BOLSTERING BUSINESS WITH A SOUND PHYSICAL BRAND EXPERIENTIAL STRATEGY

The concept of physical brand experience strategies is simple. It's about engaging with customers to create an unforgettable experience developing a beneficial emotional connection with them. In a world that's almost entirely offline, turning the purchase process into a real-life experience is what sets brands apart.

There are many big movers and shakers who support this school of thought. MasterCard is one of the many industry giants who've recognized the power of experiential marketing in the current age. The company's global chief marketing and communications officer, Mr. Raja Rajamannar, stated in a 2019 interview that six years prior, they'd realized the power of experiences of traditional advertising. He went on to say that the future of marketing was about story making and not storytelling.

Having experiential product marketing will put you in most audience's sights. While this attention is good, potential consumers have to resonate with the experience to that point where they are willing to invite the brand into their lives. For this reason, you will need to have proper physical brand experience strategies in place to bring life to your brand.

THE BRAND EXPERIENCE

Plenty of activities done in both digital and physical domains have markers that can be referred to as brand experiences. These include customer interactions, social media interactions, corporate and product marketing. The purpose of all these activities and interactions is to improve the customers' perception of the brand

When most efficient, brand experiences work to develop valuable but specific interactions to meet the customers' needs. Satisfied customers are, at the end of the day, happy customers. A joyful interaction leaves the customer feeling better connected with the company, increasing their likelihood of buying products or commodities produced and sold in the future.

WHAT IS A PHYSICAL BRAND EXPERIENCE?

The Physical Brand Experience (PBX) is the tangible type of brand experience. It comes in different forms and shapes depending on the objectives and creativity of the business. This experience comes in the form of product packaging by the brand, its brand activation space campaigns, or as witnessed in trade show booths.

We know that most brands and businesses already do this. Still, they don't utilize the potential of these interactions and activities to the best of their abilities to amplify their brand messages and brand value.

This is because a well-done physical brand experience is about more than just visual and graphic elements. It encompasses all the senses in a way that includes forms, textures, sounds, and even smells. A solid physical brand experience strategy will communicate the brand's message and value, improve your client base's loyalty by connecting with them at a deeper level, and increase the user-generated content being made.

KEY FACTORS FOR AN OPTIMIZED PHYSICAL BRAND EXPERIENCE STRATEGY

We were successful in our research into how businesses and marketers can create better physical brand experience strategies. The groundbreaking discoveries were packaged in a proprietary method developed exclusively by our group called The FOUR Dimensions Framework™.

These significant areas every brand must look into to bolster its impact among the masses include:

FOCUSED IDENTITY

Above everything else, your brand must have a focused identity. It ought to have a clear and thought-out brand position. This means presenting an authentic image in terms of their messages and promises.

It entails having a clear idea of who your audience is and not just going through something you think is "cool." Sales staff and key account managers need to know this. This way, they will consciously develop a message that reaches out to the audience while being in sync with the brand image.

OBSERVABLE TOUCHPOINTS

These are the physical aspects of the brand experience that are tangible. They can be anything from the architectural design of the brand space, how the paper substrate feels to the touch or even the material used in the product design. These touchpoints have to align with the brand's identity while not relying on fads and trends.

USER ENGAGEMENT

This is where the customers interact with the brand's tangible aspects. As people are wired to focus better on simple, singular messages, having too many user engagement messages will befuddle the customer. At the end of the day, this engagement and the desire to continue doing so should be something the audience wants to involve themselves in and not come across forced. They could be in the form of interactive, creative, and unique analog and digital pieces. For example, the "instagrammable wall" mural concept has already been played out.

User engagement goes hand-in-hand with user-generated content. Let's explain. We've shown how most consumers these days crave an experience rather than the usual selling points or picturesque visuals of traditional forms of advertising. People want to feel like they genuinely want to love the product in comparison to feeling like they've been coerced into it.

If you've packaged your product well, that'll be how you first get new users to bite. To keep them on the line and attract others, you have to make them so thrilled as to reel in their friends, school colleagues, and work buddies. This happens through social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, among others. For example, a good product will have more than one unboxing video these days because quality work sells itself.

YouTubers and influencers, when they review your product, they're also staking their reputations to the item in question. While Amazon can get away with generic packaging because of the company's size and reach, new entries into the game need to do more. No one will waste their 5 minutes on a boringly packaged product; it'll even reflect on the views and the comment section, which will be negative publicity for the item and the reviewers.

REALIZED VALUE

While it's listed as the last aspect of this four-pronged framework, it's actually what comes first in the actualization of these four principles. Simply put, your brand has to mean something to your audience; it has to have a certain value to it for it to remain relevant. If your brand value is strongly realized, it will reap benefits for your business in the form of sales and brand loyalty.

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Consequently, these pillars can be applied as follows:

THE PACKAGING DESIGN

Potential customers need to fall in love with the packaging material and how it feels between their fingers. Most brands and people go wrong in solely focusing on the graphic packaging to communicate their consumer goods' worth. Remember to use the FOUR Dimensions Framework™ to come up with a wholesome packaging design solution. For instance, think about how a good unboxing video makes you feel and how the content creator felt when sharing the video.

THE EXHIBIT DESIGN

To create an effective spatial brand design, focus on amplifying your brand message. Strengthening the message will lead to a better connection with interested consumers and audiences.

The best brand activation spaces and trade show booth designs don't try to replicate trends; they create the trends. These physical presentations showcase the brand's personality and identity. It goes just beyond the visual and graphic aspects. Furthermore, the architecture chosen for these activation spaces and booths will either make the product event more relatable or show how out of touch with the audience the brand is.

TAKEAWAY

Physical Brand Experience (PBX) strategies will give you a leg-up in the world of product marketing. To create an interactive approach to your marketing strategy, keep the following in mind:

• Customers crave tangible experiences that they can share with their family, friends, and acquaintances

• A thought-out Physical Brand Experience (PBX) strategy will connect with customers at a deep level as tangible interactions leave more of an impression on people

• Employing the FOUR Dimensions Framework™ will have customers closing out the competition because of the bond shared with your brand.

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ABOUT ARC & CO. DESIGN COLLECTIVE

Arc & Co. Design Collective transforms your brand messages into engaging physical brand experiences that increase your brand's perceived value and loyalty with your customers. By utilizing our proprietary FOUR Dimensions Framework™, we strategize, conceptualize, innovate and design experiential packaging and brand activation spaces that will complement your business and keep you ahead of the competition.

Get in touch with us to discover how we can assist in integrating a physical brand experience into your marketing strategy.