Digital Branding Experiences – Why Say, When You Can Do?

The New York Times ran an article last week (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/business/media/10adco.html) that discussed how JetBlue is trying a new tactic. Instead of enticing customers with lower fares, or free luggage carriage, they are promising to “entertain” their customers.

In this new campaign, “fans of the airline” are presented in video clips. They tell stories of their wonderful “experiences” on JetBlue.

Marketing the “experience with the product”, rather than the product itself is certainly not new. But what’s making it more interesting is how the digital experience is becoming such an important piece of that overall strategy.

And, in fact, in today’s socially connected world – EVERY brand has a digital brand experience. The conversation about the brand is happening regardless of whether the company wants it. The real question for marketers today is – how will you influence the digital experience of your brand to best reflect its core values?

So, how do you get started?

First step – look in the mirror

The brands we all look up to (Apple, Nike) are not selling the “what” – they are selling the “why”. They sell the experience of their products and use that to differentiate against all the others. This is key for marketers – look in the mirror and understand what is the “why” of what we do.

Understand your customer - digitally

It’s something that we all think we know inherently. But plenty of marketers still fail to understand how their customers will behave online. Just because the hottest new social network hits the mainstream media – doesn’t necessarily mean your target customers are there. And, just because they are “there” it doesn’t mean they want to engage with your brand there.

Become a digital listener

One of the key first steps in developing a more digitally engaging experience is an understanding how the brand is being perceived in the first place. Engage both manual and technology based processes to help you “listen” online. Where are your customers congregating online? What are the influencers saying? What kinds of experience are they not getting that you could provide?

Explore small experiences – and get feedback

As you start to understand, you can start to explore small, testable experiences to see how they resonate with your customers. Find out how they resonate. Get feedback from those experiences and start to engage the users in a conversation.

Creating new and compelling digital experiences for your brand goes well beyond just making a promise to “entertain”, “inform” or “educate” your customer. In today’s digital environment, it’s a much more real-time and engaging set of conversations that have to take place.

If you’re looking for assistance in this, as always, let us know. As you might expect, at Boyd Communications we’re here to make your marketing experience that much more profitable.