BRAND STRATEGY The total brand experience as mainstream communication Mark Brown, The Marketing Store, shows how brands can create their own context most people that the world of Jcommunications is changing. Media fragmentation is one thing, but then there is the proliferation of commercial messages which, depending on which source you prefer, means that we are being exposed to anything between 1,000 per week and 1,300 per day. We are being overwhelmed with choice: the average supermarket now carries 30,000 SKUs compared with 500 in the 1950s. Then there is technology, mobile phones, WAP, internet, iTV, PDAS,TiVo, Bluetooth, and it goes on. While these developments may make our lives easier, there is another effect, We are never out of touch, we are always ‘busy’ In the current climate brands are shouting to try to get people's attention, In order to compete, we either need to shout louder or to behave differently Creating brand experiences is one way to behave differently, [: WILL COME as no surprise to Catching consumers’ attention We are being bombarded - our brains cannot take it all in. So we are develop- ing strategies to avoid some of this bombardment. We are tuning out of ad breaks, either zapping or just switching out; we are binning mailers; we are giv- ing only a cursory glance to print ads, We educate our brains to do this ‘filtering’ by saying to ourselves: ‘If I have seen it or something like it before, ignore i ‘To some extent, this has always been the case. Since advertising began, there has been an increasing need to work harder to get people’s attention. This has led to agencies ‘getting more creative’, ‘challenging’ and in some cases totally bizarre in their approach. The ultimate ‘goal is to get people’s attention in order to deliver the brand message. If people February 2001 Jor a closer customer relationship are expecting to be hit with a commer- cial message, they are less likely to ‘engage. Itis one thing to be able to grab their attention for a short time and give a simple message, itis another altogeth- er to engage them and build a deep brand relationship. One thing that makes a good brand experience is if the context in which the brand appears is unexpected. If the go-round itis unlikely people asking ‘What on earth is that doing there?” or from people in the lengthy queue waiting to climb aboard. Ifwe can change the brand's context and put it where people would not expect it, we will engage the brain and demand their attention. They will either attempt to understand why it is there and what it is doing or they will benefit in some way from what the brand is offering, to get a great deal of attention if you place it in the middle of Alton Towers, where it is vying for attention with the likes of Oblivion, Nemesis and ‘The Black Hole Alternatively, if you put the same merry-go-round in Trafalgar Square it will generate huge interest either from The dynamics of brand experience ‘The term “brand experience’ is most often used to describe a physical event of some sort. This could be a huge event created for a brand to provide a new and ‘unique contact point, right through to something as simple as in-store m+ How experiences work: an example News International's Books for Schools activity, run in association with Walkers crisps, shows how a brand experience works. Both News Intemational (Sun and The Times) and Walkers are ubiquitous brands. It is rare that brands can be familiar enough to a large enough group of people to undertake this sort of activity and their scale becomes a powerul asset. The target audience in this case falls into two main groups: teachers who need to facilitate the collection for schools. and families who can collect the vouchers to be redeemed by the schools in retum for ‘books. The emotional anchor that is common to these groups is @ desie to do their best for the children, to give them a good start in life. The brand experience, then, is all about helping to give children a head startin their reading. The invitation element included DM to schools to get them signed up for the activity, TV ‘ads announcing the scheme and ads from the Sun and Walkers teling people where to find the tokens. The brand experience itself takes place at two points. At home and in the community the scheme encourages people to collect as a group. Grandparents, parents and children alike get involved in the collection. Then, at school, there are tools to help the teachers encour- age the children to bring in thei tokens, inthe form of posters and runningtotal charts. By getting the whale school and community invohed, a powerful experience is had by all. The scheme is then miked through the Walker's theme campaign featuring Gary Lineker ‘and through extensive coverage, not only in News Intemational tes but also through focal press covering stories built around local schoots. This ‘cause-elated’ rand experience not only has a positive effect on brand values but also has a significant effet on sales, both shortterm and longterm, 47 (© Word Advertsing Research Center 2001BRAND STRATEGY sampling. A good example of the former is *T in the Park’, created for Tennents in cotland in order to engage the younger ‘end of the market through their interest in music. Itis widely accepted that these sort of event-based brand experiences, when done properly, are hugely power- ful marketing tools. However, there is a limit to their effectiveness. No doubt if, you could get every one of the target audience to experience the event, the net impact on business would be demon- strable. This of course is impractical and unlikely to be cost effective. It is there- fore interesting to look at what happens to change the consumer-brand relation ship at these sorts of events, in an attempt to replicate the effect in a prac tical way without the use of location based events. Bernd Schmitt, in his book Experien- ‘tial Markering (1), argues that these sorts of activities allow consumers to sense, feel, think, act or relate to a brand. He suggests that in tapping into the “strategic underpinnings of experiential marketing’ we are connecting with con- sumers ona deeper level than we would with traditional marketing techniques that focus on features and benefits. He ‘may be right, but I believe that itis much simpler than that ‘These location-based experiences ‘engage the brain of the consumer. They create the space for the consumer to spend quality time being emotionally boa CeIn ea roe, cencad id = fear £2 Ke (a) : 7D) engaged with the brand. In effect, they take consumers out of the commercial clutter with which they are bombarded and surround them in a brand bubble (Exhibit 1), This gives them the time and space to consider the brand, either con- sciously or subconsciously, and therefore form some sort of relationship with it. “Today, with the sheer number of brands any sort of relationship is bet- ter than no relationship, so that when it ‘comes to brand choice, the brand at least has a fighting chance to be preferred. “That principle can be applied to create non-location-based experiences. ‘The objective is to develop experiences that allow the consumer to spend quality time emotionally engaged with the brand. This means that we have to find an appropriate space and time in their lives where the brand can provide some- thing that can be of use by either increasing pleasure or reducing pain. Below: The Coco Pops versus Choco Krisples debate oN pelt Pea Ten CSR Pasi el (© World Advertsing Research Center 2001 Creating experiences Good experiences have to be useful and relevant, We therefore need to under- stand two things, We need to know what it is about our brand that can provide a relevant experience. Then we need to know where this experience can usefully fit into people's lives. Schmitt writes: “Experiences are private events that occur in response to some stimulation. Experiences inrcolve the entire living being ... As a mar- eter you need to provide the right cerrironment and setting forthe desired cus~ tomer experiences to emerge’ A brand may have a number of assets that it could exploit. It may be a spon- sorship property, a colour, a taste, shape, a proposition, a benefit, a perfor- ‘mance attribute ~ anything, in fact, that consumers will understand to be ‘of the brand’. When considering the target con- sumersit is useful to look for ‘emotional anchors’ in their lives ~ in other words, things that matter to them. These could be a birthday, taking a lunch break, being treated like a grown-up, passing a driving test, receiving a letter — any time, in fact, where people fecl pleasure (for some brands, experiences can also be built around points where people feel pain) ‘The Tango megaphone is an example ofa powerful brand experience. ATV ad grabbed people's attention and asked them to phone a premium line for their megaphone. The experience starts with the phone call; we are initiating a dia- logue with the brand, When the megaphone arrives it gives us pleasure, ‘we have fun with it and all the time we are engaged with the Tango brand, developing our relationship in a person- al way. The success of the megaphone is down to an intimate understanding of brand and consumer. In this case the megaphone increased pleasure because it allowed people to have a laugh with a mad toy. There also has to be a reason for this brand to be providing the experience. Tango is all about mischievous fun, so the mega- phone is spot on. ‘The stages of a brand experience From analysing some examples of great brand experiences, it becomes clear how the balance can be maintained between February 2001the need to reach a large audience and the need to have a personal, interactive experience that cements the brand in people’s minds. Alan Mitchell in The Rise of New Marketing (2) says: ‘The ‘brand is no longer the same thing to all peo- ‘le. It changes according to the demands of the customer within the relationship. Nee yearnings are being created ~ yearnings ‘Jor authenticiey; or communityfor meaning and for trust. This will bring private, continuous, customised dialogue betcoven intimate partners’ While we want to reach as many People as possible, we also need 10 provide the opportunity for them to develop their own personal relationships. Brand experiences can do this, because there can be three stages to a brand experience The three stages of a brand experience The Invitation is about maximising awareness of the experience. This is often done through broadcast and other mass media. It is all about getting people's attention and directing them to the experience, @ The Experience is where people ‘emotionally engaged. This is much more personalised and interactive. It tends to uuse one-to-one media like telephone, sales promotion, web, events and DM. (© ‘Milking 1°, were people who did not necessarily partake in the experience are contacted to at least gain some benefit for the brand. This is often done through PR or broadcast. Below: The ubiquitous Big Brother brand February 2001 Alison Wright of MGM says (3): “Increasingly, one role for interruptive advertising cil be o get the initial attention ‘of consumers, in onder to direct them to other communication channels cohere the dialogue can be continued more cost-effectively and on the conswner’s terms. The brand expe- rience model allows the invitation to be delivered via interruptive media, while the experience provides the alternative ‘communication channel In a recent IPA effectiveness paper for Coco Pops (4), a brand experience hhas been thoroughly analysed. The activity used TV to invite children to vote for their favourite brand name, Coco Pops or Choco Krispies, via the experi- ence of a telephone call to Coco the Monkey or a visit to his website. The result was milked via a TV ad and PR. Nearly one million votes were received and sales increased 28%. Inter- estingly, however, the paper shows that long-term sales are still higher than before the brand experience (+23% one year after the vote). Ic is this long-term effect of good brand experiences that demonstrates how they can be so effective at connect- ing consumers to brands and redefining their relationships. ‘Other examples of great brand experi- Asda Drive-In Movies, Niketown, Pepperami Fanimal and Carling Football Stuff. However, brand experiences are also being used by brands such as Jif, Dove and Max tor ~ they are not just for children and young adults. Perhaps the best example of brand experience in action is Channel 4's Big Brother. This is a classic case study in how brand engagement can have a truly powerful effect. Using small ads, trailers, telephone voting, websites, PR, books, auctions and live appearances, the Big Brother brand became the fastest grow- ing and most-talked-about brand in the UK within a period of ten weeks. The viewing figures re-wrote the record books. This success was not solely down to the programme format. In fact, I believe it was mainly due to the brand experience. It involved us, we were responsible, we were engaged and most importantly the brand connected with us in different contexts; on the phone, the web, and through word of mouth in pubs, canteens and coffee bars up and down the country. Conclusion In short, total brand experience is a marketing model for the modern world because © it facilitates strong emotional relation- ships between brand and consumer in a world where trust brands are king @ it helps cut through the commercial clutter in a world where every brand is shouting to be heard @it increases the effectiveness of broadcast’ media by providing a destination in a world of permission marketing. . 1. B Schmit: Experiential Marketing, Free Press, 2000, 2.A Mitchell: Brand Straepcs in dhe Information Age ~The Rise of Nete Marketing. FT Manage- ‘ment Report, 1997, 3. A Wright: “How to command consumers attention’, Admap, December 1999, 4. Addrtsing Works 11, Eaited by'Tien Broad. bent, WARC Lid, Henley-on-Thames, 2000. ‘Mark Brown is shanning director at The ‘Marketing Stor Previously he teas cnsative director of ‘Starcom, the Lao Burnett media independent, and ‘prior to that planned ‘woriows campaigns at Leo Burnet. 49