[MUSIC] So in this last segment, we're really defining what a brand is. we, we've talked about what marketing is, we've talked about marketing strategies, competitive analysis, customers values. We talked about the idea of Segmentation targeting and positioning, and the core, core concept of a good strong brand, which is brand positioning. And brand positioning that's so sharp that you can define it in just three words, in 30 seconds as a brand mantra. That's kind of where we've gone. Right down to a sliver of a sharp definition of what a brand is. And in this last piece of this, I want to talk about the notion of experiential brand. When we talked about what is marketing. And we talked about things changing from the sellers market to a buyers market to the connected community. In the connected community, that's when this notion of customer experience comes in. And brands like. just general markets and customers experiences also have become very experiential. So its not enough to just define a brand in terms of a crisp, clear brand mantra and a crisp, clear brand positioning, but you also have to define all of the experience that exists around the brand. What's the smell of the brand? What's the feel of the brand? All sorts of other things now become part of what the brand is in this new experiential world that we live in. So, what's an experience? an experience is a process that occurs as a result of living through a situation. Undergoing that situation. So it's not just a moment in time, it's a dynamic notion where you sense or feel this experience. as I'm going to define it later, you'll see that it involves all the senses, it's social, it's behavioral, it's cognitive, it's emotional. It's stimulations that are triggered to the sense that you think about, that you feel. they connect the company and the brand to the customer, and they place the the customer action and the, the individual's actions and purchase occasions in a broader social context. So the experience includes all of these kinds of things. It's What I've been talking about, up to this point really, is pretty cognitive, pretty rational. And here's where we bring in the emotions and all these other things, and I know those of you who know and love brands really understand that brands are emotional, they're experiential, they're not just this hard and fast cognitive point of view. And so that's what I, I'm emphasizing here on the point I want to end with in this section, that a brand is an experience. And so, the things on the left are important. I'm going to talk about those but they all have to be augmented to be bigger than that. And to embody this experience or emotional piece. So we talked about differentiation. That's a principle of marketing, to be differentiated, the point of difference. But now, and today's brand, these rich brands, are not just differentiated, they're experientially differentiated. So the different, the differentiation is also in the brand experience. It's not just a single promise. It's a relationship. You, you feel towards your brand, the brands that you just love. If you're an Apple lover, or you're an Abercrombie lover, or something, you have a relationship with that brand; it's over time, and it defines you. It's not just brand attributes, these cognitive at-, or these performance attributes, or these product attributes. It's a personality, you think the brand almost as a friend. It's not static, it's dynamic. It's not a mass brand, because you're co-creating with the brand. The brand becomes very individualized. Becomes, very relevant to you. You're not just aware of this brand, you're aware of how this brand fits into your life. So you can see by the types of words I'm saying that Really, really strong brands embody all of this emotional experience. and so when you define these terms, these things that I've mentioned earlier, than you're not just thinking about brand positioning. You think about experiential brand positioning. So what does the brand stand for? And it should be a multi-sensory strategy. When you think about brand positioning, experiential brand positioning, you not only want to think about. you know, what the DNA is. What the brand mantra is. You want to think what's the smell of the brand. What's the color of the brand. What's the emotion you feel when you think about the brand. That's a brand positioning and experiential brand positioning. And, it, it, it needs to be as any kind of differentiation is, it needs to be distinct from everybody elses. So you don't want all hotels don't smell the same. All soaps don't smell the same. They have different experiences. And then the brand promise the mantra again, it's not just three words, you know, cognitive words. It also needs To describe what that brand promise is in experiential terms. And here's where I'm going to be very clear of what I mean by experiential. it needs to have senses. So, it need to be what's the vision of it? What does it look like? What does it smell like? Maybe what does it taste like? What does it sound like? Is there music associated with it? What does it feel like? What are the senses? And then, when I say feel here, what I mean is emotions. What, what, how do you feel about it? Is it a happy brand? Is it a sad brand? Is it a. you know, a tragic brand? What, what, what are the emotions you feel with this brand? What do you think about it? That's what we've been talking about. How does it make you behave or act? And relate, its refers to the social environment, what people, what social contexts, what culture do you consider or do you put this brand in and all this, this experiential aspect of the brand should be in all channels, all channels should have an experiential component to it. So just to go over those again. The, the sensuous is across the five senses, you want to have a consistent experience. The feel part are the emotions. You should appeal to the customer's inner feelings and build strong emotions to it. The cognitive is the intellect. The thought process. The intrigue. The surprise. Whatever is, but thoughts. The behave is the way, how people act around it. It can be inspirational. It can cause you to act in a certain way. And social is the part of the social system, the culture, that surrounds the brand. And you want to have these experiential functions delivered through the four P's. We're back to the four P's. The product, the place, the promotion. Only now, and the price, even. And now we're going to define each one of these four P's in experiential ways. So let me just give you examples. all of you know about, I'm sure you've seen this self designed, customized Nike. It's not just a product attribute anymore. It's a, a shoe that you could, can co-design, co-create. You're part of the process that makes it very experiential. You choose what you want in your shoes, you choose what you want in your greeting cards. Like I said, millenials are very much thinking like this, they should be part of, they should co-create the product. That's an experiential notion of a product. advertising that's experiential, I think, one of the one's who's a beginner to really understood this was Apple, when Apple would show their iPad or their iPod when they were first coming out, it was a very experiential ad. It was music, it was dance, it was. You know, you felt it. The little white ear buds that came through was the color, the design. Was very. So you can see advertising. This is traditional advertising. Certainly online advertising. Mobile advertising is very experiential, very interactive now. I think, that's what most people are now just assuming most advertising is that way. You, when you're watching ads on the Superbowl, you know, you, you have your second screen there, and you're interacting with it. That's very experiential. What does it mean to experience price? Well, eBay certainly showed us that, you know, with Auctions, sometimes people will give you a bag and say, anything you can put in this bag you'll save 20%, it makes price something that you're creating. I'm not deciding what you're going to save 20% on, you decide what fits in the bag. Or even the concept of priceline.com where you kind of name your own price, that's very much an experiential notion around price. Even something As, as cognitive as price which is numbers can be experiential. And finally channels, you're seeing stores, you're seeing online become very experiential. These beautiful flagship stores. If any of you seen Ralph Lauren's mansion in New York City or in Paris or Milan. these are stores where in, in Ralph Lauren, for example, they built an entire house, the entire, the entire lifestyle. People who wear Ralph Lauren clothes. What kind of house would they live in? What kind of furniture would they have? and, and it's very very experiential, not just, it's not just a store with clothes on a rack, it's stores in the experience, in the context you're going to live and wear them. Sephora is another experiential store. When you go into Sephora, there's lights, there's colors there's smells, people are touching you, they're putting things on. This is how cosmetics should be, you know, it's not hidden behind a counter and you can't tell anything and you gotta get a sales person to come and get you. That is not experiential. You want to go and feel the colors, put them on and see them, smell them, that's experiential. And that's what a lot of retail is happening. And the very best retailers understand that. If you go to Times Square in New York you'll see, like, incredibly, incredible candy stores that are very experiential. There's a Pop-Tart store, there's an M&M store, you go in to that store and the candies are everywhere, the colors are everywhere, you can taste different kinds of things. The, it's a lot of fun, it's almost like an amusement park, that's what retailing has come to be. It's fun. It's exciting. Experiential. And that's what we're ta, and all of these, by the way, are within the DNA of the brand. This is not random experience. This is not things that are not extremely well thought out. Each one of these pieces is delivering to the brand mantra in an experiential way through four p's. This is what's happening in brands. The very best brands are brands that you understand, that you live, that you experience, and that you can tell your friends about. They're, they're brands, some people think about these new kinds of experiential brands as religion. and it, it's like a religious experience, and we certainly saw that when Steve Jobs passed away. People went to the Apple store and put flowers in front of the Apple stores. That was his church. That was a memorial. The, these things, brands have taken on very new meanings, these global brands in, in today's world. And so, just as a conclusion to this whole section wrapping up everything I said, if you've got a strong brand, a strong brand makes clear promises. Clarity is very important and it has to be dynamic, that these promises have to be kept over time. You have rich unique brand equity, strong emotions, strong thoughts with it and they're delivered dependably and consistently and strong brands have really loyal customers who help spread the brand message. weak brands on the other hand are vague, they change, you don't even know what they're going to do, there's no consistency there's no commitment, there's no. it's a very spotty reputation, there's doubt about it. You didn't, never know what it is, pricing can change, you know, one time it looks like this, another time it's shoddy qual, those are not strong friends. Consistent, clear promises are what make very strong brands. The other characteristic of great brands, as I said, is consistency. Every time you get a product experience under this brand name it's the same. You expect it. It meets your expectations. Very important. Branded products tend to be superior products. You're not just delivering a lukewarm tea. You're delivering something that meets specific customer value. It's distinctive. A strong brand doesn't melt into another brand. There's a very big difference between Disney and McDonald's. You don't get them confused. You don't get Coke and Pepsi confused. They are very, very distinct brand positioning, and distinct customer experiences, even if the product itself might be somewhat similar. brands are aligned. What you, what is, what is shown externally is aligned internally in the organization. When you have a market leadership strategy, it not only indicates what your market strategy should be going forward. But it indicates what kind of organization you're going to have, what the priority of your resources are going to be how you allocate those resources, etcetera. and it's very important, we'll talk about this in the last section, for your brand to stay relevant. Markets change, times change, customers change. A great brand is flexible and adaptable and changes with the customers. >> [MUSIC]
