The Royals

Let me paint a picture for you.

You are a young attractive twenty-something looking for love. Like most in this era, you create the perfect dating profile — you've got a flattering selfie, and a perfectly witty bio (thanks, ChatGPT), all designed to attract the right attention. That's your brand strategy.

But then comes the date when all that promise gets tested, and you either sink or swim, make a connection, or leave them wondering why they swiped right in the first place. That's brand experience.

In the world of marketing and LinkedIn, brand strategy takes centre stage. Agencies love doing them. Clients love buying them. They are fun, shiny, and feel important. Organisations dive into them because they often align with a change agenda. However, a brand strategy, like a dating profile, despite its powerful wording and clever double entendres, can often feel flimsy and theoretical. That's why I want to espouse my love for brand experience, the equally sexy but more giving side of brand planning.

At The Royals, we talk about Brand Experience (BeX) as the feelings and behaviours a brand creates for audiences in specific moments. It is best thought of in terms of the outcome - the result you want of people interacting with the brand.

And, just like a good conversation on a date, brand experience adds dimension to other brand elements like design and identity and considers how people interact with and perceive the brand in real-world situations.

Why is BeX often overlooked?

Brand strategy is poorly understood. People think about it in artefacts, not applications. A lovely deck. A brand book. A great line. But all that comes to nothing if people don't buy into it or if it can't be activated. No one wants a dust-collecting brand relic.

Short-termism is another factor. Brand Experience is a long game, and most companies prioritise immediate issues, sales and leads over long-term brand building through experiences.

Many marketers simply don't know what BeX is or how it's useful. Many have done brand strategy projects but few have pulled it through to experience. Committing time and resources without a framework for assessment is challenging.

Creating consistent brand experiences across multiple touchpoints requires coordination across various departments and channels. This can be challenging and sometimes terrifying for bigger organisations, not to mention political ones.

The benefits are substantial

It helps you stand out.

In crowded markets, a unique and memorable brand experience can become a differentiator. Ikea's meatballs are a perfect example of a brand experience that people find charming and delicious.

It forges genuine emotional connections with customers.

Positive experiences create emotional bonds between customers and brands, fostering loyalty. The Nike Running apps' coach pep-talks, while very American, help you celebrate that small 3k win!

It acts as the thread holding disparate aspects together.

Brand experience creates commonly understood principles to design from, applicable to everything from onboarding emails to content strategy. Klarna's Smoooth brand platform exemplifies this - smoooth ads nodding to a smoooth user experience.

Plot your path

No one wants to go on bad dates where what you advertise falls short of expectations. While your brand strategy is vital, it's equally important to plot the path of your brand. Brand experience is where all that design and positioning thinking moves from words on a page to something concrete and tangible that customers can feel, touch, and remember.