Brand is experience

BRAND IS EXPERIENCE
Nick Leigh, Curtin University 21.09.11

Curtin University is a trademark of Curtin University of Technology
CRICOS Provider Code 00301J

(the intro bit)

UniConference: Brand is experience 21.09.11

A (little) bit about me

 17 years in visual comms and digital
 Survived Web 1.0, surviving higher ed (so far...)
 Stop me for a chat, um, later!


A bit about you

 Who’s in the room?
 Who’s ever had a bad customer experience?
 Who ever shared that on TripAdvisor, Urbanspoon etc?


A bit about this session

1. Setting the scene: a competitive world
2. Brand perception and digital (connect)
3. Losing and winning (engage)
4. Free take outs! (retain!)


Outcomes (with any luck)

 Compelling reasons to think again about digital
 Stories to pass on to illustrate good and bad practices
 Tasks to review to gain a competitive advantage


Caveats

 88.2% of stats are made up on the spot*
 We’re all in this together
 I will be using the word customer...

* thanks Vic Reeves


1. Setting the scene


Past

Source: PHD


Today

Source: PHD

(thanks Peter Harris)


“More than 25% of search results on
Google for the world’s 20 largest
brands are links to user-generated
content.

”
(SES Magazine, from Social Media Today, 09.04.10)


Students: eExpectations 2010

 76% of university age kids are on Facebook, 59% use Youtube
 33% have searched for your university on Facebook
 74% of kids expect your university to be on Facebook
 80% are looking for official and unofficial information
 67% say it’s OK for admissions to connect with them
 76% say it’s OK to create your own private social network
 Overall: students engaged by a university on a social channel
are more likely to convert

(thanks noellevitz.com)


So what?

 The web has changed the behaviour, expectations,
power and influence of our customers
 Our stakeholder groups have become informed,
impatient, mobile, social and critical
 We’re communicating more than ever on digital.
Have we updated the business accordingly?


“
Most university websites don't show you
information you want to know, they just
show you the information that they want

”
you to know. That's quite stupid really.

Pupil at Didcot Sixth Form, Oxfordshire, England.
Times Higher Education – Deciphering the code 19.08.10


What does success look like in 2012?

 Continuing to do as we always have isn’t the
smartest strategy in the room: build it does not
mean they’ll necessarily come
 Changes to higher ed will impact everyone on
campus. We’ll need to do something exceptional
 Let’s start by addressing how our cohort
experience our brand.


2. Brand perception
(connect)


Brand perceptions

 Some think a brand is defined by its ads, products,
logo, design and other obvious features
 For customers branding happens with the buildup of
experiences and interactions with the product or
service. This leads to their brand perception
 How a customer interacts with your website, mobile
app or other device can greatly influence their
perception of you – even change it.


Digital changed the game

 The web brings the power of experience to the fore:
it’s the ultimate customer-empowering environment
 People construct their own experience through the
building blocks you are providing on your website,
social channels, apps, email, portals, CRM etc
 Providing a consistently good experience through
these multiple touch points is the key to creating a
successful and trusted brand.


“Even the best marketing campaign will take second
place to a person’s ability to form their own perception
through the multiple avenues available to interact with
your company.
The right user experiences can build trust, loyalty,
evangelism and a strong positioning in the market for
your brand...the wrong ones can drive a user

”
elsewhere – for good.

Kara McCain
Nielsen Norman Group 09.03.11


What really shapes a brand?

 The buildup of a person’s experience with a company
resulting from multiple interactions either directly or
indirectly over the course of time.

Person’s
Brand
interaction
with a x Number of
interactions + Course of
time = perception
business


Trust protects reputation
Trust – protecting your reputation
When a company is distrusted When a company is trusted

57% will believe
negative information
after hearing it 12 times
51%
will believe
positive information
will believe positive after hearing it 12 times
15%
information after 25%
hearing it 12 times
will believe negative information
after hearing it 12 times

(Edelmann Trust Barometer 2011)
Informed publics ages 25 to 64

22

Case in point: Facebook

 How has the brand perception of Facebook changed?
 In the beginning: simple to use, focus on service, great
experience. Now complex, exploitative and confusing
with a focus on service to outsiders: marketers
 It was the people’s darling, but privacy concerns and
continual changes without user consent has seriously
eroded perception of the brand – it’s distrusted
 People now seeking an alternative...enter Google+


Let’s ask the customers shall we?

Get Satisfaction
What makes people follow a brand?
29.06.11


Let’s see that again shall we?


Let’s see that again shall we?

97%

(interlude: flavour of
the month)


Crunching the numbers

 3.5 billion pieces of content shared Facebook / week
 Youtube: 2 billion views per day
 700 million on Facebook, 200 million on Twitter
 96% of 18-35 year olds are on a social network
 30 million tweets per day
 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations...
 ...and only 14% trust advertising

(thanks en.guage.media)


In case you missed it

 Brand perception is won and lost over time
 A bad online experience has revenue ramifications
 So many touch points, so much work to do...


3.1 Losing (disengage...)


How to lose brand advocates

 People already like/love your brand and have
consistently bad experiences over time
 People already like/love your brand and have one
really bad experience
 People didn’t know what to expect but had a bad
first experience and/or consistently bad
experiences over time


Remember: experiences are real

 People expect any online task to be pain free
 They aren’t concerned with your corporate structure
 They compare online experiences to real ones
 They remember how every other site performs
compared to yours
 They either blame themselves for failing to complete
tasks...or your company for poor design.


In 2011 you are what your site/social/app is

 Inconsistency in tone, navigation, quality, functionality,
usability all becomes evident on complex sites
 Large businesses ‘show their corporate panty lines’
through their organisationally driven navigation and
fractured/inconsistent digital communications
 Show people that their quest for information is important
to you and that you’re helpful
 Quit confusing people!
(thanks again Kara)


Universities hall of shame?
Customers want Universities are prone to
Brevity Waffle!
Simplicity Excessive complexity
Ease of use Confusion, dilution
Task driven System and process centric
Intuitive navigation Organisational hierarchy
Powerful search Irrelevant/confusing results
Usable, useful design Stock images, multiple brands
Relevance, context Dated and/or excessive content
Empathy, humanity Company speak


3.2 Winning (engage)


How to win brand advocates

 People already like/love your brand and have
consistently good experiences over time
 People already like/love your brand and bad
experiences are kept minor over time
 People didn’t know what to expect but have a great
first experience and /or consistently good
experiences over time


That’s why I’m easy

 Your site’s ease-of-use reflects directly on your
brand and shapes your customers’ impression of
whether or not you care enough to build a site
they can successfully use
 A competitor is only a click away for an unhappy
customer.


Have some personality online!

 Like it or not, brands have a personality online
 Your ‘brand voice’ and conduct is critical
 Visual design and imagery: is it relevant, appealing?
 Functionality and features: are they usable, helpful?
 Are you interacting, engaging or just broadcasting?
 How does your online personality differentiate you
from your competitors?


Online, everyone has power

 People are influenced heavily by others
 People will seek out genuine reviews and opinions:
they have the power to find information and data
 Head off potentially bad PR offline in private
 Help people by using transparent evidence, show
and encourage feedback, and give them a clear
way to contact you
 Direct engagement builds authenticity and trust


3.3 Curtin case studies
and strategies


Studentbox

 Purpose: to help students through high school into uni
 Objectives: 30% market penetration, help 2% prefs increase
 Requirements: safe, engaging, community, timely, integrated
 Roles and responsibilities: agency, marketing, digital media
 Audience: Year 11 and 12s (WA only)
 Scope: hosted, targeted, complementary to website
 Risks, assumptions: no interest, cost, hosting, competition


Studentbox

 Content: value, time, flexibility, tools, topics
 Engagement: forums, chat, applications
 Launch: Student Edge, expos, Facebook, schools
 Reporting and optimisation: weekly and monthly, qualitative
and quantitive


Results – Studentbox

 Members: 13,566 (note up from 4,677 in Feb)
 Time on site: 2mins 55sec
 Usefulness: 95.9% found it easy to use and content useful
 Awareness: 91.2% said it raised awareness of Curtin
 Preference: 48.4% more likely to make Curtin first pref (+32.7%)
 Recommendation: 90.3% would recommend to a friend
 Awards: 10 awards including AIM marketing program of the year


Case study <event>

Harnessing social media for communica5on in the credit industry
AICM (WA) 16 September 2011

Curtin Open Day

 Purpose: increase noise, ‘buzz’ and interaction around event
 Objectives: pre event: date, during event: customer support
 Requirements: easy, accessible, useful, manageable
 Roles and responsibilities: DMU, PR, FSC & other acronyms
 Audience: Yr 11 & 12 plus influencers - smartphone users
 Scope: outbound activity program, inbound comments
 Risks, assumptions: users are mobile, find the channels


Curtin Open Day

 Content: tailored core messages, reminders, comment
 Engagement: Twitter & Facebook, casual tone
 Launch: included in all media, website, advertising
 Reporting and optimisation: pre event, post event


Results – Open Day

 98 tweets (approx 4/hr): 50 replies
 Surge in Twitter followers on the day - 300+
 22 Facebook posts: 10-40 likes, 3-10 comments per
 Surge in Facebook ‘likes’ - 300+


DMU team building 2011 12.10.11

4. Your take outs


“It’s the students, dummy.”*

 Do you understand the consumer power of digital?
 Do you understand the impact on your brand?
 Do you work for or against your customers?
 You have the power to influence opinion and
behaviour (and sales) through digital tools.
 Give digital users the best possible experience at
every touch point...this is an increasingly critical
component of brand building.
(*thanks Bill Clinton)


There’s an
app for that.

(image: Cristiano Betta)

Are your key touch points pain free?

 Courses  Campus map(s)
 Entry requirements  Research centres
 Application  Student/staff portal
 Enrolment  Academic calendar
 Student support  News and alerts
 Staff directory  ...and it is all mobile?


Organisational challenges ahead

 Encouraging cultural change from organisation to user
centric – acceptance of new skillsets and customer
service standards to drive conversion efficiency, save
the business money and increase sales
 Stop the tail from wagging the dog – admin, processes
and systems exist to support your customers’ needs
and are responsible for the +/– experience they have
 Think again about what priority is given to digital...


Bringing it all home

 Connect. Via all your touch points – branded,
resourced, prioritised and strategised consistently.
 Engage. What’s your brand voice? How are you
making tasks easier? Do you deliver on and offline?
 Retain. Get your services right and give your
students (and staff) reason to be advocates.


The end game


The end game

UserBrandCustomer
Experience

“ you
Are
experienced?
”

Brand is experience

“ for your time.
Thanks
Nick Leigh ”
Curtin University
@nixstuff


Brand is experience

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