Brand Promise and User Experience

Before we get into specific tactics, one of the things we should address is what kind of user experience is required not only to keep the brand promise, but also to achieve the right balance of engagement, utility and conversion. There should be at least an understanding of what it is you’re trying to achieve.

Engagement is typically the first conversation that design studios like to get into and it’s often the last. What’s the level of engagement? What’s the brand story? What content could engage the user and pull them into that story? The answers will depend on the brand.

In some respects, the nature of the enterprise can determine the overall level of engagement. A major movie studio, for example, might be able to get a level of engagement that’s ten times as strong as what a successful B2B manufacturer might be able achieve with their audience.

Obviously, you want to create a user experience that’s aligned with the brand and suitable for the user (meaning that it works within the culture of its target market.) And you want to consider whether it provides any utility. The utility factor, ultimately, is what imparts value. But that utility can be provided in many ways. It can take the form of information, a feeling of esteem, entertainment or useful tools of some sort.

What provides utility to users depends entirely on the community you serve. It could be something that helps your users do their job, something useful to their households or something that helps them enjoy a personal hobby. The kind of utility you provide to a business audience might be something that gives market insight or digs deeper into a service offering your company has that could benefit their operations. An example of a utility app useful to households might be something like an income ratio calculator that allows a consumer to figure out their ability to finance a large purchase. Or you can offer utilities that touch people’s personal passions. Say you manufacture surfboards. What will surfers find useful? Maybe a “wave cam” that lets them see the waves at popular beaches around the world?

The goal for any utility you provide must be to enhance the user experience and/or solve a particular problem and/or enhance a feeling or experience The utility is also in the content itself, which can be authoritative, informational or just wildly entertaining. What value can you impart in terms of adding to a user’s knowledge? And can you do it in an entertaining way?

Another aspect of this is conversion. Although we usually think of conversions as specific actions like requesting a quote, buying something or signing up for a feed, depending on how long your sales cycle is, your conversion goal might simply be to get users in the loop. This way you can continue to build a relationship and execute a transaction with the user at some point in the future.

Getting the user in the loop can mean an actual e-commerce transaction, but it can also mean getting them interested in signing up for your house list – with a specific value that’s offered – and helping you build segmentation in that list. Or generating a sales lead that can be scored and sent to your CRM.