For most of my design career, I advocated the importance of a company’s mission statement or goals, it’s branding story, and fulfilling their target markets need – not just the physical apparel, but the emotional and feelings derived from using the product/service. Empathy is a huge part of what is important in my mind, as to what makes a designer good. With the growing focus on what is now called UX (user experience) Design, I happy to see that finally there is more emphasis being placed on what I consider the full circle of success for a company. Clear mission statement –> consistent brand story –> well designed product/service by empathizing the full user’s experience –> content consumer (feeling validated, loves product, resonates with company’s brand) –> more sales and positive media = win/win success for all. Often I’m surprised by the lack of full circle thinking. Everything is integrated and has affects on each other, that’s how I like to think and work, and design. the below article speaks to how I feel about what I just spoke of, how UX Design affects Brand Advocacy.
Why #UX #Design “IS” the Holy Grail for Brand Advocacy « Digital thoughts A while ago I wrote a post on my blog called ‘The customer is no longer king… he is God.’ In this post I argued that with the convergence between the virtual and the real world through mobile and social media, and the increasing value of the customer’s voice, brands will have to re-think the way they will remain relevant to people by adopting an outside-in approach at the core to their business strategy. ….. Many Brands these days are adopting the Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a key metric to measure how well their products and/or services are being appreciated by their customers. In essence the NPS score indicates how many customers are loyal brand advocates (promoters), or brand detractors. This score is derived through surveys where the question ‘how likely are you to recommend this brand to friends and family?’ is posed. The answer to this question is completely driven by the emotional connotation the asked person has with that specific brand. It is clear that what is feeding this emotion is the experience(s) the person has had with the brand in question. A useful service, an easy to use website, a beautifully designed product or a friendly and helpful voice at customer service. All of these experiences contribute to the positive emotional feeling a person has with a brand. But when these experiences are bad ones… the emotional reaction will be a negative one.
Read Full Article via Thomas Marzaono – Digital thoughts
Does this resonate with how you approach design? Is this a new thought pattern perhaps? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.