How to Shape Audience Perception with Branding

Starting with the end in mind is standard advice in business. The end often gets fuzzy when connecting your brand strategy to your BHAG and goals. In financials, brand value even lives in "intangible assets."  It's often pushed downstream as a marketing activity. But a brand is your company's DNA. It can't be confined to downstream management alone. The entire company must improve its brand and marketing literacy to make better strategic decisions. While marketing may own branding, it requires unified leadership to direct the cultural compasses, ensuring the brand promise resonates across all aspects of the brand experience: product, employee, customer, and community. Great experiences create the connection you need to compel people to share, which drives demand and growth. Although most organizations acknowledge the importance of a strong brand for securing a competitive edge, few effectively integrate the brand into cross-functional strategic priorities. Recently, I visited the World Of Coca-Cola Museum. Touring exhibits, I started thinking about how the experience was like reverse engineering a brand from the end. Coke has built one of the most valuable global brands. Their museum immerses visitors in experiences and reminds consumers of their emotional connections worth sharing, driving generations of demand.    Visitors taste beverages from around the world, feel the fizz on their tongues, smell the ingredients, and watch heartwarming movies of people enjoying Coke products, tapping nostalgia and triggering emotional connections. This symbolizes the pinnacle brands aspire toward. I thought about how effective it would be as a leadership exercise in enhancing brand literacy within an organization. Leaders across the company could reverse engineer the brand as a brand museum. What would make the brand museum-worthy? What would make people want to pay to attend and stand in long lines? How would you showcase how customers interact with your products or services? How would you tell the story?  How would you draw back the curtain into how the sausage is made?  What senses or behavior connections could you use to trigger connections to the brand? The answers can create a valuable shared consensus that avoids downstream siloed brand efforts. This also begins to outline a roadmap for organizational improvements. My intuition tells me that getting groups to visualize their brand museums will make creating a great brand more tangible. Teams would start to see and feel the brand objectives that can defend against disruption.  Give it a try. Does envisioning your brand museum reveal gaps between the ideal and current state of your overall brand experience, including customer, employee, and community experiences? Take an assessment of where your brand needs to improve for key stakeholders. You may find improvement opportunities to get you closer to that end goal. #brand #strategy #marketing #culture

🧠 I've worked with dozens of brands to transform their customer experience from a leaky bucket to a psychology-charged, revenue-generating machine. Here's a huge mistake I see over and over👇 Last week, a client purchased a Choice Hacking Customer Experience Audit. This e-commerce brand has an amazing story: - A family-run business for 25+ years - A handmade, high-quality product made in the USA - Products crafted with love and expertise & loved by specialists But it wasn't coming through on their website. They were making a huge marketing mistake: ❌ Not making a personal, emotional connection with customers. By making their company faceless, they're missing out on the benefits of a psychological principle called Parasocial Relationships. 🧠 Parasocial Relationships are one-sided relationships that people form with a celebrity or influencer. They're why: ✅ MrBeast turned 170M+ YouTube subscribers into successful companies ✅ Kylie Jenner built a billion-dollar cosmetics empire on Instagram ✅ Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney turned a decaying Welsh soccer club into one whose name is known around the world Building parasocial relationships works for more than influencer businesses. Think of "traditional" brands like: ✅ Martha Stewart and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia ✅ Dave Thomas & The Wendy's Company ✅ Orville Redenbocker and his popcorn So how do you build a parasocial relationship with your customers? Here are 3 ways: ✅ Share your personal experiences and how they've helped shape the brand ✅ Show yourself in video, audio, and image format ✅ Share the behind-the-scenes work that goes into your brand It might be a little awkward at first (it still is for me), but it can transform your business from a faceless company that blends in with your competitors to one that people recognize, have affection for, and bond with. -- ❤️ Found this interesting? Please like or share this post so it's easier for others to find. 👉 Getting traffic but not enough sales, leads, or clients? Learn how a Customer Experience audit can help you: https://lnkd.in/eDxuFhuD

What are your traditions? 🤷🏻♂️ For our family, Halloween is more than just a day; it's the kick-off to our holiday season, a day we pour our hearts into. We strive to make it magical, crafting an unforgettable experience for our children. This year, something extraordinary happened. My 7-year-old daughter took on the role of ‘head of brand experience.' She wasn't merely concerned about the spooky decorations or the candy selection. Instead, she thought deeply about her audience—the trick-or-treaters. Her focus wasn't just on what she wanted them to see or know; it was about what she wanted them to *feel*. It led me to reflect on our roles as marketers. All too often, we're laser-focused on transmitting information, ensuring our audience knows about our products or services. But do we stop and consider what we want them to *feel*? In the race to communicate features and benefits, have we lost sight of the human experience? At its core, marketing is a human-to-human connection. Yes, the tools, strategies, and platforms may be B2B or B2C or B2B2C—AND—the emotions, decisions, and experiences remain human. As marketers, we need to remember that experiences matter. Every touchpoint, campaign, and interaction has the potential to evoke an emotion, to make someone feel something. So, let's take a cue from Halloween, from the magic of experiences, from the wisdom of a 7-year-old. Let's not just focus on what we want our audience to know. Let's prioritize what we want them to feel. This Halloween, our house was a testament to this philosophy, embodying the spirit of creating memorable experiences. I hope that as marketers, we can adopt this mindset as our tradition—prioritizing the total experience, thinking deeply about the emotions we want to evoke, and not just the information we want to convey. #happyhalloween #h2h #humantohuman #totalexperience #knowandfeel #traditions

Value is the bedrock. It's what differentiates a thriving brand from a stagnant one. In a market crowded with copycat products and diluted promises, value stands out - it's the shield against competition and the key to customer loyalty. But what creates this value? It's not just in the features or the benefits. It's the connection. A brand that understands and connects with its customers on a deeper level creates a unique value proposition. This connection is not coincidental. It's strategic. It's the culmination of understanding market demands, recognizing the competitive landscape, and then leveraging what you do best. I work with brands to forge this depth of connection. Our focus? Authentic narratives that resonate with audiences. Purpose that aligns with customer values. Experience that exceeds expectations. This approach transforms brands into valued market leaders. And it doesn't end there. The best brands are relentless in reinforcing and evolving their value. They watch for shifts in consumer behavior. They adapt. They lead. Every rebrand, product launch, or merger is a new opportunity to solidify this value-based relationship with their audience. In my experience, the brands that do this well aren't just surviving; they're thriving. They're insulated from the ebbs and flows that topple the unprepared. They're consistently outpacing the competition. This is the power of value. And it's at the heart of every strategy I develop with my clients. Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500, the question is the same: What value are you bringing to the table? And how are you connecting that value to your customers? Answer this, and you're not just building a brand. You're building an empire.

In recent weeks I have been waxing poetic about the value and importance of EXPERIENCE In today's fast-paced world. It's something we talk about extensively within the WXO - World Experience Organization. So often in my career live experiences and the teams who nurture these interactions within brands have been seen as a "nice to have" or "luxury" in favor of more data driven marketing channels that are sure bets with clear ROI. ROX - Return On Experience is not always easy to pin down in quantitative metrics that move the needle in resourcing. At the same time consumers - presented with endless choice - are choosing to prioritize social activities that satisfy a deep sense of connection, validation of identity, and true belonging. And the data speaks volumes! - Millennials and Gen Z aren't after just products; they crave experiences resonating with their values, leaving lasting imprints. 🌟 - An astounding 78% of Millennials favor experiences over goods (Eventbrite study). - 72% are splurging more on experiences, from concerts to pop-ups, than on material possessions (Harris Group). - They reveal 57% of Gen Z and 60% of Millennials are fully on board for experiential spending. (Nielsen) - Not to mention, engaging in a branded event leaves 74% with a positive aura towards a brand (Event Marketing Institute). Having dedicated teams and partners focused on a holistic approach and strategy with a deep understanding of event and experience design is paramount to creating successful moments. We are in the business of building memories. This approach ensures that events and experiences not deliver not only on outcomes and your companies KPIs but also improves internal team focus to create transformational moments of change, fulfillment, and shared purpose for your audience. What's the bottom line? Neglecting experiential and immersive experiences in your global marketing strategy means missing the mark on deeply connecting and memorably engaging with whole generations of consumers! And Gen Alpha is not far behind! If you TRULY want to know your audience: meet them face to face where they want to be. Better yet create a home for destination for them to come back to again and again. Understand their motivations and give them something of deep personal value. The reverberating effects of this connection can create life long meaningful relationships and maybe one day help us build better environments for future generations to connect. 🎉✨ Elevate your brand above the norm. Craft meaningful moments. Ignite lasting emotions. It's not just the future of marketing; it's NOW. 💭 Opinions? How are you infusing experiential magic into your audience? Share your ideas and inspirations below! ⬇️ --- #ExperientialMarketing #BrandedEntertainment

Just finished "The Brand Gap" by Marty Neumeier and I can't stop thinking about some of the brand building principles I learned... As the CEO of a creative branding agency, I'm constantly seeking new ways to help our clients bridge the gap between strategy and design. This book delivered 10 game-changing insights that are pure gold for businesses looking to build powerful brands: 1.Brands are feelings, not logos. It's not just about the visual, it's about the emotional connection you forge with your audience. ✨ 2. Focus on UBS (Unique Buying State) not USP (Unique Selling Proposition).Understand the emotional state your customers want to be in, and position your brand as the key. 3. Embrace "fear of stupid" - safe is boring! Don't be afraid to take creative risks and stand out from the crowd. 4. Sell personal identity. Your brand should help customers define who they are and who they want to become. 5. Design thinking is your secret weapon. Collaborative, iterative problem-solving unlocks true innovation. 6. Brands are stories waiting to be told. Craft a compelling narrative that resonates with your audience. 7. Forget features, focus on benefits. What problem does your brand solve?What value does it create? 8. Build a "3D" brand personality. Be relatable, authentic, and show your human side. 9. Customer tribes are the new market segments. Understand their values and create experiences that resonate. 10. Magic (creativity) ignites passion, logic (strategy) builds trust. Find the perfect balance for lasting impact. I highly recommend giving it a read... #branding #creativeagency #marketing #designthinking #businessgrowth