As engineers, we want to not only build great products but also see them succeed in the marketplace and be embraced by many customers. Successful products and strong brands go hand in hand. But how to build a strong brand? This is a million dollar question, however “touchpoint” is a key element of the answer. Let’s connect some dots by going through a personal story of mine, where I learned about “touchpoint” in action.
How Touchpoints Changed My Perception of the “Brooks” Brand
As a runner, I have sticked to big brands like Asics (my favorite), Adidas, Nike, etc. I noticed the smaller brand Brooks, but have always had a negative impression for no reason. I felt the brand logo doesn’t feel “fast”. It’s similar to Nike’s swoosh but not as sharp. I don’t see Brooks very often on the street. Thus I never had chemistry with it.
The 1st set of major touchpoints I experienced with Brooks were from various running races I participated. They sponsored a lot of the races and provided the race themed T-shirt (great quality) as part of the race packet. However, I continued to stick to my favorite big brand Asics.
A few years later, I was searching for a perfect winter light weight running jacket but got disappointed repeatedly until I stumbled upon Brooks Canopy Jacket. It motivated me to visit the Brooks store for the first time, which started the 2nd set of major touchpoints. Brooks sales explained the intriguing features of the jacket, like how it can breathe and repel water at the same time, how it is feather-like light and keep you warm during winter runs at the same time, how it keeps you warm at freezing point and doesn’t feel hot at 40°F – 50°F, etc.
The 3rd set of strong touchpoints are Brooks’ product packaging and websites. After the awesome experience with the running jacket, I purchased quite a few more Brooks products. From their simple yet somewhat unique product packaging, I started to experience how serious Brooks has been perfecting the running gear and serving happy runners while reducing their environmental footprint.
Over the past 7-8 years, Brooks brand touchpoints turned me from an indifferent target customer into a fan boy.
Why Touchpoints Are Important?
Following the goal to build successful products for the long run, customer loyalty is key. Brand is a powerful tool to attract new customers and build up loyalty. A brand is a desired perception you would like your audience to have about your products. Here is what touchpoints play an important role to build up that desired perception. It’s like the “Inside Out” movie, a person’s perception is made up of pieces of memories stored in colorful orbs. They collectively form a person’s attitude towards a brand. Each touchpoint where a person notices, observes, and experiences the brand creates a colorful orb. So even though each individual touchpoint is small, it is vitally important for building up a strong brand and eventually a successful product.
Meticulous Touchpoints Come From Strong Culture
Touchpoints are pervasive and the interaction between the touchpoints and the target customers are dynamic. Therefore it is impossible to prescribe how a company could build out all the touchpoints for its brand. Strong culture among the employees in the company would be a scalable way. In Brooks’ case, each touchpoint gave me deeper feeling how laser focused the company is on perfecting the design and quality of the running gears and how their employees are passionate about running and obsessed about the customers’ running experience. These unprescribed and genuine positive touchpoints are rooted from the strong culture.
A product and brand is always on stage like a choreography performer. When the performer’s mind is in flow, every movement comes perfectly without even thinking. When the culture behind the product/brand is right, every touchpoint with the target audience will come perfectly naturally.
Conclusion
Each product/brand touchpoint might look small, but they are powerful when accumulated over time. Building a strong product and brand requires patience and persistence.
Little strokes fell great oaks.
-Benjamin Franklin
(source of the featured image at the top)