The impact of your brand identity on the customer journey
Much has been written about the importance of researching the customer journey or customer journey. The customer journey is the path the customer takes before making a purchase on your website or store. How do customers arrive at your website or store? What steps do they go through before converting? Which message works best for customers? These questions are all part of the customer journey of your brand. In this process, your customers come into contact with your brand identity.
Although this is a familiar term for many marketers and the development of the customer journey is extensively described in books and online articles, they often forget the influence of brand identity on the customer journey. Successful brands like Apple and CoolBlue have understood this well. Their brand identity is designed so that customers know how the purchasing process (customer journey) works. This creates trust and enables the brands to guide the customer, as customers exhibit predictable behavior.
Apple’s Brand Identity
Apple stands for quality, innovation, and design. Although the competition is not standing still, these are still the terms most people associate with Apple. Additionally, Apple has very loyal customers who do not easily switch brands. The reason for this is the brand identity of the brand. Apple does not sell products. No, Apple sells experience. A customer experience. Apple creates a community around its brand. You have Apple users and non-Apple users.
Slogans like ‘Think Different’ and ‘Say hello to the future’ indicate the brand’s innovative power. Apple’s messages are rebellious and independent. Consumers want to be associated with this. The website looks calm and mainly radiates design. The product specifications are beautifully displayed while there are no user manuals anywhere.
Ondan
ks Apple is praised for its user-friendliness. Remarkable, isn’t it? Apple’s customer journey is also remarkable. Of course, Apple is easily found on all online channels and consumers can buy everything on the website. The difference with competitors lies elsewhere… Apple has an Apple Store in almost every major city. These stores have about 1 million visitors worldwide per day. How is that possible?
The experience the brand creates with its brand identity directly influences the customer journey. People like to come to the stores. In the Apple Stores, you can test every product and they are large and calmly arranged. There is a relaxed atmosphere and you are not bothered by pushy salespeople. Apple employees are not busy selling products. They listen to customers, give targeted advice, even if it does not result in a ‘sale’. In short, it’s all about experience.
Because of the brand identity, the customer journey has become predictable. Apple essentially creates the consumer’s behavior itself.
CoolBlue: Everything for a Smile
CoolBlue is known for the slogan ‘Everything for a Smile’. This slogan is an important part of the brand identity and positioning of CoolBlue and is used in the Adwords advertisement and on the company’s Facebook page.
The brand does everything to make its customers feel comfortable with optimal service. The company’s brand identity is perfectly aligned with this. Synonymous with CoolBlue is the color blue. Blue is associated with reliability and calm. This immediately creates trust with the consumer. But CoolBlue is also about the smile. The well-known blue delivery packages from CoolBlue also feature funny stories, fun contests, and there are always nice extras in the packages.
How does this brand identity translate into the customer journey? First of all, online findability: all CoolBlue product categories are easily found within Google. They make perfect use of Adwords with ads that stand out compared to competitors.
CoolBlue’s ad is larger than the others, the benefits are mentioned in the text, opening hours and address are indicated, and the slogan appears in the ad extensions.
Once on the website, everything is designed to make it as easy as possible for you. Smart tricks like ‘CoolBlue’s Choice’ and ‘the best choices according to our customers’ trigger a purchase. The product pages are designed so that you immediately see the most important specifications of the products. In-stock products are listed at the top and the product range is not too large. Too much choice works counterproductively, and CoolBlue reduces the offer to a limited number of qualitatively relevant products. Furthermore, you can easily request advice and there are various advice pages that explain, for example, the differences between different types of TVs or drill machines.
And then the service section. On a specific product page, this list is under the order button:
Especially the social proof like the 9.3/10 score and best web store award works convincingly and creates trust among consumers.
In short, CoolBlue is the perfect example of a company where the customer journey and brand identity perfectly align. The company’s successes are piling up. In 2017, the revenue threshold of one billion euros was surpassed, and now there are 9 physical stores throughout the Netherlands.
These are just 2 examples of successful companies that use brand identity to influence the customer journey. As a company, be aware of your strength, express this in all your marketing and communication, and ensure that the customer consistently experiences an experience aligned with your brand identity throughout the journey to purchasing your product.
