After the take-home message of last week, we will continue to the brand experience and a little about packaging. I hope you have all had some time to think about the earlier ideas in this mini-series of ‘how to brand your brand’. I hope you have found your brand identity, chose some colours to match with the emotions you want to convey to your customers, a little about your strategy and the mission of your do’s and don’t of your brand in once sentence. If you have missed the earlier parts check them out over here and over here!!
Brand experience
EMOTIONAL AND DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
An experience isn’t something you can grab physically but is more of a feeling or an emotion (yes ladies … back to emotions). Although there is more to it than meets the eye. You might think of your tone in your blogs. But also your tone on social media or in your thank your notes. Is your tone professional or informal, direct or indirect, honest or humble? And not only your tone influences the brand experience but also your language, your character and your purpose. I like to make it informal and personal, with here and there a little funny detail… I want my posts to be easily readable that you might identify yourself a little with me. At least that is what I hope to express.
OVERALL EXPERIENCE
Besides the verbal tones and languages, I also started to think about what I want customers to experience. You might want to give them a luxurious feeling, or a sustainable environmental feeling or an on-top-of-the trend feeling. I am not sure yet what I want to express… The idea of the luxurious feeling is something I like, but not too much. I do care for the environment but it should not be all about it. I do like trends but for example, a bag isn’t just for one season so there’s something to say for a timeless design. What I do know is that I like to make the customer take part in the design process, I love to learn from one another. I like unique designs and one-of-a-kind. So at this point, there is still a lot to think about.
PACKAGE EXPERIENCE
Even though you know you have ordered something online, it always feels like you received a present when the mailmen deliver your package. What if you can even enhance this feeling with an awesome package design, a little, handwritten thank you note or little fun details in your products thanks makes your customer smile. Although you still have to keep your brand identity in mind. You can use this also to your advantage. If you, for example, sold a wallet make sure you slip one of your business cards in a card slot. Or incorporate your logo in the packing of the products/ribbons/stickers and so on.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Even though I don’t want to have a very professional tone in my blog posts for my readers, I do want to make a professional impression to my customers or for example future brand collaborators. Think of it if you were the customer. I like to receive a message if my package is sent for example, or that I don’t have to wait days and days before the product is shipped (unless it is custom made of course…). The contact with your customers will be on a different level that what you express on social media, but you still need to take into account that everything you say will be linked to your brand eventually. So keep on track with your deadlines or at least communicate if something does wrong!
Maybe in the future…
It is the little details that might build an extraordinary brand experience for your customer and this might lead to brand loyalty, a returning customer. All these thoughts and options might be a little too much to cope with in once but in the end, it might be the most important thing of all. Since if it weren’t for you the brand wouldn’t exist but if it weren’t for the customer your brand wouldn’t exist either. This might sound a little harsh but I will use all this newly gained knowledge to my advantage and hope to learn a lot before or while Florine is officially a brand!
Since I am just starting with selling some of my products (I can’t keep them all for myself…or I should invest in a ‘bag closet’ ;)…) I started to think of all the discussed points in this posts and the posts before. If you already do have a small (or big) company please let me know what you have learned in your early days, the do’s and don’t of branding. I have one little project but it might take some time before I can show it to you. So in the meantime, I will continue with an awesome DIY and much more soon! Stay tuned!
[…] and a nice little wrapping around the bag as if it was a gift, is priceless. In the series “How to brand your brand?” we’ve spoken about a brand experience; packaging and professionality. What message do […]