What is a Brand Touchpoint? 2007 Qtr 3
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What is a Brand Touchpoint? |
You’re going to visit a potential partner for your company. During this meeting, they are presenting a proposal on how they can address your business needs. You visit the website for directions or a map, but you are not even able to find their address on the site. Finally, you find the address on an email signature and go to MapQuest for directions.
You arrive right on schedule but have to search for a parking spot for several minutes. The steps to the office are covered in snow and are quite icy. You traverse your way to the front door and enter, glad that you made it without a broken bone.
A receptionist is reading a magazine and chatting on the phone to a friend. She motions for you to sit down across the room on a chair with various gashes in the pleather. The waiting area seems to have dust dating back a few years. A Cosmopolitan magazine is sitting on the coffee table. “Interesting choice of literature,” you think.
The receptionist ends her call 5 minutes later and rudely asks, “What do you need?” She then calls your contact to announce your arrival. By now you are over 15 minutes late to the appointment.
What are your feelings about the visit with this potential partner? Your interaction with the website, parking lot, entrance, building, surroundings and receptionist have been less than delightful. You are probably not feeling completely confident about this vendor, even if the proposal meets your expectations.
That is because you’ve just experienced poor brand touchpoints.
A brand touchpoint is all of the various ways that a brand interacts with and makes an impression on customers, employees, channel partners, media and other stakeholders.
Every single action, tactic and strategy your brand has with these key audiences is a brand touchpoint.
And it expands well beyond advertising, marketing and public relations. Well beyond the marketing department.
- Is your website friendly to navigate?
- When a customer receives your product, how do they feel?
- How are user manuals written?
- What impact does a dissatisfied or a satisfied customer have to your brand?
The life of touchpoints
There tend to be three general phases in a brand’s relationship with stakeholders:
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Pre–purchase interaction
During these touchpoints companies should look to raise brand awareness, drive demand, educate the audience on specific products or services, etc. Examples: advertising, direct mail, website -
Purchase interaction
Touchpoints during purchase are designed to deliver value and create a confidence in the customer’s purchase. Examples: sales representative, other current customers, website -
Post–purchase interaction
In this phase, it is important that a brand delivers on its promise and increase loyalty and the chance of a referral. Examples: customer service, loyalty programs, product performance, newsletters, website
What can you do?
Here is an exercise to help you evaluate some of your brand touchpoints.
- Write down as many brand touchpoints that include a stakeholder interaction. You should have others outside of the marketing department do the same. Their perspective may uncover additional touchpoints to consider.
- Categorize these touchpoints into one or more of the phases (pre–purchase, purchase and/or post–purchase interactions)
- Speak with your stakeholders. They can give you the perspective you need. An internal and external view of key interactions with your brand will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses.
- Prioritize. If there are touchpoints that have a big impact with stakeholders, you may consider focusing your energy on making these outstanding and delightful interactions. Others that have a lesser impact may be prioritized a bit lower.
- Gain employee support. You will need employees to embrace this idea. In all reality, the success often lies with them. Help them understand why their touchpoints are important and what they communicate to stakeholders.