TIME – The Important Moments of Experience

The one thing that makes all things is time.?Time is one of the most underrated commodities. Like health, nobody cares about it until it’s gone or fading. They say money makes the world go around, but in reality, the world going around is only relevant to those alive, those still blessed with the resource of time. Come to find out, time is a fundamental factor in the next iteration of business. Let’s talk about the near horizon and current difference maker experience business.

Experience Business

All business is both an exchange of value, and an experience.?For decades companies have focused on the exchange of value facilitated by marketing. The experience side of business is just now coming into the spotlight. Brands are using technology to map out and reimagine their customer’s brand experience from design to advocacy.?The age of personalization is on the horizon and the fight for time of attention is raging.??

But what will the next high hill be?

Businesses who only think of today’s goals will be lost when the future shortly arrives.?You have to be thinking at least two business shifts ahead to properly position yourself to continue to thrive.

TIME – The Important Moments of Experience

We all live moment to moment creating memories, but only a handful of them really matter to us.?The cold hard reality is companies are spending billions of dollars trying to be important to their customers and prospects at key customer touchpoints. Most simply aren’t. The wasted dollars on advertising and marketing is astounding. Organizations are scrambling to use data to know their customers, have an omni-channel strategy to be on the right screen at the right time, and then use AI to personalize the content to gain their attention and be relevant. As if that isn’t enough, then they have to see that holistically and orchestrate a unique customer experience by managing everything from design toe execution.

As I have said many times, business is getting harder, not easier. If you manage to pull all of that off, then it has to be an important experience to have a lasting impact on your customers and reach the highest space of customer relationships.

The battlefield for business success is changing.?Competition keeps forcing businesses to change the battlefield if they want to succeed.?It was a battle for sales until it got too competitive, then it was attention until it got too competitive, now it is experience but that will eventually get too competitive.?Society is changing both externally and internally as we learn to live with better technology things are coming at us faster.?When society changes, the rules change. When the rules change, the way you do business must change or you will be left behind.

Attention spans have shrunk by over 50% in the past decade to levels lower than children diagnosed with ADHD” – According to The Associated Press

People have more choices than ever, more change to deal with, and shorter attention spans.?So many brands are seeking attention that they have created a relevance problem because people have too many choices. Broadcast marketing is in the lowest place of seeking attention. The more brands scream for attention, the more people tune them out which then raises the bar for getting someone’s attention. Savvy marketers are now looking to technology, AI and big and small data to cut through the noise by creating relevance through personalization. Sorry to say that once you climb that hill there is another mountain on the other side, importance. If you really want to have a strong brand, you are going to need to master importance. Let’s walk through this from the core and you will understand why importance is the next big battlefield in business.

Memory and Recall

If people don’t know who you are, you don’t exist. A lot of branding is in the memory and recall space. Countless billions have been spent to go from zero at startup to just getting into the prospect’s mind and memory. Brands seek to be heard of, to be placed in someone’s memory because if you aren’t in their mind they can’t choose you or attach meaning to your brand. From there, years and millions of dollars are put into getting them to recall your brand (an expensive and uphill battle). Sorry to say,?science?points to the fact that although our brain has an almost limitless capacity to store memories, the real problem is our ability to recall it. The repetition of ads is an attempt to externally stimulate recall of the brand.?Thought the forgetting curve works against the dollars spent on repetitive broadcast marketing, it used to produce a result when competition for attention was lower. That is marketing phase one. The Madmen era is a great example of this phase and it lasted for decades.

Feelings and Meanings

Manipulating people’s feelings and then using association with a brand is the beginning of phase two and where we are overall as a society in the timeline of marketing’s evolution. There are a few outside of the group being innovative and exploring the next level, but on whole, the marketing world is somewhere bouncing between getting attention and manipulating feelings. The high bar of phase two is meaning. Relationship marketing fits into this and personalization is the road that can lead to meaning.?When a brand or brand experience means something to the prospect it automatically cuts through the noise and distraction of the world. It also becomes sticky because there is a ton of stimulus in the world but only a handful of things that matter to us. Meaning resides on the other side of relevance. Something can be relevant to you but not be that important. This meaningful importance is where all unencumbered decisions and actions reside. When things mean something to us and are important we reach into the activist level of action that doesn’t require thought or analysis to drive direct action.

Importance is built for short attention spans.?After the fascination of AI and big data is mastered and wears off, then it will be about the artistry of crafting brand experiences that create moments of importance in people’s lives. Look beyond the novelty, and see the true value of the current emerging technology.?The greatest strategic decisions are the ones that make your customers pick you regardless of analysis. Businesses need a way to get attention, with minimal time, to drive decision making and make their competition irrelevant. That is what importance can do.

The Crowded Room

Nobody picks another grandma.?Imagine you are in a crowded noisy subway station and you hear a voice call out to you. You scan the room and see that it is your grandma who happens to be in the same area you are. There are countless people coming and going but only one person that grabs your attention, is relevant, and alters your decision in the moment, your grandma. When you lock eyes and she smiles at you, you smile back and move towards her ignoring everyone else, everything else, and even your own previous goals.

Did you hear the other grandma in the station? No.

Did you notice the ad for the cell phone company? No.

They don’t exist when something important has your attention - How would you like to make your competition disappear from your prospects?

Yeah, that is what I am talking about.

This is relationship marketing delivered in a?way that creates?The?Important?Moments of?Experience.

Relationships Alter Judgement and Decisions

Stop trying to manipulate emotions, that is so 2010. You want to know what really manipulates our emotions? People.

In particular the people we have relationships with. Nobody trades in their kids for better ones. People will even suffer for people and forgive the mistakes of people they have relationships with. On the other hand, if you’re a business, and I am just a customer, then you better deliver or I will simply go elsewhere. Businesses need to realize when they treat their customers like revenue, customers treat their brand like a commodity.

It costs at least 5 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain a returning one. –?The Ultimate Guide to Customer Loyalty

Brand loyalty is not dead, brands are just expecting loyalty from people they have no relationship with.?The world is full of brand acquaintances. You know them, they may not know you exist or even know your name, and it sure feels like they may not even know your name when you interact with them. But hey, maybe they can act like you are friends when they want something and manipulate your emotions to get something from you while delivering nominal value in return. And that is the failure of modern marketing. When you build your brand on relationships and delivering value to the people in that relationship, when there is two-way communication and thoughtfulness, then you can create important moments of experience.

The Important Moments of Experience?is?about the TIME we have with the people that matter to us.?Relationships take time, and over time relationships break all the rules of logic and decision making.?Loyalty is a byproduct of relationships and brands with no relationships expecting loyalty are crazy. This can’t be manufactured, automated, or generic. It starts with leadership and a vision from design to the front-line that actually cares about the long-term relationship you have with your customers. If you want to be an experience business, your goal should be becoming an important relationship to your customers. If you are willing to take a loss for your customers, they will feel it. Listen to your customers and they will know they matter. Design for your customers and they will appreciate you.

Master?The?Important?Moments of?Experience and they will cherish you.

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