Elevating Your Brand in One Easy Step

Whether service or product-oriented, brands continuously search for the magic formula to elevate themselves from brand awareness to brand insistence. Oftentimes, companies align themselves with celebrities or the newest pop culture craze hoping consumers will raise an approving eyebrow in their direction but in fact, studies continue to show that celebrities tend to have little impact on whether a consumer buys a product. Let's face it, few people honestly believe anyone in a celebrity's tax bracket actually buys the same products and services they do.

Companies that don't hire celebrities sometimes go for "bells and whistles" - adding features and aesthetic accoutrements that may not affect the overall functionality of the product but it at least looks pretty or is "green" or now comes in neon.

What too many companies fail to understand is that what ultimately makes a brand a "must have" is oftentimes not the product itself but rather the experience tied to the product.

With social media as a mainstay in today's society and with it review sites and the immediacy of word of mouth, it is imperative that consumers have a dynamic and positive interaction with brands and those interactions need to be more than transactional they need to be transformational. Consumers want companies to do more than sell a product, they want to know that the product was sold to them after identifying their specific needs and after being sold the product, consumers want remarkable customer service and unexpected follow-up - a call to make sure the product is to their liking, a hand-written note saying Thank You, etc. It is the experience that reinforces a brand in the minds of today's consumer and it is the experience that will prompt them to purchase the product again.

To elevate your brand, don't sell the product, provide an experience.

A few companies have elevated their brand by providing an experience via social media. Consider Dell Computers, on its site it states:  

"Dell uses Twitter to quickly share information with people interested in our products and services, gather real-time feedback and build relationships with customers, partners and other influential people."

Dell's centralized @DellCares account was launched in 2010 after a PR nightmare with an unhappy influential Twitter user. Using engagement and resolution, Dell used its customer service team to publicly address customer issues and solicit feedback and within a year was able to interact with over 10,000 Dell customers, saw a significant decline in negative feedback and converted 35% of its detractors to promoters of Dell products.


Some companies will continue to opt for bells and whistles and the new hot celebrity to promote their product but companies who stay connected with their customer base soliciting feedback and giving them more than they expect will continue to see their relational capital skyrocket.