Brand as Experience
- Toronto: Friday, August 13
- San Francisco: Friday, October 8
- Copenhagen: Tuesday, October 19
Kara McCain
Full-Day Tutorial
Some people erroneously think a company’s brand is defined by its latest ad campaign, newest
product, tagline, jingle, logo, design and other obvious features. But in customers’ minds,
real branding happens in the buildup of experiences and interactions with the product or service,
leading to perception. How a customer interacts with your website, mobile app or other device can
greatly influence their perception of you, even change it.
This has always been true, but the Web brings the power of experience (as opposed to image) even
more to the front, because it’s the ultimate customer-empowering environment. He or she who
clicks the mouse constructs their own experience through the building blocks you are providing on
your website, social media presence, email (both newsletters and transactional messages), and any
other touchpoints. On the Web, you can’t impose on users—or they’ll simply go
away. But as many strong Web brands show, if users like interacting with you, experience can
create positioning.
Providing a great overall experience through time and multiple touchpoints is key to creating a successful, lasting brand.
What You’ll Learn
- How traditional ideas of branding cross over to the online space
- How a person’s online experience affects brand perception
- When online and offline experiences “disconnect”
- How customers are shaping brand perception online & via social media
- Managing the brand experience across multiple online channels
Course Outline
- Introduction: how is branding “branded?”
- Traditional definition of “branding” vs. shared beliefs
- Creating the experience
- When does the experience start?
- Learn what people want when they visit your site or interact with your device
- Predicting the future (user needs)
- Lessons from bad experiences
- Small changes, big rewards
- Engaging with users in the online social environment
- Do you really need a Facebook page or Twitter account?
- What it means to take your brand “social”
- Managing your brand across multiple online channels
- Juggling the experience between the Web, social networks, email, etc.
- Brand perception vs. real experience vs. the memory
How attitudes can change based on:
- Preconceived ideas
- During the experience
- After the fact
- Connecting the online experience to the real world
- Bridging the gap between your site/application and a customer’s offline experience
- Predicting possible successes/failures after users leave your site
- The power of the consumer
- How review sites, forums and social media have put power into the hands of the people
- Managing good/bad reviews to create better experiences
Format
This full-day tutorial includes lectures, exercises and screenshots to show how experience shapes a brand.
Handouts
Copies of the presentation slides
Who Should Attend
This seminar is intended for anyone working with or managing the user experience of a website, mobile application or web-enabled device and is interested in learning how that experience translates to brand perception. This includes brand and marketing managers as well as user experience professionals. This seminar builds on basic knowledge of offline branding and extends it extensively to the online space. Implementation from a technical perspective is not discussed.
Instructor
Kara McCain is a User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group. For more than 13 years,
she has been creating innovative brand and user experiences in the search, social media, luxury, hotel, travel,
jewelry, telecommunications, professional sports, e-commerce, government, and food-service industries. Her
expertise has allowed her to develop and implement highly successful Web and print design strategies for
Fortune 500 companies. Before joining Nielsen Norman Group, McCain was a senior visual and interaction designer
for Yahoo!'s Search and Social Media division, working on Yahoo! Answers, Local search, and defining the way
people integrate social media into search. Prior to Yahoo!, she also led the Web design effort for clients such
as Verizon, Pizza Hut, The Ritz-Carlton hotels, the Dallas Stars, Radio City Entertainment and the Zale Diamond
Corporation.
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