficiencies, how are emotional con-nections made and reinforced?

• What is your brand’s distinctive and expressive personality (see Amicus Whitepaper #6 U“De-Mystifying Brand Personality”U)? How does this manifest itself at the touchpoint in obvious and subtle ways?

• What is the hand-off? How do touchpoints and other bea-cons connect?

• How do you keep a touchpoint fresh, inviting, and special?

• Has the touchpoint design, service, and interactions built trust and con-fidence? Is service recovery built in-to it?

UStanding Back, Conceptualizing … Integrating Most of today’s growth brands well understand the concept of touchpoints. Some create new ones -- such as JetBlue through seatback entertainment, Starbucks with call & echo, and Target’s Club Wed wedding registry kiosks. Others stand back, re-think, and craft whole new branded experiences with interconnected touchpoints. Example here: Mazda’s “retail revolution” concept -- a whole new showroom, shopping, ser-vice, and relationship experience where the Mazda brand is further dimensioned, demonstrated, and brought to life.

Targeting tech-savvy younger consumers, Mazda’s “retail revolution” focuses on 3 inter-related ambitions: create a more engaging shopping experience, facilitate up-front test-driving, and provide a more relaxed social environment that connects current and prospective customers to the latest inventory. Most importantly, this new concept was designed to clearly differentiate the Mazda showroom from competition – visually, transactionally, and emotionally.

The Mazda concept features several unique destinations or touchpoints including 1) a visually distinctive, canopied drive center where all models are fueled and ready for anyone to drive, 2) the mCafe in the showroom’s center where buyers and service customers can relax with a good cup of coffee and/or enjoy the PlayStation Mazda Race game, and 3) Maz-da’s on-floor iCafe interactive web kiosks that help remove the veil of secrecy surrounding the pricing of model packages and customization options.

For those re-vamped showrooms open 12+ months, sales have jumped 32%. More importantly, these showrooms gen-erated twice the profits of non-revamped dealerships with simi-lar sales increases.

Virgin Atlantic Takes “Touchpoints” Literally

Integrated Brand Touchpoints an AmicusBD whitepaper

In doing this, it is important to have an employee nearby to facilitate the welcome, communicate the benefits, and assist with questions.

Dramatizing their Difference to Connect with Target Segments

UPromotional OpportunitiesU -- To create promotional “buzz,” brands can implement temporary touchpoints. These are often fun, and unexpected. For example, to promote a new store opening in Palo Alto, IKEA set-up and dropped-off complete rooms of furniture with “steal me” tags in key feeder market downtowns.

Unexpected Promotional Touchpoint Creates the Buzz UTomorrow’s Touchpoint Battlegrounds

Similarly, Starbucks takes mobile stores and/or “Chill Patrol” Frappuccino® sampling vans to events and concerts across the nation.

Three types of touchpoints (a brand’s website, self-service applications, and promotional opportunities) are growing in importance.

Along the “Yellow Brick Road,” Dorothy encounters a scare-crow without a brain, a tin man without a heart, and a lion with-out courage. Through their experiences on the road to the Emerald City, each gains what they lacked and becomes a true believer. Does your Brand’s journey likewise have this impact?

UBrand WebsiteU -- Many brands depend on the web’s ubiquity, interactivity, and ability to personalize results. Yet few brands truly own this touchpoint. Some challenges include: making the brand come alive, being relevant to individuals, keeping it fresh and exciting, and ensuring connectivity with other touch-points. At the end of the day, a touchpoint – especially a web touchpoint – must be proprietary.

Wheels take Starbucks to Customers

USelf-Service ApplicationsU -- Building on the technological ca-pabilities of the web (ubiquity, interactivity, informa-tion/database driven) self-service applications are increasingly gaining customer preference. When done right, self-service actually improves both transaction speed and a customer’s feeling of “control” over the process while improving transac-tion economics.

Thus, the keys to designing self-service touchpoints are to simplify the transaction, drive customers up a learning curve, and expand the real or perceived benefits of self-service.

— Richard W. Gonzalez rick.gonzalez@amicuBD.com

901.755.5734

Airlines Exploit Self-Service to Speed Transactions and Empower Customers while Lowering Labor Costs

Amicus is a brand strategy, relationship marketing, and customer experience consulting firm driving incremental performance for leading travel, hospitality, leisure-time, and entertainment organizations. For additional thoughts and AmicusBD whitepapers visit www.amicusBD.com

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