Harmonizing Your 'Touchpoints'

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HARMONIZING YOUR ‘TOUCHPOINTS’

Consumers may come in contact with your brand on a daily basis. Use each interaction

to strengthen their beliefs about your brand. BY SCOTT DAVIS AND TINA LONGORIA

pany is in control of its own destiny. You most likely recognize that by consistently reinforcing and strength- ening what your brand stands for, through each of these touchpoints, you can drive customer satisfaction. With a high degree of customer satisfaction, your brand will tend to experience superior loyalty, greater word-of-mouth, higher price points, a higher degree of consumer forgive- ness (“oh, that slip-up was just a one- time event”) and, most importantly, higher levels of profitability. Southwest Airlines, Lexus, Starbucks, Kraft and PepsiCo are some of the companies that actively control the multitude of touchpoints their brands have with consumers. These companies each focus on constantly reinforcing their brand promise. These marketers also use every customer interaction to reinforce consumers’ beliefs about their brands.

Defining brand touchpoints What is a brand touchpoint? It’s all of the different ways that your brand interacts with and makes an impres- sion on customers, employees and other stakeholders. hink about all of the different bly like countless other companies Every action, tactic and strategy your T ways that your brand interacts that have limited control over the brand has with customers or stakehold- with and makes an impression on interactions their brand has with ers, whether it is through advertising, a your customers, your channel part- stakeholders and are not even aware merchandising display or a customer- ners, your employees and all other of all of the different ways in which service call, is a brand touchpoint. critical partners that help to bring their brand can impact or be impacted In our experience, every brand has your brand to life. by these various interactions. at least 30 and sometimes up to 100 Then, ask yourself this question: These companies risk brand deni- brand touchpoints that customers, “Are you in control of all these interac- gration. Plus, they put their brand’s employees and other stakeholders tions and confident that every ‘touch’ success in the hands of others. experience on a daily basis. your brand has with those stakeholders But if you are in control of these In general, brand touchpoints fall is operating the way you want it to?” brand interactions or what we call into three distinct customer-experience If you answered “no,” you’re proba- brand “touchpoints,” then your com- segments: pre-purchase experience,

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purchase experience and post-purchase son next to you just bought. vice, customer satisfaction surveys, experience touchpoints (See Brand Specific purchase experience goals loyalty programs, loyalty coupons, Touchpoint Wheel diagram on p.8). and objectives include: Web site visits and newsletters. Let’s define each. • Instilling confidence. Maximize the Specific post-purchase experience value that prospects see in your offering touchpoint goals and objectives include: Pre-purchase experience touchpoints and mitigate any doubts they may have • Delivering on your brand These brand touchpoints influence about making the right decision. promise. Meet or exceed customer whether customers or future cus- • Delivering value. Make prospects performance and usage expectations. tomers will consider purchasing your understand the price-value relation- This includes delivering brand value brand. Typical pre-purchase experi- ship they are getting in your brand above and beyond expectations as ence touchpoints for consumer pack- vs. other brands. well as seeking new ways to delight aged goods (CPG) companies include At this stage, you have to instill customers. advertising, direct mail, samples, free- trust in the minds of your prospects • Increasing brand loyalty and standing inserts (FSIs) and the com- and prove beyond a reasonable advocacy. Good customers not only pany’s Web site. doubt that your offering will be bet- look to your brand for repeat and Specific pre-purchase experience ter than others. Reassure them that future purchases, but they also endorse touchpoint goals and objectives their purchase will deliver the value and recommend your brand to others. include: they are expecting. Of the three brand touchpoints, • Retaining current customers. the post-purchase experience is the Keep current customers loyal to your Post-purchase experience touchpoints most under-leveraged (especially brand by continuing to remain rele- Post-purchase brand touchpoints within CPG companies), yet offers vant in their lives. are all the interactions that are lever- potentially powerful ways to drive • Heightening brand awareness. aged after the sale to help maximize sustainable and profitable growth to Make prospects aware of the main the total brand experience. The usage the company. differences between your brand and a or consumption of the product is Tide is an example of a brand that close competitor’s brand. experienced at this stage as well. has not overlooked the post-pur- • Shaping brand perceptions and Typical post-purchase experience chase experience. For instance, Tide’s expectations. Shape perceptions of touchpoints include product and Web site, www.tide.com, offers prospects by helping them to under- package performance, customer ser- online coupons, advice on doing stand the benefits that your brand offers vs. competitor brands. • Driving brand relevance. Ensure that prospects link the benefits of your brand to important needs and PACKAGING STAYS TRUE wants in their lives, thereby recogniz- ing the value your brand brings. TO BRAND PROMISE • Driving brand consideration. Steer the brand into a prospect’s con- Tom’s of Maine does an excellent job of that the brand makes to its consumers. The sideration set. staying true to its brand promise through packaging is simple, pure, environmentally For a marketer such as General many of its touchpoints, including its friendly and not tested on animals. Mills, this means things akin to cereal product packaging. Unlike most traditional toothpaste mar- promotions, coupons, online games, Tom’s promise is to provide natural keters, Tom’s does not use bright colors public relations, word-of-mouth, etc. care products made with pure, simple with sparkling, holographic bursts on its ingredients that are safe, effective and toothpaste packaging. Instead, the com- Purchase experience touchpoints pleasant to use. pany uses a simple, beige-colored carton Purchase and usage experience The packaging respects the promise with a picture of the plant (e.g., pepper- touchpoints move a customer from mint) that designates the only considering your brand to flavor variety. actually purchasing it. Typical purchase experience touchpoints for CPG compa- To reinforce the natural aspect nies include packaging, P-O-P of its toothpaste product, Tom’s of Maine prints displays, in-store sampling, images of pulp fibers on the price, an influential sales rep in paperboard carton. the store or seeing what the per-

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Brand Touchpoint Wheel

Loyalty Advertising laundry and tips on removing Programs effort and resources. tough stains. Use a set of objective Direct Mail/ screens to prioritize your Assessing your brand’s touch- Newsletters Samples touchpoints. These screens points include impact on cus- Since you cannot focus tomers’ perception of the on every single touch- brand, size of the gap Post-Purchase Pre-Purchase Coupons & point due to time and Customer Incentives between today and Service resource constraints, you Experience Experience tomorrow, cost of imple- need to identify the mentation, a cost-benefit handful of touchpoints assessment, as well as that really drive the Product & Deals & the touchpoint’s ability brand experience you Package Promotions to help your company Performance desire. Purchase achieve its longer-term We use four general goals and objectives. steps with our clients to Experience Step four: Implement help them determine which Packaging and manage your high- touchpoints they should lever- Sales Person impact touchpoints on an on- Store & age. These four steps are fairly Shelf P-O-P going basis. Whoever owns the universal and cut across a variety of Placement Displays touchpoint is now responsible for industries and company sizes. not only executing it, but educating Step one: Identify all the touch- employees on its value, understanding points that impact and influence cus- start to better understand the chal- how the marketplace is experiencing tomers’ perceptions of your brand. lenges that lie ahead for them in getting it and leveraging metrics that will Categorize these brand touchpoints to the desired touchpoint end-state. help to inform future decisions tied to by the three experience segments that Step three: Based upon these inter- that touchpoint. BP we outlined above. nal and external perspectives, priori- It is a good idea to ask multiple tize the touchpoints and determine The authors, Scott Davis and Tina Longoria, are Managing Partner and Senior Associate, departments in your company for which are high-impact and will have respectively, with the Chicago office of Prophet, input on the touchpoints, as many of an immediate effect on brand percep- a consulting firm specializing in brand and the touchpoints come from other areas tion and experience. business strategy. Contact Scott at beyond marketing. This will also help you determine [email protected] and Tina at Step two: Gain a deep understand- where you should focus your time, [email protected] ing of how you are performing against each of these touchpoints from both an internal and external perspective. This should include an TALK WITH ALL CUSTOMERS assessment of your touchpoints’ strengths and weaknesses, the ideal In conducting external research to find well in their pre-purchase and purchase end-state for each touchpoint as well out your touchpoints’ strengths and interactions with your brand. Also, this as competitors’ performance on each. weaknesses, you should talk to three group can tell you what your competition This second step is where the revela- types of customers. These include: is doing well, in real-time. tions start. You will hear from cus- • Past or lost customers • Current customers tomers what impacts their perceptions These folks can help you better pin- These individuals can give you direct of your brand the most. You will point which brand touchpoints are nega- insights as to what you are doing so well understand where your touchpoint vul- tively impacting consumers. They also that they have stayed loyal to your fran- nerabilities are vs. the competition. can isolate competitors’ touchpoints that chise. Newer customers, who are active Plus, you will have clarity on what the have swayed them to move from your with your brand today, can tell you why touchpoint gaps are and what it will brand to another brand. their participation with your brand has take to close those gaps. been limited and/or what touchpoints Importantly, eventual touchpoint • Potential or future customers owners need to get engaged here to These consumers can help you deter- helped them make the decision to buy have their voice be heard, to hear the mine what is working well and not so your brand over others. market’s perspectives directly and to

Reprinted with permission from Brand Packaging January/February 2003