It's Time For Your Brand To Go "All In"

I once used a credit card to book a flight to France, then having that card rejected when I arrived in France. To me, their lack of ability to connect their information was an inexcusable breakdown in my cross-channel experience (though customers don’t think like that, of course – they just get annoyed that the brand doesn’t know what they want well enough).

I used this story recently when I gave a speech at the Kellogg School of Marketing leadership forum. It’s a simple story, but I like it because it highlights an important trend that is fundamentally changing the relationship between brands and customers: A brand is increasingly less about the product itself and more the experience the customer has. And that experience is increasingly defined by how the marketer uses the information they have about the customer to deliver them value.

Let’s face it – a credit card is a commodity. But the experience a customer has with the credit card is what is defining the brand. Of course, service and experience have always been an important component of a credit card but the idea of the experience defining the brand is sweeping across broad ranges of sectors. And it is not just the experience once you have the product -- it is also the experience you have in buying the product. How consistent is the information you see, if you start a process online to buy, can you finish it seamlessly, for example.

Underpinning customer experience is the smart use of data and content. Companies need good data about their customers – not broad segments of customers but very narrow and hyper-relevant micro-segments – to understand who they are, what their context is relative to brand (looking to buy, recently purchased, just had a service problem, etc.), and what they care about. And to do that requires change. Real change in how you think about segmentation, customer management, and your processes for marketing. Not increments, not bits, bites, or baby steps.

As Meredith Kopit Levien, Executive Vice President, Advertising, at the New York Times said at the same Kellogg event, it’s about being “all in.” I was struck by her point that companies and business leaders have to face the fact that we’re at a significant pivot point. She talked about how she has evolved her ad organization so that they now help clients “tell stories” not “place ads.” She had to turn over a large percent of her staff to bring in people who knew how to use digital channels and deliver the supporting capabilities that would reposition their advertising as content that helps clients tell their stories.

It's a radically different way to think about advertising, and the pivot her team made could not have been done in half-steps. As she said, "we are in a business that faces oblivion every day," so in such an environment, you have no choice but to throw everything at the transformation needed for survival.

That idea of all-in change shouldn’t be confused with massive projects and huge bets on new technologies. It’s fundamentally about changing how you work by developing new processes and operations, especially to be more agile. The cornerstone of such agility is adopting a test and learn culture, which is absolutely necessary to execute the fast cycle experimentation needed to figure out what works and how to make it scale in today's digital environment.

Analytics and processes can help, but companies are only ever going to know what works and what pleases the customer by trying something out. At one company I worked with, they went from one marketing test per a month to over 10 – 15 tests a week. They realigned marketing into cross-functional teams working together on cross-channel programs to manage different segments. They injected new disciplines into their processes so they can always track what they did, and set up templates that enabled them to constantly swap out content. They tried new software tools that easily let them set up multivariate tests on their web and mobile properties, and they held back planning their full marketing investment so they had the flexibility to adjust their spend as they learned more. This was a massive pivot in how they operated. It led to more than 3x conversion rates, lower cost per sale, and faster growth from being able to offer more customers more offers.

Are you ready to face up to “all-in” change?

Learn more about digital transformations and other topics on our McKinsey on Marketing & Sales and site. Keep up with our latest insights by signing up for our newsletter and following us on Twitter @McK_MktgSales. And please follow me @davidedelman.

[Image: Duane Storey, Flickr]

David Yung

Process Engineer | Project Manager | Continuous Improvement | Supply Chain Operational Excellence | Bilingual Intercultural Speaker and Trainer

9y

The brand "experience" can also be applied to reflect a person's desire and influence on others. Personal branding has become so important that we can take this concept and reach for our dream career when we define ourselves by how our experience will provide positive impact towards the audience (i.e. our customers, companies, culture). Liz Ryan has a good article below to re-define the power of personal branding. http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2014/10/24/the-real-power-of-personal-branding/

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Austyn Smith

Retirement Expert & Founder @ Austyn Smith Associates, Adviser Firm of the Year South East 2024, and 5 time Citywire Top 100 Firm

9y

The 'experience' is taking over because we would rather spend more on how we feel, than just accumulating more 'stuff' that makes like more complex.

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Bryan L.

Search Experience Optimization & Digital Marketing

9y

"A brand is increasingly less about the product itself and more the experience the customer has." =Omni-channel.

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Karen Dawson. I totally agree with you. Services are about the people who deliver them.

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