But the traditional media agency planning model based primarily on broadcast paid media cannot solve for these broader multi-modal scenarios.
Consumer expectations still not met
What is needed is a new approach that considers all potential touch points as meaningful connections between brands and people. Meaningful Brands research tells is us that people don't expect any single brand to deliver the utopian dream, but they are looking to brands and businesses for specific well-being benefits.
Unfortunately there's a huge gap between people's expectations and what brands actually deliver and the only way to bridge that gap is to evolve communications planning to a multi-dimensional model that is much more about doing and being and less about just saying. The consumer experience is paramount to moving from a story telling to a story doing model where brands involve consumers in the purpose behind their product and service offering.
As an innovation-driven industry we are moving from being a consumer economy to an experience economy – i.e. brands need to form strong bonds with people – a relationship. And that if that's to happen then all interactions from the first glimpse of a product to a piece of display to a pop-up need to deliver meaningful connections.
Interactions need to be designed towards how people behave, take into account that they have access to a vast amount of data now, have social (and social approval) baked in, be frictionless and seamless as people move between different channels and platforms – phone to PC to tablet and back again.
They also need to be consistent and trustworthy too. If the relationship is to be ongoing then most of all they need to be driven by a deep understanding of what people want, why they do what they do – what drives or motivates them.
Designing 'from the user-out'
Experience design is a term that varies on who you talk to. Some people confine it to mean a brand experience that's designed solely around a single campaign, while others limit its use to say a branch of user experience design and confined to digital media. We define it more broadly than these examples, and talk about it as being a user's entire experience of a brand, period.
It is absolutely user-centred and when it comes to developing our ideas on how to create an experience, initially channel agnostic, encompassing all interactions across all channels, platforms and devices, including product and service design and continuing through any owned, earned, paid or shared media a brand has.
Designing 'from the user out' means we can work in a way that is similar to design-based companies like IDEO, and draw together different disciplines - for example from strategy, user experience, product and service design, data and analytics, planning, psychology and research – to create an ecosystem of 'meaning creation' for partners and the end users.
The most obvious examples of businesses that practice what I'd call experience design are Nike and Apple. Both these businesses design from the user and the product out, creating a compelling, trustworthy and inspiring ecosystem of meaning, and a series of valuable exchanges between them and their consumers.
This is the blueprint brands must follow if they are to truly engage with consumers and tell their story in the modern digital age.
- Darren Goldie is Chief Development Officer & Managing Partner, Alex Barclay, XD Strategist and David Graham, Content Strategist, at Havas Media.
