Be Prepared as Consumers Take Control of Your Brand

We have officially entered the “age of the customer,” according to Forrester Research, Inc.  In a new paper titled “Why Customer Experience? Why Now?” Forrester takes a look at “an era where a focus on customers matters more than any other strategic imperative.”  Do you recall the infamous Gap logo redesign in late 2010? The iconic American brand undertook a major logo redesign and quickly learned how passionate Gap customers are. Characterizing the public reaction as “disappointed” would be a vast understatement. The most notable fallout was the highly critical 2,000+ comments on the brand’s Facebook page, and the creation of a “Make your own Gap Logo” website that spawned nearly 14,000 parody versions of the new logo.  Gap then did the only thing it could – took its blows, apologized publicly, and reinstituted the old logo.

Consumers are now in control of your brand and with that control consumer expectations are changing, and the manner in which a brand interacts and responds to its customers is now the most powerful driver of a brand’s perception.  Consumers have a much stronger voice and more access to competitor information than ever before, and it is no secret brands are struggling to remain relevant and meet rising expectations.

The explosion of technology-enabled communication channels has created more opportunities for brands to build customer loyalty, but has also added new levels of complexity to the customer lifecycle. This relatively sudden flare-up of channels amplifies the number of brands engaging in “me too” responses to the latest customer experience trend.  If a response is well considered, it may actually serve to enhance customer engagement and positively impact perception. However, if a response is less-well considered, brands run the risk of creating fragmented customer experiences that are at odds with a brand’s perception. Unfortunately, this type of disconnect typically results in customers broadcasting their unsatisfactory experiences globally via social media.

Let’s explore some challenging realities in the consumer landscape to ensure that your brand doesn’t fall victim to the “next big thing:”

Hype: Media coverage around the “next big thing” can cause a knee-jerk reaction to implement technologies and tactics that your brand may not be fully prepared to manage.  Consumer brands were quick to embrace the immediacy and “authenticity” of social media as an awareness channel, without establishing a clear brand strategy and formal governance processes. The result? World-class brands continue to find themselves embroiled in social media crises of their own making.  In February Kenneth Cole insensitively used the Egyptian Revolution Twitter hashtag (#Cairo) as a proxy for pushing their spring 2011 line, triggering massive public outcry. When considering any new technology, define your strategic brand objectives and expectations for how a technology will serve the strategy and enhance your brand. If you have difficulty aligning with a macro-strategy, you could risk tarnishing the core brand values that your customers have come to expect.

Oversaturation: For every new online eCommerce experience, there are tens (sometimes hundreds) of sites pushing technology to engage the same market.  Groupon led the way for group buying and deal-a-day sites, and now the market is flooded with companies trying to profit from this new approach. Be thorough with your initial market analysis and risk assessment. If you are unwilling or unable to invest the time and resources required to compete for mindshare within the top ten, look for a different approach or new opportunities.

Attention Decay: eCommerce brands and startups continue to bombard users with motivational tactics such as social interaction, personalization, and value.  Pair this with outside influences from the media, advertisements, social factors, etc. and the task of separating your brand from the pack has never been harder.  Don’t get caught up in trying to be everything to everyone; remain focused on providing the best experience for your best customers and you will always stand apart.

It is important that brands take a hard look at the opportunities in front of them, and perform the due-diligence required to ensure alignment with a brand’s customer experience strategy. Because your customers control your brand’s perception, you want to ensure that you are an integral participant in the ongoing conversation that IS your brand.  Here’s how you can do it:

Be responsive and realistic: Your design and development processes must prioritize brand integrity and be flexible enough to adopt new technologies and supporting infrastructure. Equally important is ensuring that any new initiative is congruent with critical legacy technology systems and business processes.

Be proactive with foresight: Partner with experts who can understand your strategy and business goals, and align those strategies with customer needs and appropriate technologies. And, most importantly, partner with those that have a proven ability to execute. Strategy without execution is a Powerpoint presentation gathering dust on a shelf.

Be committed:  Stand by your brand values through a regimen of ongoing customer engagement by considering requested changes or enhancements from your customers. Manage your brand’s perception through the ongoing measurement of all improvements, no matter how seemingly insignificant.

Be an industry leader: In the face of significant competition for customer attention, responding reactively to innovations in the market is not enough. You must commit to staying in front of the curve or risk irrelevance.  Be willing to try new tactics, and look closely before you leap.  Engaging user experience experts will provide important perspective and the flexibility to change your approach, if need be.

As Forrester suggests, “just as your company needs an overarching corporate strategy it also needs a customer experience strategy to focus the organization on delivering the right type of customer interactions.” To learn more about prioritizing your customer experience initiatives and Optaros’ award-winning User Experience Design capabilities, please contact us today.