Your brand is the sum of all experiences your customers and other target audiences have with your company/product/service, before, during, and after the purchase or other interaction.
That was the main message of my early-morning marketing talk yesterday at the Beaverton Chamber of Commerce. (Watch the presentation video. Images below.) The perception equating brands with logos and fancy commercials persists among small businesses. So the micro and small business owners who attended seemed relieved to hear their companies already have brands, which they can further improve and cultivate by purposefully designing and managing customers’ experiences.
In building a small business brand, the first step is to understand your target groups, especially customers. Create a customer profile to focus your thinking on her pains, frustrations, challenges or conflicts, and the needs springing from them. Focus on the identity level of your ideal customer’s needs and build your brand around the promise to satisfy them – learn who she aspires to be and help her fulfill that vision.
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and look at where, when, and how she interacts with your business. Your brand is what she says, feels, think, believes, expects – your brand is what she experiences at every touch point before, during, and after the purchase. Look at all your touch points not as isolated elements, but rather as seamless parts of your customer’s whole experience.
Pre-purchase touch points include:
- Product/service: past experience, other people’s experience (word of mouth/buzz/reputation)
- Communication messages, including testimonials and case studies
- Visual identity: logo, colors, typefaces, graphic design
- Print collateral: business cards, letterhead/envelope, brochure, flyer, ad
- Website, social media
- Positioning vis-a-vis competitors
Purchase touch points
- Physical point of sale: location, opening hours, parking, storefront/facade, neighbors, atmosphere/feel, layout, flow, decor, displays, lighting
- Online point of sale: design, layout, navigation, feel, shopping cart, reviews
- Product: presentation, packaging, price
- Customer service: appearance, dress, demeanor, behavior, procedures
- Process of purchase: reservations/appointments, waiting, trial, cashing out
Post-purchase touch points
- Use of product, enjoyment of service benefits
- Billing, invoicing
- Follow-up customer service
- Technical support and troubleshooting
- Returns, refunds, credits
- Dealing with complaints and grievances
- Customer communications: newsletter, thank-you or other cards, courtesy calls
- Feedback loop: see pre-purchase touchpoints
Every touch point must, at all times, delivery on your promise to your customer. Exceed your customer’s expectations: underpromise and overdeliver is a good basic rule to follow.
Adopt the philosophy of constant improvement. Listen to your customer’s feedback, measure your outcomes, and make adjustments as you go in order to deliver to your customers the satisfaction of an ideal experience.
The beginning of the year is ideal time to take a fresh look at your touch points as pieces in the puzzle of your customers’ experience. What are you doing to improve your customers’ experiences with your small business brand?
