Combine brand and experience into a single, exciting whole to drive growth
The Digital Transformation era has come and gone. Experiential concepts like personalization, transparency, transference, uniquity, and immediacy are now table stakes in an increasingly connected and responsive market. Companies that failed to ante up are already gone—or fading fast.
In Make Your Brand Matter, serial entrepreneur and brand strategist Steve Soechtig delivers an eye-opening discussion of the post-Digital Transformation era in which we now live. The book walks you through the evolution of brand and experience, leveraging examples of historical and digitally native brands that have succeeded and failed to seize the digital moment.
You’ll discover brands that enabled new customer acquisition, customer value optimization, and customer loyalty, all the while realizing that brand and experience are two sides of the same coin. The book also offers:
- Strategies, techniques, and activities for teams to capture digital opportunities
- Discussions of why brand and experience reinforce one another and how experiences must embrace, reflect, and enforce brand identity
- Tactics to accelerate the customer’s progression from evaluator to loyal advocate
Make Your Brand Matter is an essential resource for marketing professionals. It also belongs on the bookshelves of company founders, owners, managers, executives, and other business leaders seeking to develop their organization’s ability to marry brand and experience into one coherent and exciting package.
STEVEN G. SOECHTIG has worked for several industry-leading brand and experience strategy firms throughout his career. He has served as CEO of Ogilvy Experience, as an Expert Partner at McKinsey & Company, and as a Managing Director at Deloitte Digital. In each role, Steve has been instrumental in the creation and expansion of the Digital Experience practice, working closely with marketing and digital leaders to shape their strategies and drive both top-line growth and unparalleled customer loyalty.
Introduction
Better Lucky Than Good
What to Expect from This Book
Chapter 1: A Far Too Brief History of Brand Strategy
The Emergence of Modern Brand Strategy
The Intersection of Brand and Experience
The Criticality of Experience
Chapter 2: The Dawn of Digital
The Birth of the Internet
Online Advertising Begins
Personalization of the Online Customer Experience
The E-Mail Explosion
Customer Expectations and Technological Innovation
Emerging from the Digital Transformation Era
Chapter 3: Focusing on the Modern Consumer
Millennial Expectations
Generation Z Expectations
The Customer Funnel
Awareness
Evaluation
Transactions
Engagement
Loyalty
Chapter 4: Believing in Your Brand and Redefining Your Strategy
Experience Defines the Brand
Building a Culture Through Data Analytics and Engagement
Location Through Data Analytics
Leveraging Technology to Drive Engagement and Growth
Turning Brand Promise into Reality
Chapter 5: Selling Experiences, Not Products
Commoditized Brands Become Invisible
Customers Control Branding
Replacing Products with Experiences
A Foundation of Innovation and Performance
Creating an Engaged Community
Pivoting to Gain Market Share
The Fusion of Digital and Physical Personalization
Customer Connection, Personalization, and Omnichannel Strategy
Chapter 6: Time Is the New Currency – Anticipating without Being Invasive
Collapsing Time
Time-Saving Conveniences
Data-Driven Innovations
Making Quick Service Quicker
Post-Digital Data and Loyalty
Four Time-Based Lessons
Chapter 7: Finding a Novel Approach to Solving a Market Need
Ambassadors of Innovation
Strategic Innovations in CRM
Novel Omnichannel Engagement
Building Innovation into Your Brand Strategy
Chapter 8: Humanizing the Experience
Understanding People’s Needs
Expanding an Exclusive Market to Everyone
Human-First Engagement
Risking Controversies for Growth
Humanizing Effectively
Chapter 9: Connecting Your Customer with Your Cause
Embracing Corporate Social Responsibility
Shifting from Brand Identity to Social Cause
Authentic and Proactive Leadership
Engaging and Inspiring the Community
Committing to the Cause
Chapter 10: Looking to the Future
Innovation with a Large I
Predictions Sometimes Miss the Mark
Emerging Experience Trends
AI-Enabled Conversational Interfaces
Augmented Reality
The Metaverse and NFTs
Chapter 11: Where You Should Begin
Three Approaches to Assessments
Three Prerequisites for Assessments
Three Areas of Assessments
Agile Experience Innovation
Notes
About the Author
Index
Other versions by this Author