Branded Experience Is Not Enough-- by Nate Winter

In the market of interactive design work, "experience" terminology like "branded experience," and "digital experience" are a dime a dozen. It"s not to say these terms hold no value, in fact their value is substantial, but the oversaturation of these terms as buzz words has distorted the view of the bigger picture. Experience is great. It gets us through each day and on to bigger and better opportunities. On some level, life is simply a series of experiences. But it vastly oversimplifies what it means to live. This understanding is insufficient. Incomplete.

This is where interactive design agencies fail.

The "experience" in "branded experience" needs to be taken to the next level. Branded experience is the child when we need the parent. What creates experience? We need (branded experience)².

Experiences are a good start, but there needs to be a master plan that governs them. With the right structure, experiences can become more than the sum of their parts. And branded experiences can become integrated, branded environments. The ultimate goal is for customers to live a "your brand" lifestyle. However, in our age of previews, consumer ratings, “try before you buy” and money back guarantees, we owe them a vision of how their "your brand" lifestyle will be. If living a "your brand" lifestyle is home, customers need a virtual tour.

While the branded lifestyle applies to any brand, nowhere do these ideas of "lifestyle", "experience" and "home" find relevance better than in residential real estate. In real estate, if a residential development is the real home, why shouldn't the development website be the virtual home?

In the ideal branded environment, every real experience would have its correlated virtual experience, but, realistically, this has limitations. For example: Just because someone might wait for an elevator in the real property does not mean that there should be a virtual preenactment of waiting for the elevator. The realizable goal is to convince the customer that the real experiences that matter have their correlated virtual experiences. In engaging a digital experience with a brand, consumers understand the real experience with that brand. A user won't take the time to find out if they can truly experience everything about a brand digitally first, but they want the feeling of knowing a brand completely through experiences in a digital environment.

IMMERSION

Creating brand-centric customers is an act of teaching them to understand the your brand's culture. We all know that cultures have unique customs, language, colors, music, etc. that one must learn in order to function effectively within the culture. Brands enjoy colorful logos, jingles, and product names and terms that uniquely identify them. Just as the best way to understand a culture is not to study the language from a textbook, but to visit the culture itself, the best way to know a brand is to become part of it. This process is called "immersion."

And why should immersion work any differently for a brand than for a culture? Customers can read the brochure to get to know you, but an immersive, interactive experience is far more effective and enjoyable for all parties.

The ultimate goal of commercial interactive design is the creation of integrated, digital environments, a.k.a. immersive experiences for its client brands.

HOW TO GET THERE

The guide to moving from isolated branded experiences to complete branded environments reveals two key steps.

Step 1: Communicating Specific Ideas
This refers to identifying the important ideas that need to be communicated. Waiting for the elevator, for example, is pretty unimportant. But what ideas are important to creating a complete understanding of your brand's real experience?

Step 2: Strategic Integration of Digital Media
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the website, touch screen, motion graphics video, cell phone game and other digital media? What is the best way for them to work together and create a complete understanding of a real experience?

-- Nate Winter