I’ve officially crossed into the dark side. No longer sitting on the purely interactive side of the agency fence, I’m now a digital planner within a so-called “traditional” agency environment. There’s no doubt it’s an interesting place to be– navigating the rocky waters between brand communications and experience design.
Why rocky? Because in the age of the connected consumer, branding and experience design are linked at the hip – conjoined twins per se, arguing when to go left or right. Looking at the typical stages of the customer lifecycle (awareness, engagement, consideration, conversion, use, retention, and loyalty) brand communications typically drive awareness and consideration by linking a product to an idea or set of values. Rob Walker, author of Buying In, says it best: “If a product is successfully tied to an idea, branding persuades people to consume the idea by consuming the product.”
But who defines what the brand should stand for? It’s no longer entirely up to the brand manager. Brand management has now become brand facilitation, as planners and experience designers embrace the idea of co-creation with consumers. As Walker puts it, “every member of the community helps define the community. [Brands] aren’t defined by rational rules, they’re flexible and open to individual interpretation.” And that’s where experience design comes in to play – designing interactions that drive engagement with the brand. If branding is concerned with awareness and emotional resonance, experience design encompasses the rest of the consumer lifecycle – engagement, conversion, usage, retention, and loyalty. Phew!
So if both sides of the coin are inextricably linked, it’s my belief that marketing can’t exist exclusively within traditional or digital agencies, there needs to be a hybrid model. Do I know what that looks like? Not at the moment, but it’ll be a fun spending the next little while trying to figure it all out!
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