Change is inevitable: As an economy matures, ages, and eventually transitions to a new form, business, marketing, and branding must change accordingly. Failure to adapt to the new business environment will have serious, unintended consequences in the future.
We all know how the modern economy evolved from an agricultural economy, to an industrial economy, to an information economy. But where do we stand now? Is the information economy dead? If so, what comes next?
We need to look beyond what is represented in Maslow's diagram to see the parallel development between personal and economic satisfaction in the modern economy.
The agricultural economy provides the lowest level of satisfaction in Maslow's hierarchy by providing the necessities of life, while the industrial stage provides the products necessary to satisfy a wide range of needs, from safety needs to social recognition and status needs. The information economy provides us with answers to people's cognitive needs and thirst for knowledge.
But as things changed, the web disrupted the way business was done. Its impact was not only profound, but also put pressure on the film industry, newspapers, book publishing, the software industry, and other sectors.
The adage “adapt or die” is truer now than ever. So where are we on the growth curve of personal fulfillment and the economy?
Be all that you can be
At the top of Maslow’s pyramid is “self-actualization.” The human desire to let the world know that we exist (similar to the U.S. military slogan: “Be All You Can Be”). This is the central issue in today’s economy, the experience economy.
B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore, authors of The Experience Economy, argue that work is theater, every business is a stage, and what businesses need to focus on in today's economy: "when goods are fungible, products are tangible, services are intangible, experiences are memorable, and transformation is effective. Everything the economy provides, must not lead to excess."
“Experience is memorable, transformation is effective” should be the mantra of your new marketing strategy, your activities must meet the market demand: To be all that you can be.
Experience is memorable, transformation is effective
Experiences are memorable, conversions are effective. What does that mean? – to make change effective – to turn web audiences into customers – marketers must deliver more than just goods, prices, or convenience. The businesses that will succeed in the experience economy are those that provide customers with experiences, not just goods and services.
We are surrounded by both the online and the offline world. The growth of Starbucks is not due to good coffee but to the experiences they provide to their regular customers online, on iTunes, experiences that satisfy the neglected needs of music lovers, book lovers, and women with personality. Macs are finally gaining market share because of the experiences consumers have with iPods, those experiences have satisfied them and now the company is ready to bring those experiences to the Mac.
The key to business survival is not a new feature or a low price, but an experience that can satisfy the customer's soul.
Soul-satisfying experience.
Traditional business thinking has fallen far behind the complex emotional desires of consumers in the experience economy. Business schools are producing highly skilled professionals and statisticians who are able to grasp the realities of the economy, and are leaning toward experiences, fueled by a deep understanding of the web, which can unleash the emotional needs of consumers.
6-Step Plan for Web Branding
Goal: Transformation through self-affirmation
The end result of our efforts is to convert website visitors into customers. But to get there, we have to take a step back. The experience economy requires a new way of thinking about your audience and exactly what you’re selling.
From now on, any marketing decisions you make should prioritize your self-actualization factor. Find it, build your marketing strategy around it.
Forget price, quality, and service. They are no longer central to your strategy.
Step 1: Understand that your marketing goal is to convert your audience from unhappy viewers to happy customers.
Prerequisite: Expectation
Successful marketing is about creating realistic, believable expectations that can be met.
Almost every day we are bombarded with outrageous, silly ads on the web. All of them are designed to prey on the consumer’s pain points, their need to grow, to be the best they can be, and to achieve some measurable, satisfying outcome in their lives. Creating false expectations can lead to a one-time transaction but not a long-term customer.
Step 2: Create consistent, credible expectations that you can satisfy
Product: Audience
One way to wrap your mind around this new approach is to think of your audience as if they were your product. You’re turning them from dissatisfied searchers to satisfied customers – that’s your job. You don’t just want to make a transaction, you want to create satisfaction, and satisfied consumers will tell everyone about their experiences with you.
Getting people on your email list isn't enough. You have to turn them into believers and give up their old beliefs.
Step 3: The product of your marketing is your audience. Turn your website audience into absolute believers who will instill confidence in your ability to deliver satisfaction.
Methodology: Experience
Experiences are meant to be lived and enhanced by the power of the story you tell. Springwise is a perfect example of the power of a compelling, unique story.
Danish brothers Emil and Magnus Gerbola import Italian wines to sell to wine bars, restaurants, and corporate clients. But the experience of buying wine at Gerbola Vin is very different from buying wine anywhere else. The brothers, sons of a traveling Italian circus clown, recently opened a small shop in an underground coal mine built in 1942.
What could be better than sitting with friends enjoying imported wines and being entertained by the stories of a liquor dealer, the son of a circus clown and a shop operating in a coal warehouse.
Step 4: Create different stories, which are the basic form of experiences.
Scope of operation: Web
Believe it or not, some businesses still don't fully understand the use of the web as a primary medium, and some don't realize that the web is a multimedia channel, not just a source of digital brochures and catalogs.
The Web multiplies the paradox of choice, and the principle is that the more choices, the harder it is to make a decision. As a result, the Web must deliver differentiated marketing messages, messages that use rich Web technologies to enhance the experience.
Step 5: The web is no longer a place where all information is gathered, but a sophisticated playground, a place to create experiences through the dissemination of entertaining stories, providing useful information, attractive and memorable.
Media: Video
There is no better way to bridge the gap between your website and your potential customers than with video. When we talk about video we are not talking about visual presentations, and animations just because they move doesn’t mean they are effective. The way you tell your story and convey your message must be emotional, important, engaging, personal, and impactful.
Step 6: Deliver your marketing message, or a unique, distinct, and consistent story about your brand, through a clever, sophisticated, and memorable web video.
Final thoughts
If you are in business, you are very busy.. and you make things complicated, you cut corners, you create meaningless tasks.
Unfortunately, customers are complicated and business is difficult, as Pine and Gilmore make clear in their book Experience Economy: Work is theater and every business is a stage.
Or if you prefer Shakespeare’s quote: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women players.” If you want to be an actor, you must learn how to communicate effectively with your audience through the power and influence of experiential marketing. According to Nhut Linh – Lantabrand
