Brand experience: A new approach to attract and satisfy consumers in the connected age
Nguyen Thi Hong Nguyet/ MICA 2018 Proceedings
International Conference on Marketing in the Connected Age (MICA-2018), October 6th, 2018
Danang City, Vietnam
Brand Experience: A New Approach to Attract and Satisfy
Consumers in the Connected Age
Nguyen Thi Hong Nguyeta*
aUniversity Of Finance – Marketing, 2/4 Tran Xuan Soan Street, Tan Thuan Tay Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
A B S T R A C T
This article explores the role of brand experience in marketing strategy vision in the Connected Age. The
brand experience is considered as the most relevant approach in strategic marketing nowadays because of
recent changes of markets and consumers. Therefore, the article focuses on describing market characteristics
and consumers’ behaviours, and how these lead to the brand experience. Then, it shall define the brand
experience as a new concept with specific attributes and components. Finally, some tactics to conduct the
brand experience are recommended in order to attract and satisfy the consumers.
Keywords: Brand; brand experience; marketing strategy.
1. Introduction
The foundation of marketing activities is generally based on the demands and desires of people. That said, the
marketing activities are closely associated with people and human society. Therefore, these activities should be
always updated and improved to meet the increasing needs of the consumers.
It is the aggressive development of technology in the modern time that it has created a connected age. The
technology which plays an important role in meeting the people’s essentials is automation, power, robots, and so
forth. Particularly, the technology of advanced low-cost things like smart phones has improved mostly the
consumers’ awareness and behaviour. With the smart phones at a reasonable price, and the developed internet
infrastructure at a very low cost, if not to say it is free, widely and seamlessly accessing to the Internet has been
almost entirely changing the consumers’ behaviour. At this time, most people possess at least one smart phone
and seamlessly access to rich data sources on the Internet, anywhere and anytime. This impacts on the customers’
purchase decisions more and more. In addition, the new forms of online business and payment have challenged
marketing activities more than ever. By getting advices and recommendations from social communities on the
Internet and in reality, a customer now can easily place an order per click. Because of the changes of customer
awareness, quality and behaviour, the marketers need to knowingly build up the marketing activities and
approaches accordingly.
One of the marketing approaches which get much attention from managers and researchers is the brand
experience. This is the latest approach to dominate the markets that managers have to know [23] because the
consumers are actually the human beings with their needs in experimentation. Therefore, the marketers must
intentionally use services and products in a wiser and more tactful way in order to create a genuine experience to
the consumers [20], especially brand experiences. The next part herein shall clarify the brand experience in
details.
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: nthnguyet82200[email protected]
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2. Characteristics of the Market and Consumer Behaviour in the Connected Age
Globalization
Globalization has been increasingly set as the trend and target by nations to orientally emerge into the global
economy. Accordingly, manufacturers have globally provided the market with a large number of branded
products and services. In some cases, there are the products and services which are similar or even identical.
That means the products and services which their markets have become saturated, and the power of the selling –
buying relationship much belongs to consumers. The consumers have more and more options for each type of
products or services, and they can choose what ever they want to meet their need.
Technology Development
Technology development, especially automation and its applications, has basically changed the consumers’
knowledge and behaviour [12]. It is acknowledged that the technology plays a key role in meeting and satisfying
the essential needs of the consumers. Particularly, information and data storage technology or digital technology
strongly and broadly impact on the consumers’ lives.
It is the development and innovation of the Internet and its infrastructure, and the invention of the mobile
devices, which important the most is computers and smartphones, that have been increasingly improving their
knowledge and behaviour. The computers and smartphones are most commonly used, but the smartphones
would become the primary digital platform [16]. The mobile devices and data infrastructure have been
continuously upgraded at a lower and lower cost. Besides, there are a large number of users accessing to the
Internet and going online. It is estimated that one thirds of the world’s population accesses to the Internet every
day, reported by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that there are around 7.318.776.000.000
users, and they spend at least 7.5 hours per day to take part in online activities. According to researchers, this
number is predicted to increase up to half of the world’s population, and a user would spend 15 hours per day
[12].
Thanks to the development of technology, it seems easy for most people to connect with each other. The
connection allows consumers to believe that they possess the power to control their success and that all would be
in their hands, particularly smart phones. It is entirely within their discretion whether to choose anything or not
to do so. As a consequence, receiving information of a brand is regarded as an active behaviour, and it is much
different from before. Now a consumer may say: “If I want to know or buy anything, I’ll do it myself” [12]. This
means that whenever the consumers are on demand or interested in a particular brand, they might find several
ways to verify that brand. They can simply search for, analyze and determine what they want through a number
of reliable sources, excluding what are from that brand. What’s more, the consumers in the Connected Age have
been well educated and dedicated to their communities so the campaigns of marketing, searching for
information, or listening to success stories and powerful people would no longer work efficiently like years ago.
More than that, they believe in “the power in our hands” (which the smartphones are a good example), especially
in what experienced ones share and review about the brand in forums, online groups, communities and
relationships in the real life (e.g. friends, families, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, etc.). Consequently, this
represents that the consumers not only connect with each other but they also participate in the activities
associating with their lifestyle personally and connectedly, anywhere and anytime. In short, the characteristics of
the consumers at this time consist of both their offline and online activities.
Appearance of the Integration of the Ecosystem
The development of e-commerce, online payments combined with digital content, online information and
advanced reservation applications (typically car application, bike application, airline ticketing application or on-
demand home cleaning service application, etc.) has created the aggregation of the ecosystems that has changed
the way and behaviour of shopping accordingly. For example, when you want a book or anything such as foods,
medicines, electric equipments,… you just search for the product information online, choose what brand you
want and order it by a click on websites. Then, your order will be done and delivered to your home, or where
ever you want in a short time, instead of physically going to the store and buy them as the traditional method.
The payment is even done online as well. It is definitely easy and convenient. Convenience is really the glue that
makes online shopping, and behaviour and habit stick together.
Searching and shopping in the Connected Age are a very different idea compared to what I have experienced
in my generation. Searching and shopping activities are usually done on digital mobile devices (e.g.
smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.), and payments are all virtual. A huge searching-for-information and shopping
revolution is happening around the world. Searching for information, shopping behaviours and also technology
platform have evolved sharply than ever before.
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Increase of Online Communities and Associations
The development of the Internet and social network like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, Messenger,
and the like have changed the consumers’ behaviour. The social networks become so popular that almost people
have their own account. The desire to connect and become a member of online community in order to always
stay connected is properly the humans’ real demand in the Connected Age. Connecting with friends and their
relationships through the social networks is the key point to attract a huge number of users, and they – also the
consumers, would spend more time online. They are not only exchanging personal information, daily works but
also share views on politics, poverty, economy, environment and education. In reality, online users also have the
communities to participate in, and have an intrinsic need to make the connections with others. They want the
online social communities to acknowledge and adore them more.
While communicating with the online community, their point of view influences on the others as well as they
are affected by those ones. In other words, connecting with the others via mobile devices allows the consumers
to access to the knowledge of a crowd (from online information, comments, reviews and what a community is
interested in), and make better decisions to or not to place a purchase order, or to say that purchase decisions are
made socially. Therefore, it is not only an individual but the whole network and society is authenticating all the
dimensions of a brand. That said, every single consumer wants to know the authenticity of the brand; thus, social
awareness becomes the new consumer perspective which is the criteria that the consumers rely on to decide
which brand and what product or service to purchase.
To sum up, the increase of online communities and associations not only gives the consumers a chance to
become more sophisticated but also useful for the communities. Because of their wise and desire of being a
useful user to the communities, the consumers in the Connected Age are attracted to inspirational organizations,
and they want to make sure that their money is contributing to an ethical, responsible, and sustainable brand. An
ethical, responsible, and sustainable brand is defined as a brand with no deceit or fraud, to guarantee its promise
and commitment, take responsibilities to the society, bring benefits to the society, comply with the government’s
laws and rules, and especially have the activities to protect our planet and living environment. In other words, the
consumers are seeking more of a relationship from the brands they choose to support.
3.
Brand Experience as a New Approach to Satisfy the Consumers in the Connected Age
Branding theory proves that the brand plays a central role in the marketing strategies. Besides, the consumers
increasingly make choices based on the experiential factor that the product offers [22]; especially an emotion-
rich experience provides not only brand differentiation and consumer loyalty but also sales increase and
promotion of the brand [17]. Thus, the brand experience is an effective combination to meet the consumers’
requirements. In fact, there are a large number of researchers and marketing practitioners who pay more attention
and concentrate on the brand experience in recent years [1]. Furthermore, Philip Koter, known as the father of
modern marketing, confirmed that marketing practitioners who ignored the brand experiences made a big
mistake named marketing myopia [11]. That said, the brand experience becomes a marketing trend. Therefore, it
is important to understand what the brand experience is.
3.1 Definition of Brand Experience
Experiences occur whenever the consumers search for products, when they are shopping for products or
receiving services, and also when they actually consume products or services [2, 7]. Furthermore, when the
consumers search for, purchase and consume a brand, they are exposed to various brand-related stimuli such as
brand identity, brand design, brand communications, brand advertisements and brand distribution locations, and
consequently transfer those to brand experiences in long-term memories [18]. The consumers’ brand experiences
are formed through different interactions between the brands and the consumers [19].
The brand experience is subjective, internal consumer responses (sensation, feelings, and cognition) and
behavioural responses evoked by the brand-related stimuli that are part of brand identity, packaging, design,
environment and communications [1, pp. 53].
The brand experience is a multidimensional concept [26] and it varies in valence, strength and duration [1].
According to Zarantonello and Schmitt [28], the brand experience could be positive or negative, short-term or
long-term. For instance, some brand experiences may be more positive or negative than others, and also could
be perceived to be stronger or more intense than others. Besides, other brand experiences may occur
spontaneously or deliberately, and could be short-lived or be sustained over time. After all, the brand
experience in the customer’s memory over a period of time may influence on how he/she feels about the brand
[21].
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Brand experience includes three types of experience which are products, shopping and services, and
consumption [1]. First, product experiences occur when the consumers interact with products [6]. Second,
shopping and service experiences occur when the consumers interact with a store’s physical environments, its
policies and practices [10]. Third, consumption experiences which occur when the consumers consume and use
products [1] are multidimensional and contain hedonic dimensions, such as feelings, fun and fantasies [8]. The
brand experiences not only occur directly when the consumers shop, buy and consume a brand but also occur
indirectly when they are exposed to advertising and marketing communications [1]
3.2 Brand Experience Construct
In 1982, Holbrook and Hirschman [8] developed the consumption experience concept based on three main
elements which were fantasies (dreams, imagination, and inconsistent desires), feelings (emotion such as love,
hate, anger, fear, joy and sadness) and fun (pleasure derived from fun and aesthetic activities). Based on
Dewey’s categorization [3], Schmitt [22] proposed five dimensions of experience marketing which comprised of
sensory experience, emotional experience, intelligence experience, dynamic experience, and relationship
experience. These types of experience marketing are considered as experiences from the consumers’ perception.
In order to make an impressive experience, the brand managers should focus on six categories of experience
producers. The experience producers are composed of communications, corporate identity, product presentation,
co-branding, physical environment, websites and staff [22]. In particular, the communications consist of
advertising, external or internal communications and public campaigns. The corporate identity consists of names,
logos and colours. The product’s presentation consists of design, packaging and exposure. The co-branding
consists of marketing events, sponsorships, partnerships and product placement. The physical environment
consists of exterior and interior designs. And, the staffs consist of sales force and company’s representatives.
According to the collected information of the previous researches, Brakus, Schmitt and Zarantonello [1]
developed the construct and measurement of brand experience through four dimensions which are sensory,
affective, intellectual, and behavioural elements. The sensory element refers to the consumer’s sense (visual,
auditory, tactile, gustative, and olfactory stimulations) about a brand [28]. It means that all brand-related
stimulations can make strong visual impression on the customer. The affective element includes of the feelings
produced by brands, and the emotional connection between the consumer and a particular brand [28]. The
intellectual element implies the ability of the brand to make the consumers feel curious and innovative. The
behavioural element means the creation of brand experience related to physical body, long-term behaviour and
lifestyle, including those obtained through the interaction with the brand [28].
3.3 Role of Brand Experience in Marketing Strategies
Nowadays, the application of experience marketing, especially brand experience, has become popular and
common in many companies because of its effectiveness. Some practice managers said that brand experience
activities were much more effective than newspaper advertisements and other media, even word of mouth among
friends or colleagues. For example, 73% consumers of L’oréal said that they would not buy this brand’s products
without their brand experience [9]. In order to meet the consumers’ brand experience requirement, L’oréal
applies Augmented Reality named L’Oréal Paris Makeup Genius, which has attracted millions of consumers [9].
Moreover, approximately 60 percent of consumers suppose that the brand experience would positively influence
on their purchase decisions and encourage them to make the decisions more quickly (Jack Morton Worldwide
research).
Furthermore, the brand experience activities would bring long-term values to the brand. The key values of
brand experience activities are customer satisfaction [25], relationship quality [14, 21], and brand loyalty [5, 27].
Let’s take Apple as an example. They offer the consumers with the experiences so innovative and impressive
that they persuade and encourage the consumers not to be able to deny this brand. The experiences Apple brings
to the consumers actually surpass what they have expected so they become the consumers of the brand and even
widely promote the brand.
3.4 Recommended Brand Experience Tactics
Humans are the key. Human beings should be the focus of any brand activity. The nature of doing the brand
activities is to serve people, so they need to present and meet all the requirements of functions (i.e.
Product/service functions not only meet the consumers’ essential needs but their personal and inner desires)
and emotion (i.e. to meet their expectations of sensation and feelings). Therefore, meeting the demand on the
functions, the managers would need to launch out high-quality products/services to the market and even
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outstanding ones with more advanced features, important and impressive functions which are over their
expectations. For the emotion, the brand managers should be aware that the consumers in the Connected Age
always desire to be connected, shared and admitted; therefore, the marketers need to (1) personalize their
brand by positioning and selecting particular characteristics and brand-oriented values (2) connect and share
through similar brand and consumer characteristics, and successful experiences. However, be advised that
thanks to its mission to always connect and share feelings and orientation, so branding should always connect
and share online activities with the reality. For example, Starbucks understands that people not only needs a
cup of coffee but also wants far beyond the cup - a place to meet up friends, a relaxing hour with a book, a
mobile workspace, a familiar and comfortable living room atmosphere no matter where they go in the world.
Then, Starbucks decorates its stores like a welcoming community space that fosters feelings of safety and
inclusion. This creates the perfect environment in which to connect face-to-face relationships, and the more
people connect like that, the more face-to-face connections they crave. That said, Starbucks success is
because it knows the way to create the positive brand experiences: product experiences – delicious coffee,
shopping and service experiences – professional, friendly and well-trained employees, consumption
experience – consumers’ feelings, and marketing communication experiences.
Multi-channel communications: It is a need to apply multi channels into branding so that the consumer
experience should be consistent and seamless. To do so, the marketers have to knowingly arrange all the
channels, targets and strategies. In other words, the branding targets and strategies need to be unified to
convey a message in a clear and consistent manner across all the channels. Be noted that the brand message
has to be true and especially encourages the consumers and the community to trust it because the truth is the
new purchase standard in this digital age, and also many studies confirm that the consistency and reliability
are the important factors affecting the brand equity, the quality of the brand-customer relationship and the
brand loyalty [4, 24]. Ommi-Channel Experience is the best example of the multi-channel synchronization
experiences to consumers [9].
Knowingly to balance between profits, relationships and our living planet. What people expect in the
Connected Age is not just to easily make decisions based on the knowledge of a crowd, but they also want to
buy a branded product based on the brand’s contribution to the planet. Specifically, a brand impressive and
attractive to the consumers is similar to a person healthy (high quality), unique, able to share things with,
trustworthy, and reliable to the society and community.
4. Conclusion
The environment and climate have been rapidly changing, and at the same time, the consumers basically
change their expectations and perspectives. In the industry of technology 4.0, it values the engagement which is
meaningful, and not to be copied or fraudulent. The technology allows the consumers to apply various tools into
managing and designing their own lives: to easily join in online groups or communities to share information,
raise their point of view, post their comments or reviews about a favourite brand, or otherwise they can also
refuse or block any notifications, advertisements or promotions which they dislike. This causes the appearance of
brand experience. The approach of brand experience represents the strategic process of designing experiences for
the consumers. It analyses the different types of experience (product experiences, shopping and service
experiences, and consumption experiences), stimuli and touch-points. Moreover, the brand experience approach
focuses on the consumer’s emotion rather than the consumer’s judgements. Therefore, it is believed that the
brand experience goes beyond the traditional marketing.
In conclusion, the brand experiences can meet the complicated experience requirements of the consumers as
well as satisfy them through the touch-points. Once they get satisfied with a brand, the consumers would
repeatedly purchase it with their brand loyalty, and even increasingly introduce and promote the brand to the
others. In the Connected Age, the brand experience is, therefore, the best method to convey brand honesty to
customers, and make the brand more and more reliable in branding.
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