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Customer Acquisition

The Most Important and Powerful Model for All (Direct Response) Marketers

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If you’re running paid media of any sort (Facebook, TV, affiliates, direct mail, or otherwise), you have to understand one thing above everything else: the value of a customer. It is crucial to help you manage media. The lesser-considered discussed but equally important benefit of having a customer LTV model is that it helps to identify key points of leverage in your business and where to direct resources for testing and optimizing.

In this video, I walk through the customer LTV model (aka, the margin model or the unit economics model). Regardless of your understanding and use of the model, my goal is that you will learn something new and approach it in at least a slightly different way than before.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

How Lessons from TV Helped to Scale a Facebook Video Ad Campaign

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Watch this case study where I show how the lessons learned from managing DR spots on TV helped us to best exploit and scale a Facebook Video Ad campaign. I break down how we scaled a Facebook Video Ad campaign from $100/day to $12k/day in 3 weeks.

Based on my experience running over a half a billion dollars in media, we knew where to be and what to look for to capture the demand we generated from spending profitably into 20 million views! It also turns out that Facebook Video Ads have a lot more in common with Infomercials than you might think.

 

Serving the Underserved Creates THEIR Experience

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In a literal way, inclusivity is the opposite of exclusivity.  And so, while being exclusive means something is for a select group, inclusivity, particularly for marketers, doesn’t necessarily have to about trying to include everyone. At times, companies can simply target people who have been underserved.  Especially when we think about one of the big no-no’s in marketing – that of trying to be all things to all people – it’s important to understand this distinction and not make the presumption that inclusivity is going against that adage.  The below examples demonstrate how engaging and enrolling audiences that have been ignored, in a sense crafting a great experience for the underserved, can yield great results.

Sephora: Clueless Shoppers are Welcome

Plenty of industries are filled with employees who like to make sure (potential) customers know just how “knowledgeable” the employee is, often at the expense of the customer.  For my part, I grew up a cycling fan and wouldn’t have enough time to list off the number of times I felt so belittled because an employee in a cycling store was seemingly offended by what he considered an offensively-simple question.

The beauty industry has a similar dynamic.

For its part, the beauty brand Sephora has done an exceptionally good job of making the beauty-shopping experience actually feel inclusive, not snobbish. Blogger Alicia Jessop has described Sephora as the equivalent to women of what a hardware store is for many men[1]. Just as men often go into hardware stores and browse without having any specific product in mind, women often shop at Sephora with that similar sense of discovery, exploration, and accessibility.

It’s fair to say that most everyone has gone into a store where there was a certain product domain they knew nothing about, then either tried to portray they knew something they didn’t, or they didn’t want to acknowledge that they knew nothing.  Unless we are just plain lucky, it’s a rare occasion that we leave with the right product and certainly none the wiser.

One of the primary reasons we as consumers behave this way is an expectation of how the “expert”, in this case a store employee, is going to respond.  Prior experience has led many of us to be intimidated in environments where there is a lot of domain expertise or technical skill.

But Sephora, while obviously not perfect, mitigates this effect in several ways.

The most obvious way is the store layout.   Unlike department stores where all the merchandise is behind a counter and only accessible by employees, Sephora has put product front and center, so that customers can touch and try products without having to ask anyone.  There is no gatekeeper to get past or to ask what might be an ignorant question.  Instead, customers have free reign to products at Sephora – to touch, hold, and try at their leisure.  This may seem like a minor detail, but given the department store dominance in beauty and just the fact that a customer doesn’t have to speak to someone to try something that grabs their attention – these have been big changes in the beauty industry.

Next, when customers do need help, Sephora staff are there to serve them.  Training is an important aspect of Sephora’s employee onboarding, whether on the customer service side or the technical side (how to help a customer select makeup that suits them as well as applying it).  Training is done at the store level but also through Sephora University, the center for the company’s training.  While creating its own training center, aka the University, is an advantage that a massive company like Sephora can afford to do, putting attention to how employees treat customers is something that any business can do, whether big or small.

It’s important to acknowledge that no business is remotely perfect. In researching Sephora, there were plenty of examples I heard about sub-par, off-brand experiences.  Particularly in retail, where the inherently imperfect human interaction drives a good part of the experience, perfection isn’t the goal.  Being a ton better than everyone else is.  On a consistent basis.  At the same time, setting up aspects of the business, such as the store’s design, that are not dependent on how an employee chooses to behave, can shift that burden and reinforce the bigger experience that is trying to be delivered.

As we all know, a company’s brand isn’t simply created from one component of the business.  It is built everywhere.  And in Sephora’s case, creating a welcoming, interactive and fun environment, whether through the store design or its employees’ attitudes, has been a key to their success.  It affects customers in the store, their likelihood of making a purchase, and certainly the stories they tell (primarily positive in Sephora’s case), which drives the chances they return and/or how they influence others to do so.

Gwynnie Bee: Serving Plus-Sized Women

When the apparel and accessories business Stitch Fix launched, they initially didn’t target plus-size women (anywhere from size 10-14 and up, depending on whose arbitrary definition you want to choose from).  It was a business decision that Stitch Fix (a former client of mine) made, amongst others that also included not serving men or kids, all of which they do now.

This isn’t about right or wrong for Stitch Fix, but their success and focus on its core group of customers, meant that there were opportunities for others to target those that weren’t being served.  Stitch Fix was not the only subscription business focused on delivering these same products to women, but in being one of the earliest and certainly the largest (most recently topping $1 billion in revenues and 2+ million active clients), who they were and were not serving was much more visible.

So as Stitch Fix was building its business, and to a certain extent educating the broader market on what they offered, Gwynnie Bee launched at a similar time, exclusively serving plus-sized women. Not that Stitch Fix played into the stereotypes that are all-too-often found in beauty magazines, but the fact that they didn’t stock apparel for plus-size women gave Gwynnie Bee the opportunity to highlight how it was differentiated from the category leader in Stitch Fix.  Gwynnie Bee was specifically offering clothes for a group that are not always served by apparel retailers.  To this day, beauty magazines constantly reinforce the idea that skinny is better.  To its credit, Gwynnie Bee embraced its target customer, and didn’t try to show size 2 women on its site.

Body image is admittedly a sensitive topic; and yet from a practical side, the reality is that many women in the US fall under the plus-sized definition.  So while Gwynnie Bee was targeting an underserved and perhaps niche category, theirs was by no means a group with small numbers.

(It’s interesting to note that Stitch Fix eventually did serve plus-size women, in addition to men and children.  And Gwynnie Bee announced in early 2018 that to be considered truly inclusive, they were not remaining exclusive to plus-sized women.)

There are plenty of other examples on servicing what isn’t considered mainstream; certain shops target “big and tall” men, some restaurants are “family friendly,” while others are clearly designed for couples.

In all of these cases, whether Sephora, Gwynnie Bee, or others, inclusivity isn’t about trying to be everything to everyone. It’s about targeting a particular group of people, especially those who may be underserved.  And then making them feel warm, understood, and served in the manner which we’d all want to be treated.

 

[1] Jessop, Alicia. “What’s Good Wednesday: Why Women Love Sephora.” https://aliciajessop.com/2012/08/22/whats-good-wednesday-why-women-like-sephora/ August 22, 2012.

How Harley-Davidson and The Beard Club Use “Identity” to Build Customer Experience

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(Note: This is one of a series of posts to come around the various ways that marketers are crafting incredible customer experiences.  In so doing, they are dramatically improving their customer retention and acquisition efforts, and concurrently building their brand.)

One of the most powerful ways to build customer experience is by tapping into raw human needs and emotions.

A person’s sense of sense, their actual, perceived and desired identity, is one of the more raw and powerful needs to connect with.  Many businesses have done an excellent job of using their brands to help customer’s think differently about themselves. When done well, customers are proud to be associated with the brand and willing to show off that association in public. They begin to think of the brand as more than just a product. It becomes part of who they are and, even more powerfully, a reflection of who they want to be.

Of course, a business can use the power of identity in a negative way, manipulating customers through psychological games, but the examples shared in this section come from companies who are using this power in positive ways.

Harley-Davidson: More than a Motorcycle

Harley-Davidson has become one of the best-known brands in the world, in any category. People with absolutely no interest in motorcycles have heard of them and already have a clear sense of the brand’s distinct identity.

While most people associate motorcycles with younger demographics, the average Harley owner is forty, not old but certainly not a 20-something thing.  This is due in part to the bikes’ cost; they aren’t cheap.  But if you’ve ever met a Harley owner, however, you know they tend to be extremely proud to be a Harley owner. They love to show it off, and “owning a Harley” is a key part of many owners’ identities.  They’re didn’t merely purchase a motorcycle; they became a part of a vibrant subculture.

The bikes themselves are loud, brash, and bold. You know when a Harley is moving down the street, and their owners rather enjoy that the bikes aren’t subtle.  They didn’t join a membership where the card gets tossed in the trash nor is kept quiet.  While it may not always be through their spoken words, but Harley owners scream being Harley owners.

One of the company’s biggest achievements has been transforming their product into more than a product. People know what Harley stands for: freedom, community, and a certain rebellious attitude.

Their website says it more directly, “If you want to fit in, take the bus.”

From a purely technical standpoint, there are probably better motorcycles on the market. However, Harley customers aren’t in it for the technical quality of the product. They are embracing the Harley attitude.

And for its target customers, Harley is giving them exactly what they want in terms of identity. For people in their forties and fifties, many of whom are empty-nesters, and some of whom are struggling through or approaching a midlife crisis, Harley restores for them a sense of youthful rebellion. Riders are able to detach from their jobs and the concerns of their daily lives to take to the open road with a sense of freedom.

While it’s hard to point to a single moment where the brand that had often been associated with the Hell’s Angels and featured in films like “Easy Rider” started attracting a growing following amongst older and more affluent customers (the average age used to be 32 and now it’s in the 40s, with average annual income increasing from $30K to $70K+), what is clear is that once the company noticed the CEOs, bankers and celebrities were taking to their bikes, they leaned in.  (As an interesting side note, back in the early 1900s, Harley target farmers, then in the mid part of the century positioned itself as the bike for police officers.  To say the brand has evolved and changed its targeting over time is a minor understatement.)

As an example of how the company has leaned in towards shifts in its customer profile, customers choose Harley-Davidson motorcycles because of how they feel and how they want to be as an owner.  One way to amplify that feeling is by joining with others.  Riding a Harley with others is a big part of being a Harley owner, and the brand encourages such connections with what they call H.O.G. (The Harley Owners Group).

H.O.G. was started in 1983, and today there are over a million club members. It’s the biggest factory-sponsored riding club in the world, and while many people think it’s managed by customers, each club is actually sponsored by a local dealership. In the past, dealers could only sponsor one H.O.G. each, but now they are allowed to sponsor two.

This is a great example of a brand recognizing what their customers would want, well beyond the basic “product,” and then creating opportunities to help their customers feel even more strongly about themselves and the brand.

From a financial side, this of course drives retention in the form of merchandise sales (I think we’ve all seen how decked out Harley riders can be) and certainly additional bike sales.  That image and brand story that is then told – whether by hearing an owner talk about it or just seeing them riding down the road with others – no doubt leads to future customer acquisition.  In fact, the company used to spend very little dollars in advertising.  But that didn’t mean spending nothing on marketing.  Their spend would show up in efforts like H.O.G. and other ways to support their customers.  How’s that for a different take on marketing? And all the while the brand continues to form, evolve, and grow.

The Beard Club: Are You Man Enough?

The Beard Club began life as Dollar Bear Club, introducing themselves to the world through a video featuring the company founders, Chris Stoikos and Alex Brown, along with the rest of their team. Through that first video, as well as subsequent ones, they have tapped into something deep in the psychology of their target audience.

They aren’t the only company providing products for men with beards, but in each video, they have created a strong sense of what it means to be a man with a beard. They show images and tell stories of bearded men doing cool things, elevating the image of manhood in a positive way. On their website, they even ask the question, “Still don’t think you’re man enough?”

It’s interesting to note that their videos speak both to men who have beards and work to instill a desire to grow one for those who don’t.  For bearded men, they’ve created what Seth Godin loves to describe as a “Tribe.”  The Beard Club wants bearded men to know they are being spoken to, to know that there is someone who understands them.  And The Beard Club wants bearded me to think about themselves differently, as particularly proud not just to have a beard on their face but to remind them that having a beard means being special and different.  (Whether this is “true” is irrelevant, it’s the message the brand is telling.)

Their message is also aimed at those who don’t have a beard, to say, “This is what you could have.  This is who you could be.  This is the life you could live if only you had a beard!”

Of course, any customer knows that having a beard isn’t a magic ticket to a wonderful life. The message is clearly tongue-in-cheek, but it still creates an identity that many men crave. Not only does it create a sense of aspiration, but it offers accessibility: “All this can be yours!” It could even be considered a call to arms: “If you don’t have a beard, grow one!”

What I find helpful in looking at The Beard Club vs. Harley-Davidson is that while the latter used its marketing dollars outside of pure advertising, the videos in which The Beard Club uses this strong sense of identity are primarily customer acquisition vehicles.  Sure, they help reinforce the brand message to existing customers.  But many of these videos are primarily used to bring on new customers.  And for those who lean more towards the performance marketing approach, crafting an experience using identity is no longer something vague but can be integrated with the same data-driven approach, but just done from a creative side to intentionally create an experience, even before someone has become a customer.

Who You Are, Who You Aren’t

It’s important to recognize that Harley-Davidson and The Beard Club have a well-defined target customer. They don’t try to be all things to all people. If the leaders of Harley-Davidson decided tomorrow to target a completely different demographic, they would need deliver their experience in a different way. That’s the key. The product would be essentially the same, but the experience around it would change in order to target a different type of customer.

That is perhaps an obvious but crucial aspect of tapping into identity.  And that is in being crystal clear of who your target (and existing) customer is, what they value, what you can offer them that is a clear point of differentiation, and that you can deliver on that message.

Some businesses try to create a sense of identity, but they fail to go deep enough. They don’t speak loudly enough about the identity of their brand because they don’t want to alienate other potential customers.  In the early stages, as a few different demographics are being tested, this approach might make sense.  But over time, not going deeper can mean a weaker connection with customers.  Yes, it means making a tradeoff and likely turning away a demographic, but brands that seemingly go all-in by speaking loudly to a specific target customer do better than by trying to speak to everyone.

And that is in part because that specific customer wants to be treated a certain way.  Unless there can be very clear segmentation within groups, trying to speak both to married women over 40 and single men in their 20s is very very difficult.  The language, imagery, tone, messaging, etc. should be different for those two groups.  So as much trying to straddle a couple worlds may feel like neither is alienated, it also means that neither get the sense that the brand truly understands them.

As you consider your own business, do you have a clear sense of who you are and who you aren’t? Are you clear on who your customer is, at least for 70% of the business?  That’s the group you should be directly all of your messaging to.  That is the group to see how you can connect with their sense of identity.  Whether in the form of reinforcing what they already feel or creating a sense of aspiration based on who they are or want to be.  And whether that shows up in strategic marketing efforts, in Facebook video ads, in the product or service you deliver, or anywhere in your business, being able to tap into someone’s sense of self can be one of the more powerful ways to build that customer’s experience.   One of the big wins we can have as marketers is for customers to tell stories about our brands.  And yet when that story is an outgrowth of their identity, it carries a much greater sense of impact and authenticity.

 

Crafting Amazing Customer Experiences: The Strategy That Helps Marketers Both Build the Brand AND Scale the Business

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Think about what happens when a customer has an amazing experience with your business. They are happier, more satisfied and more engaged. Which typically means they will buy again from you. So they stick around longer and are worth more to you as a customer. When they are happy, they’re more prone to tell positive stories about your business. Those stories help to craft the brand. Similarly, people talking good things about your business in an authentic way drives word of mouth. Which is the cheapest form of customer acquisition, not to mention helping your paid media efforts to be more effective. And since referred customers have been shown to be some of the highest value, these are particularly profitable customers.

That’s a lot of goodness…

Every marketer wants to grow their business. It’s human nature to do more, push ourselves, and our businesses. At the same time, the big win isn’t always just growth. The payoff happens when the business you’ve built becomes a brand that customers know, love and are excited to engage with.

On the spectrum, performance marketers generally believe that growth comes from pushing paid media hard, and that in selling and delivering on the product, you build the brand. On the other hand, traditional brand marketers approached things as “build the brand and the sales will follow.”

At the same time, we now operate in a world that is no longer either/or. As much as many things in society are portrayed as binary, marketing is not that way. Growing your business with more of a performance marketer’s hat is not at all at odds with building a brand. In fact, there are ways to achieve both concurrently.

One analogy I’ve found helpful is that performance marketing (aka direct response) is to brand as income is to wealth. You need income to get to wealth, just as you need a performance marketing approach to generate sales on the path to building a brand (I’d posit that even if you are funded, there has to be a sustainable business model in place at some point – see Blue Apron if you need a counter-example).

Over my career with my clients, the goals of scale and growth are typically the biggest reasons we engage. With a history in paid media (8 years at Beachbody and with my clients since), exploiting channels like Facebook, TV, and otherwise has been a cornerstone of my work. That always transcends to conversion and maximizing the value of each customer. Let’s be clear, there is a massive amount of scale and value that can be generated with this focus.

At the same time, every marketer faces the point where a channel has seemingly maxed out and so a search for a new channel to scale occurs.

This can be exhausting – the constant paid media, conversion, LTV, CPA model. Again, I’ve always considered myself a paid media guy, driven heavily with an analytics mindset. This stuff can be a big deal and can be used to push a business pretty far.

At the same time, word-of-mouth, and to a certain extent referrals, rarely gets that much attention. It can feel like it’s not trackable or measurable, when in fact there are ways to do so. And yet, it’s the cheapest form of customer acquisition and typically sees the highest value customers.

So where does word-of-mouth come from?

In essence, it comes from the stories customer tell. The good and bad ones. Those show up when someone asks them about a product they are using, on review sites, and beyond.

Where does these stories come from? Most often, from people’s experiences with your business.

And in a world where the customers are the ones who actually define the brand, as much as we try to affect it, those stories – which are an outgrowth of their experiences – are the way the brand comes to life.

It’s this progression and evolution, at least from my side, which has led to the realization of the power of customer experience. Not just CX in the online user experience definition, but much more broadly.

That crafting amazing customer experiences can serve both the growth goals of a business while elevating the brand.  And while I don’t believe in silver bullets, it is convenient when a strategy can serve multiple goals concurrently.

Why don’t more business focus on customer experience?

When you’re growing a business, sales are key. Without them, the rest is moot. And with so many different platforms and tools, it’s easy to get caught up in trying to optimize and scale paid channels. But even within doing so, it’s possible to create an experience – I’d argue that Dollar Beard Club (now The Beard Club) has very effectively used videos to craft the experience AND to acquire customers. For them, there really isn’t a distinction between the two.

Also, setting a goal around word of mouth is not common. And while it’s not perfect, looking at direct and organic traffic as well as referral customers can be an indicator of word of mouth, especially when paid media may not be as strong. There are a host of other metrics that can inform the strength of word of mouth – volume of social engagement (shares, hashtags, etc.), as well as indicators like Net Promoter Score (“NPS) and CSAT ratings. All of these typically follow when repeat customer rate is strong and refunds are lower.

None of those are entirely perfect, but there are certainly signals to look at to better inform the volume, and certainly the likelihood of word of mouth.

Finally, it’s also true that retention and building long-term value can simply be a prioritization and sequencing challenge in an organization. Especially those that are just getting some traction on sales. It can mean attention and resources (time, dollars, people, technology, etc.) that feels like it’s pulling from sales. But based on the above, that additional attention should assist sales, not be viewed as a draw from it.

What, then, do great experiences look like?

Think about the businesses you rave about. That your friends and family post about for no good reason other than they are excited to do so. Which businesses get talked about at conferences and in case studies.

There’s the list of regulars – Nordstrom, Amazon, Ritz Carlton, Apple, Starbucks, Disney.

And there’s good reason that they often pop into mind and are talked about. They’ve put a ton of time and attention towards the experience they want their customers to have.

There are countless other examples:

Harley-Davidson

Peloton

SoulCycle

The Beard Club

Buc-ee’s Convenience Store

Sephora

SaddleBack Leather

Rock n’ Roll Marathon

Loot Crate

Each of these businesses has created a brand, in part by intentionally crafting a great experience for their customer.

How they do so can include a variety of tactics:

-Different forms of media, such as video and music, for example, can be powerful in helping to deliver an experience.

-The product itself may be differentiated in such a way that may establish a unique experience

-Arguably, for some businesses like Uber, AirBnb Stitch Fix, the product and experience are so intertwined that there isn’t a clear delineation of one versus the other. This is reflective of many shared economy businesses and new business models around existing services (taxis for Uber, hotels for AirBnb, retail for Stitch Fix)

-Clearly, customer service affects the experience. As do how you handle the various components of the transactional process (acquisition, returns, cancels, etc.)

By far the most powerful way to craft experience is by tapping into people’s sense of identity and community. These are raw human needs, so can be the most powerful. And certainly not mutual exclusive with any of the above.

Let’s look at just a few of the above:

–Harley Davidson customers clearly have a sense of identity attached to what it means to be a Harley rider. And whether it’s at Sturgis in South Dakota or at one of their local Hog events in countless cities across the US, there is a strong sense of community with the Harley world.

–Peloton and SoulCycle are each fascinating by themselves and taken together. Both are focused on indoor cycling. And even though SoulCycle customers go to a brick-and-mortar location while Peloton riders are at home, both nail customer experience.

(As a side note, this is one category I feel particularly qualified to discuss. I spent 8 years at Beachbody, was a licensed SPINNING instructor with Johnny G back in the day, have ridden across the county on a bike and have tried most cycling programs.)

For its part, SoulCycle, has become a lifestyle brand. SoulCycle is about identity, community, and apparel. Despite being a health and fitness company to start, you’ve never seen a before-and-after picture of their customers (at least not by the company). Whereas FlyWheel and SoulCycle were true competitors in NYC, FlyWheel focused on winning and being #1 while SoulCycle has been about being a team and inspiring yourself and others around you. And no doubt music is huge for SoulCycle.

Peloton similarly does a ridiculously good job with music. Anyone who has worked out at home knows how good or bad music can affect that experience. Just how much they are paying for music licenses is not clear, but they are using music well. It’s important to note that the Peloton bike and screen are top-notch. And with superb instructors and even the way they shoot the class, you feel a part of the in-person classes shot at their NYC studio. As much as Flywheel was about competition, Peloton has a leaderboard, a la Strava, but it’s a choice you have the option of hiding. But for those craving competition, it’s there.

–Buc-ee’s may be a brand folks outside of Texas may not know. But the fact that a convenience store is on the list is telling. Buc-ee’s may be the nicest convenience store on the planet. That’s why they’re here. It doesn’t take much to describe why most people go to a convenience store and all the parts they can’t stand. Often it’s to get gas, use the bathroom and to get some simple foods. Rarely are any of these better than horrifying. Instead, a typical Buc-ee’s has 50-100 gas pumps, is immaculately clean (the floor is spotless when you walk in and there are Purell dispensers next to each urinal in the men’s room), and the food is just amazing. When was the last time you said the food at a convenience store was something you looked forward to? And did I mention that these are 100,000 square-foot locations with shelves and shelves of jams, jerky, candy, not to mention a section on Buc-ee’s accessories. Essentially, Buc-ee’s did what I refer to as “Do the opposite.” Take everything that was horrible about a place, and do it in a polar opposite way.

-This list can go on for pages, but the final one I’ll mention now is Loot Crate, a box company for gamers and geeks in general (their language, not mine). What they’ve done particularly well is to tap into Seth Godin’s notion of “tribe.” By naming their customers Looters, on their site and in their emails, they immediately impart a sense of both identify and community on their customers. It’s not imposed, but it’s welcomed. At the same time, something I love is they are very clear about who they are trying to speak to. Their order confirmation email includes an image of a nerdy-looking woman (Note – as a math major from MIT, this is another area I feel highly-qualified to discuss). Loot Crate doesn’t shy away from who they are speaking to. In fact, they lean in. And while that image may not work for anyone else here as necessarily the core customer, it works for them.

Which leads to arguably the most important aspect of crafting an amazing experience. 

Knowing your customer.

That sounds like such a simple statement but how many companies try to be all things to all people. Or are concerned about alienating 5-10% of their audience by not leaning in as boldly as Loot Crate has done. Your core demo may not be as clear, but don’t underestimate how much can be lost by not letting your target audience know loud and clear that you’re speaking to them. Part of the job of marketing is to separate the audience – to attract those you want while dissuading those you don’t.

As for devising your own strategy, knowing your customer, at least who you want to attract is one key step. As is knowing your brand values and what you want to stand for.

Keep in mind, too, that experience can and should be tied to measurable aspects of your business. Not perfectly. And not always. But nothing in marketing these days is “perfect” or an “always” thing. Even one of the most measurable components of the business, traffic from Facebook or Google, has clear areas of grey (attribution window, methodologies, cross-device, etc.).

Next, think about what you are replacing.

For starters, be honest about whether your product is new? Very rarely is the product entirely new.

-StitchFix is a new model for shopping for apparel

-Uber is a new way to get a taxi

-Tesla is an alternative to other cars.

The models and execution were different, the core premise wasn’t.

Hotmail was new. The iPhone was new. Spanx was new. If you have a truly new product, then product can win on its own for a while if it’s good.

Given that most products aren’t conceptually new, and they are a way of replacing what people have available to them, dig in to what people are currently using?

-What do people like about the thing you are replacing?

-What are their pain points around those things?

-What do you bring to them, especially if they’ve never had it before? This could be everything from health to convenience to identity.

-What do your customers value? What *should* they value?

Look back on the above examples and how they have created experienced for their customers that didn’t really exist previously.

Finally, it’s important to be self-aware about your organization’s resources and capabilities. What are some areas you have a sense of skill at or feel like you can create a true point of differentiation around?

The final finally, attach a business outcome to these efforts. Don’t just call them “brand marketing”. Depending on what you do, you should see an impact on one or more of these areas:

-Better performing paid media

-Increase in direct, organic and referral customers

-Higher repeat customer rates

-Lower refunds

-Low inquiries to customer care

-Higher NPS scores

It’s a rare case that a strategy can serve the growth and brand goals of a business. Frankly, consumers would rather have great experiences. They have become accustomed to the status quo. But when done well, as these companies have shown in crafting amazing experiences, consumers reward businesses both with their pocketbooks and thru word-of-mouth.

And aren’t those the outcomes that all marketers are looking for?

(I’m always interested to hear from others who they think nails (and doesn’t nail) customer experience. What aspects of the above resonate? Which parts would you like to delve deeper into? )

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