Does your business use the 'difference brand' approach?

Your customer feedback is great. Most are happy with how your product works and satisfied with the service you provide. Your Net Promoter Score is looking good. Yet somehow, you can’t shake the feeling that your brand’s still not reaching its full potential.

That’s because even if your business is delivering a truly seamless experience to customers, this doesn’t guarantee you’ll have a next-level brand. To create a brand that truly stands out, you need to go further than fulfilling all your customer’s practical needs and requirements.

Your primary focus should not be on maintaining the happy customers (which is of course important), but instead building your strategies around customer problems.

The seamless brand approach

If a brand is doing business as usual well, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s also not easy to achieve. Delivering an effective product or service while also meeting all of your customer’s needs and expectations at every touchpoint takes time and investment. It takes a great team, the right infrastructure and efficient business operations.

Plus, a seamless experience is what customers want. Out of those that have a poor experience, 89% of people will switch to a competitor. Improving customer experience can also increase revenue by between 10% and 15%.

In short, companies that focus on answering queries, optimising channels and delivering products or services well will be financially successful. They’ll also have a brand that customers will look on positively and trust thanks to its dependability. Customers will feel secure in the fact you understand them and can provide what they want.

Just like a fully balanced meal, customers of seamless brands will be perfectly satisfied. They’ll know they can rely on what they’re getting if they go back for seconds. However, it won’t make their tastebuds sing, bring a spark to their eyes or make them say ‘wow’ out loud. To reach that level, you need to focus on delivering brand difference.

What does the ‘difference brand’ approach mean?

Brand difference means giving your customers a standout experience beyond fulfilling their needs and expectations. Alongside a seamless service and a good product, the brands that really shine are those that create memorable ‘peaks’ for customers through their experiences.

Driven by a brand’s purpose, these experiences show customers that as well as understanding them, you value them in a way your competitors don’t. By doing this, a brand differentiates itself from the rest of the market and is elevated from being ‘reliable’ to ‘memorable’.

Here are some examples of how brands have gone to the next level by creating memorable moments.

Peaking customer awareness

With their ‘Eat Well, Play Well’ campaign, M&S highlighted how they make it easier for customers to live the balanced lifestyle they want to achieve. This showed audiences that M&S doesn’t just understand their desire to eat more healthily but is proactively working to make it easier for them to do so.

Though the ‘Eat Well’ symbols have been used by M&S since 2005, connecting them to their target customers’ desires and interests (such as football and active lifestyle) peaked audience awareness. Using memorable devices such as ‘follow the flower’, this campaign was a moment that reminded customers how M&S is working hard to develop products that benefit them.

Aligning with customers’ values

Beyond showing how well it understands its customers, Dove demonstrated how it cares about the same values as them in its 'Cost of Beauty' campaign. By throwing a spotlight on the problems within its own industry, this campaign showed how Dove was taking a stand for the welfare of its customers over its own profits.

Alongside their wider Self-Esteem Project, this campaign differentiates Dove from competitors by aligning the brand directly with a cause their customers care about. This peaks customers’ interest by showing how Dove is making an impact that is much more memorable than just offering a great product.

How to create a difference brand for your business

You’ve already done lots of hard work to give your customers a seamless experience. Now, to take your brand to the next level, you need to consider:

– What makes your business different from its competitors?
– What can you offer to customers that others can’t?
– What do you know about your customers that competitors don’t?
– What do customers remember about your brand?

How do you show your customers that you really understand and care about them?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can start to develop ways to creatively showcase this point of difference. Not just in your marketing, but in your customer experience too. This will create the memorable peaks you need to get customers shouting about your brand (and its products and services) from the rooftops.

If you want to learn more about the Strategy process and methods our team applies when working with a client, click here

Our friendly team are experts in elevating brands from good to exceptional. To find out how we can help you do the same, give us a call on 01926 754038 or, drop an email at hello@designmc.org and we’ll get in touch to arrange an informal chat.