Season three wrap-up: How to build a brand experience

How Brands Are Built

Season three of the podcast featured my most wide-ranging conversations yet. I talked to guests about topics such as naming, social influence, and fusing brand and culture. Like last season, I talked to a mix of popular authors and speakers, like Jeremy Miller and Denise Lee Yohn, as well as some people I've worked with closely at agencies like Interbrand, Siegel+Gale, and BrandingBusiness. Thank you to all my guests this season:

• Jeremy Miller, founder of Sticky Branding; author of Sticky Branding and Brand New Name
• Ken Pasternak, president of Two by Four (formerly president and COO of Marshall Strategy)
• Fabian Geyrhalter, principal and founder of FINIEN; author of How to Launch a Brand and Bigger Than This
• Caren Williams, independent brand consultant
• Dennis Hahn, Chief Strategy Officer at Liquid Agency
• Ana Andjelic, strategy executive; PhD in sociology
• Alan Brew, founding partner at BrandingBusiness
• Myra El-Bayoumi, strategy director at Character
• Denise Lee Yohn, brand leadership expert; author of What Great Brands Do and Fusion

Thank you, too, for listening, sharing your thoughts, following along the website, social media, and the newsletter. The theme of this season, broadly speaking, was brand experience. In this wrap-up episode, I walk through what a brand experience is and how to create or improve one. First off, how should we define brand experience? About a year ago, before this season started, I posted the following definition: "The totality of all sensations, feelings, thoughts, and actions evoked by a brand." That pretty much aligns with other definitions I've seen from the likes of Marty Neumeier. (His, from The Dictionary of Brand, is "All the interactions people have with a product, service, or organization.") The episode kicks off with Ken Pasternak and Caren Williams each going into detail on how they think about brand experience. Next, we get to the four steps for creating (or strengthening) a brand experience. Sounds simple, but each step requires some serious work. In the episode, each step is fleshed out and supported with audio clips from the season's interviews. Four steps to create or improve a brand experience

1. Get the brand strategy right (should a strategy platform include experience principles?)
2. Outline the context within which the brand will be experienced (e.g., customer journey mapping)
3. Brainstorm ideas for the brand experience (often takes place in a collaborative work session with the client)
4. Implement, measure, and modify (organize ideas by impact/effort, mock up or prototype ideas, and always be iterating)

To learn more about brand experience and the guests from season three, listen to each full episode or read transcripts on HowBrandsAreBuilt.com. You'll also find a growing list of books recommended by guests this season and last. Thanks again, especially to those of you who've subscribed, left a rating or review, or connected on social media. If you haven't done those things already, please do-I really appreciate the support!