Building Brand Experiences

A Practical Guide to Retaining Brand Relevance

Darren Coleman

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780749481568
• eBook ISBN: 9780749481575
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Advertising
• Index: Business

Retaining brand relevance is fundamental to organizational success, and an increasing challenge that high-level marketing professionals now face. In the past, many have responded with product or price-based competition, yet this can only propel a brand so far when it comes to retaining long-term relevance. Research shows that consumers are in fact driven by emotion and positive brand experiences have the power to drive engagement, while simultaneously offering countless options for competitive differentiation. Building Brand Experiences enables managers and executives to realize this and create tailored, relevant experiences that will appeal to consumers and drive brand performance. Practically structured around The Brand Experience Blueprint, Building Brand Experiences provides a step-by-step guide to the process of building effective brand experiences based on tried-and-tested tools, templates and informed research. Combining expert insight and real-world examples in an anecdotal and digestible way, Building Brand Experiences is the essential guide to crafting relevant experiences that consumers will love, to improve brand engagement and drive results.

PART ONE

Brand Experience Environment

03

Understanding your stakeholders

There are four elements of the Brand Experience Environment: understanding your stakeholders; fine-tuning your perspective; considering the mechanics of delivery; and adopting a data-driven approach.

This chapter focuses on understanding your stakeholders and covers:

• profiling stakeholders;
• helping stakeholders get ‘jobs done’;
• encouraging stakeholder engagement;
• managing stakeholder expectations.

Understanding your stakeholders will help you consider points such as: who you are building brand experiences for; how the experiences should be delivered; where the experiences should be delivered; and how your experiences will help various stakeholders. Armed with these insights you will be well placed to deliver relevant experiences that resonate with your key stakeholders.

Profiling stakeholders

Organizations are influenced by an increasing number of stakeholders. Table 3.1 identifies a range of stakeholders that brands may come into contact with, and provides examples of experiences different groups may expect brands to deliver.

Table 3.1 Examples of stakeholder-based experiences

Stakeholder	Type of experience you may build for this stakeholder group
Customers (existing/prospective; B2B/B2C)	Online (desktop/mobile). Retail (shopping centre, pop up etc). Experiential events to educate buyers, agents, distributors or other intermediaries/partners that sit between your organization and the end customer.
Employees (existing/prospective)	Induction and training to educate and engage employees. Recruitment fairs/employer branding experiences to attract and engage potential employees. Apprentice schemes which help bring young people into the workplace and equip them with valuable skills. Company away days to show appreciation/build team spirit and break down team or functional silos.
Suppliers	Events to share your expectations of suppliers in terms of service levels, costs, ethics etc so you can learn how you can work more closely with them and ultimately deliver a better experience to your customers or other stakeholders. Joint training sessions where you learn about each other’s values (and other Brand Experience Essentials) so you can appreciate what informs each other’s approach to doing business.
Competitors	Industry events so you can collaborate on standards or ethics-based best practice, for the good of the industry and society at large.
Organizations you could collaborate/partner with	Events/stands at trade shows that demonstrate how your brand experiences complement each other. Creating joint thought leadership content, eg webinars to highlight the value your organizations can collaboratively deliver.
Trade unions	Meetings to listen to union members’ concerns and/or share strategic plans in an open and transparent way.
Governments/politicians	Invite national/local government to your premises to showcase your brand experiences to encourage inward investment.
Potential/existing investors/shareholders/ analysts	Quarterly/annual investor updates to outline how funds have been invested, returns delivered and plans for the future. Organize online debriefings to share market insights/forecasts that demonstrate thought leadership.
Local, national or international media	Invite to press days to showcase new experiences you are about to launch. Provide clearly presented and informative industry data that media can use in articles or reports. Invite prominent social media influencers to special events so you can start to build relationships with them and ultimately their communities.
Local communities	Educational experiences to engage the local community with your brand and show how you make a positive contribution to the local area. Town hall meetings to allay anxieties concerning noise, disruption or pollution associated with your premises, planned factory expansion, etc.
Lobby groups	Approach or invite lobbyists to share insights, initiate dialogue so you can build relationships based on mutual understanding and benefit.
Volunteers (for charities or religious organizations)	Public events that recruit volunteers. Training so volunteers know how to fundraise in ways that align with your Brand Experience Essentials.

Sime Darby is a diversified Malaysian multinational with a US $11.74 billion market capitalization. The company has 123,410 employees across 26 countries and spans sectors including plantations, industrial equipment, the automotive industry and property.¹ The organization’s scale means it needs to identify, understand and engage with a broad range of stakeholders, as their 2016 Annual Report outlines (Table 3.2).

Table 3.2 Sime Darby stakeholders

Stakeholder	How we engage
Investors	Roadshows and regional investor conferences Group and one-on-one meetings Annual general meeting, quarterly results briefing sessions
Customers	Tradeshows and exhibitions Product launches Direct engagements and surveys Direct visits to sites and factories operated by the Group
Suppliers/Business Partners	Relationship building/networking sessions Vendor development programme
Employees (current and potential)	Town halls, events and activities Focus group discussions on targeted issues and engagement surveys
Communities	Community engagement and outreach Community development programmes Strategic partnerships
Governments/Authorities/ Regulators	Regular engagements, communication and dialogue Consultation on regulatory matters
Civil Society/NGOs	Industry roundtables Strategic partnerships Direct engagements
Others (Media, Academics, Industry, Association)	Stakeholder engagemen...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• About the author
• Foreword by Claire Cronin
• Acknowledgements
• 01 Introduction to retaining relevance through brand experiences
• 02 The Brand Experience Blueprint: A practical management tool
• PART ONE Brand Experience Environment
• PART TWO Brand Experience Essentials
• PART THREE Brand Experience Enablers
• PART FOUR Measuring Brand Experiences
• ‘Brand purpose’: A cautionary note
• Further reading
• Index
• Backcover