Research & InsightsExperience Analysis
Discovering what makes an experience better.
65% of communication is non-verbal. There is little point in simply asking a consumer which they prefer - since the answer may not be valid. An event is what happened. An experience is how you felt.
It is the emotions that are at the heart of an experience. Ask a consumer 'Which do you prefer? and you get an answer. Ask why and you get confusion. Preference is positive emotions delivered - find those and optimise them - and preference grows. Liking is not preference. How many of today's great brands - from Guinness through to Marmite though to Coca-Cola would get launched nowadays and pass corporate test hurdle rates? We know the answer - we've worked on all those brands - and they are all successful - because they may not be the best 'Taste' but they are certainly the best 'Experience' in their respective categories.
Our techniques permit us to find the whole raft of emotions - both conscious and unconscious, that combine to make the entirety of the experience. That is what matters - finding the subtlest of shades of sensation - because that permits complete understanding. We convert this into a narrative to identify the customer journey at an emotional level, detailing how the various stimuli are received by the consumer at each stage and highlighting the present important touchpoints and the future necessary ones.
For example, take a section of a food customer journey experience, the eating part - appearance, aroma, flavours, mouthfeel, aftertaste etc. all trigger different emotions as they are consciously or subliminally detected by the brain. Understand this taste and the rest of the emotional journey completely and you begin to have the psychology of the brand, the key to any communications strategy. Prioritise the emotions and you have the signature of a brand. Optimise the emotions and you have increased success. However, no such optimisation can occur without a complete map and that requires working with the target consumer to reveal what is happening. This can be done for an existing product, a new product, a service, a competitor or even simply a Need State. Thus what emotional mosaic will deliver complete satisfaction - and what is the pattern of delivery from current offerings. The shortfall is the opportunity!