What is brand experience and how can it help your business?

The concept of brand experience can sometimes be tricky to wrap your head around. You’re likely familiar with the idea of ‘user experience’ and ‘customer service’ (and how important they are to your business), but brand experience is still a bit of a mystery. 

That’s why we’ve put together this guide to explain everything you need to know about what brand experience is and why it’s so important for your business. Plus, we’ll include:

• How to improve your brand experience 
• What’s a brand experience in experiential marketing 
• Examples of branded experience and events 
• How does creating a brand experience help your business 

What is brand experience in marketing?

In a few words, brand experience refers to the perception customers (and potential customers) have of your brand. This encompasses every aspect of your business, from website user experience to digital advertising to the quality of your products. 

Products or services 

The design, functionality, quality and value of your products (or services) form a part of your brand experience. If your target audience thinks your products are low quality or overpriced, this can really harm your business. 

Digital channels 

How users experience your brand through digital channels, including social media and your website, will also impact your brand experience. A poor online user experience, such as slow page loading times or unanswered messages, can quickly impact the overall perception of your brand. 

Advertising

All forms of advertising, including social media and search engine ads, will impact how people view your brand. Although ads can help boost brand awareness and drive site traffic, they can also damage your brand experience if users perceive your ads negatively (or feel like they’re constantly shown them).

Customer service

Good customer service, both in person, online, and over the phone, can positively affect your brand. Glowing reviews and testimonials can also influence other people’s impressions. 

What’s the importance of brand experience?

Now you understand what brand experience is, you probably want to know how it will help your business. 

Increase customer loyalty

Having a positive brand experience can help create loyal customers and brand fans who advocate your products or services to others. Building trust and long-lasting relationships with customers can take time, and ensuring their experience is consistent across all platforms and channels is important. There’s no point in having an amazing, unique product if your website takes 5 minutes to load. Consistency is key.

Better customer experience

Customer satisfaction is at the heart of your brand experience. Happy and engaged customers are far more likely to buy your products (and continue to buy them long-term). Offering a positive experience can also help move customers along the customer journey and give them the final push needed to purchase.

Drives profitability

Having a great brand experience increases your customer lifetime value (CLV), increasing your business’s profitability. Offering quality products, exceptional customer service, and a good user experience means customers will view your products as higher value and be less price sensitive.  

Differentiate your brand from the competition

Offering a unique brand experience can also help to differentiate your brand from the competition, especially in competitive industries. Ensure every element of your brand experience is infused with your brand identity and values. 

How to improve your brand experience

1. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses

The first step will be to identify your brand’s strengths and weaknesses and identify areas where your brand experience falls short. You might already have an idea of some areas you need to improve, but you’ll likely need to investigate. Social media interactions and customer service or sales calls are great places to start. You might also want to conduct a user experience audit of your website. 

2. Gather and analyse customer feedback 

Ultimately, brand experience is about what customers think and feel about your brand, so it’s essential that you look at customer feedback. This might include social listening data from relevant social media sites and information from forums and review sites. You can also conduct a survey to gather feedback directly from customers or potential customers (online or in person). This might include questions about areas you’ve already identified as weaknesses and more open-ended questions. 

3. Create an action plan (and put it into action)

After you’ve gathered all the relevant data and customer feedback, you should have a few areas to improve. It’s important not to try to fix everything all at once but rather create an action plan which prioritises areas which need immediate attention. You’ll also need to consider which issues are immediate (and easy fixes) and which will take time to work on and improve. 

4. Measure your results

Once you’ve started to put your steps into action, you must track and measure your results. This might be through positive social media mentions, monitoring customer service interactions, and ongoing surveys. 

Bonus step: create a brand-infused experience 

Experiential activations and branded events can help amplify your brand experience and engage with your target audience in a meaningful and immersive way. This could be a pop-up where potential customers can try a new product or an interactive event that engages your target audience…

So, what is a brand experience in experiential marketing?

Experiential marketing includes branded events or experiences designed to engage your target audience, increase brand awareness, create a buzz around your products and improve your overall brand experience.

Brand experiences are often interactive games and activities that appeal to your target audience and can be combined with a competition or giveaway. However, the main appeal of brand experiences should be the experience itself rather than a prize.

Although traditionally branded experiences were physical, in-person events, in recent years, virtual and hybrid experiences have become more popular to engage with more potential customers across locations.

Examples of branded experiences 

It can be difficult to grasp what exactly a brand experience is, so here are a couple of examples of effective brand experiences for some inspiration. 

Red Bull: Flugtag Race

If there’s one company that exemplifies that concept of experiential marketing and branded experiences, it’s Red Bull. 

First started in 1991, the Flugtag race involves competitors attempting to fly home-made, human-powered flying machines in a playful twist on their tagline ‘Red Bull gives you wings’. Rather than promoting their product (their energy drink), the event is about communicating what the Red Bull brand is about to the world and creating an emotional connection. 

Warner Bros Pictures: Barbie Movie Selfie Generator

To promote the new Barbie film, a selfie generator that utilises AI was created to allow people to feel like they’re a part of the upcoming film. Users’ selfies are edited into the Barbie promotional poster in a virtual, branded experience. The film’s premiere date was included on every image, helping to spread the word when the selfies were shared on social media. 

M&M: Flavour Rooms

To support the launch of a new flavour, M&M created an immersive pop-up in New York City. Each ‘flavour room’  was filled with visuals and scents, with speciality cocktails for each proposed new flavour. By allowing fans to vote, this interactive brand experience made it feel like people were part of creating a new M&M flavour. 

How can a branded experience help your business?

A brand experience or event can be as big or as small as needed to support your business goals (and fit with your budget). Experiential marketing can help your business:

• Build brand awareness. By creating a fun and immersive experience for your target audience, your brand name is more likely to stick in people’s minds when they are ready to purchase. Unique events will also often gain media attention, shares on social media and word-of-mouth recommendations. 
• Increase loyalty. Brand experiences help to connect emotionally with your target audience, which builds long-term loyalty and powerful relationships. 
• Support the launch of new products. An interactive experience pop-up can give people a chance to try a new product first-hand, reducing their perceived risk of purchasing. 
• Create a buzz on social media and user-generated content. An effective brand experience can create a wealth of user-generated content and ‘go viral’. This helps to amplify your brand message and reach more people. 
• Lead generation. Brand experiences can also help gather contact information to remarket to people in the future and push them towards a conversion. 

Brand experience agency

Another Way creates bespoke brand experiences and events designed to connect with your target audience and strengthen brand loyalty. We leverage emotions and storytelling to forge lasting relationships which extend beyond the initial event. 

Our founder, Andrew, has been in the Promotional Marketing industry for over ten years. Using ‘heads up’ thinking, he’s crafted successful experiential campaigns and branded experiences that truly connect to customers and drive real results. From Airbnb to Ferrero, he’s worked with many big names to improve their long-term brand loyalty through unique and impactful events. 

At Another Way, we can create a comprehensive brand experience strategy to help you connect with your customers and boost engagement. From a new product launch to an influencer experience, we have access to a global network of contacts and a trusted roster of talent to deliver your perfect branded experience. 

Our expert team will handle every aspect of your brand experience, from design and planning to execution. Sometimes, tracking the impact of your brand-infused event can be tricky, so we offer a post-event evaluation to help you understand the results of your brand experience. 

We offer:

• Brand strategy and identity consultations 
• Physical, digital and hybrid experiences
• Brand partnerships
• Experiential activations and events 
• Location and venue sourcing 
• Travel, logistics and event management 
• Post-event evaluations

If you’re interested in running a brand experience or event, we would love to help. Give us a call at 0778 948 5123 or email us at [email protected] to find out more about how we do brand experiences differently. 

Or complete our online form, and a member of our team will be in touch with you as soon as we can.