enchantment & extraordinary experiences

What do great brands do?  Guy Kawasaki would suggest — and I would agree — that great brands are enchanting brands — they fill people with great delight.  Great brands change people’s hearts, minds, and actions — including inspiring them to buy something, but it’s usually about more than that. […]

executing on brand strategy throughout customer experience

From What Great Brands Do:  Executing on the brand strategy with excellence throughout the entire customer experience builds brand integrity and impact.   In my investigations on customer experience, I’ve found that the most common mistake in mismanaging the customer experience is starting with customer data.  Using data and analytics as a starting point fails to […]

say no to Uber

Uber seems to be under fire from all directions.  The ride-sharing service is being blocked by some cities and entire nations, dealing with accusations of a driver having sexually assaulted a passenger, addressing a story by a reporter who felt threatened when a company executive suggested they try to squash negative coverage, receiving criticisms over […]

The company behind Sbarro has created a new fast casual pizza concept, Pizza Cucinova. It’s a higher end customer experience than most brands aspiring to become the “Chipotle of pizza.” Check out this video audit and analysis of the brand experience: DLYohn Brand Experience Brief: Pizza Cucinova from Denise Lee Yohn on Vimeo. other brand […]

retail customer experience

Brand Experience Week wrapped up last week, but there are plenty of Brand Experience Briefs for you to learn from.  Check out these 41 videos that audit and analyze new or interesting restaurant and retail brands to learn the do’s and don’ts of customer experience design: 1. AT&T Retail Center:  With a name like “Retail Center […]

Today’s Brand Experience Brief is about what happens when you cross a bank with a cafe.  It’s about Capital One 360 Cafes, which are “unique community spaces where you can learn new ways to save time and money while you tap free WiFi and enjoy a great cup of coffee,”  Check out this video audit […]

This Brand Experience Brief builds on my recent post, “RH Is a Great Brand In the Making,” in which I described the full-scale transformation that Restoration Hardware is undergoing. Their luxury brand marketing strategy is establishing them not simply as an upscale furniture brand, but a luxury lifestyle brand, which I saw for myself when I visited […]

My new Brand Experience Brief (audit and analysis of a new or interesting restaurant and retail concept) is about a unique location of the West-Coast burger chain, Carl’s Jr.  They have employed a new sports restaurant theme in the Glendale area of Phoenix and in this video, you’ll see the concept has good potential but doesn’t quite excel at retail customer […]

sweat the small stuff

Great brands may think big, but they sweat the small stuff. They know that all the little things they do or fail to do in person shape brand perceptions far more than the big things they claim through mass media. So they design their customer experiences down to last detail, and usually appeal to as many of […]