What is the age of you? As Interbrand CEO, Jez Frampton, shared with us, “There is a growing desire amongst customers “to have far more personal relationships “with the companies they do business with.”
Therefore, Frampton says, “The onus on any brand “is to be able to create “a sense of individualization.” Crafting a customer centric brand takes more than just adopting new tools in engagement platforms. It takes a fundamental shift in mindset and strategy.
But what does this look like and how does it work? It all begins with Design Thinking. At its core, design thinking takes a human approach to both technology and business. With the goal of supporting the customer experience throughout their buying journey.
In other words, the 21st century brand must learn to become a customer’s ally. Not an annoyance. Design thinking can help make that possible. Here is some basic design thinking strategies.
Number one, take the customer journey. Want to design a seamless customer experience? Put yourself in their shoes and experience your brand as they do. You’ll probably be surprised at what you learn. Number two, simplify.
For a long time, consumer electronics came with increasingly complicated user interfaces. That didn’t make much sense to anyone. With the rise of smartphones and tablets, however, users can do just about anything with the tap of a button or the swipe of a finger.
The lesson, sometimes sophistication isn’t about adding more; but, rather about minimizes to highlight your core value. Number three, collaborate and experiment.
“Design thinking is about always pushing forward. In an ever changing marketing and technology landscape, what worked yesterday may be obsolete tomorrow. How will you continue to optimize your brand experience? Speaking of collaboration and experimentation, lets talk more about brainstorming”, is the opion of James Hendriksen, from HowDoDesign.com tutorials site.
Sometimes our best ideas come to us when we least expect them. Often brainstorming can be as simple as making ourselves comfortable and letting our minds wonder until inspiration strikes. As long as your generating ideas, there’s really no wrong way to brainstorm.
But here is some suggestions to help you get started. Number one, make the time. Companies like Facebook and Google regularly host hack-a-thons. Which let employees step out of their regular routines, generate new ideas, and test them in a safe environment.
Number two, take it to the crowd. The best ideas can come from anywhere or anyone. Crowd sourcing could come in the form of an open channel in your internal network.
Or it could even come from your customers. In our book, The Social Employee, we learn that Dell uses events called Cap Days. To put customers and employees in direct conversation. In the spirit of solving problems and generating new ideas. Number three, test,test and test.
Not all ideas pan out, but plenty are worth exploring. In, The Social Employee, IBM told us that they use an open beta technology adoption program or TAP to build out and test exciting new ideas. Many of which have directly led to new product offerings. And according to Jez Frampton, companies have the opportunity to take full responsibility for understanding what kind of company they are, what makes them different in the marketplace, and most importantly what their relationship is with their customers.
With design thinking and a willingness to try new ideas, your brand can learn to walk hand-in-hand with your customers. Paving the way for exciting new marketing opportunities.
