Brands as Experiences

BY: SEAN MACPHEDRAN  |  Branding

I’ve been picking up (and putting down) a book called The Experience Economy for about 8 months now. It’s pure genius - and that’s probably one of the reasons that it’s taking me so long to soak through it compared to most of the fluffy opinion books out there. They build a solid argument for the evolution of the economy from product-service-experience, using research, of all silly things. It’s absolutely true, and our success is evidence of that, but we’re not the only ones.

As I browsed over at Influx Insights, I found www.ScentAir.com a company that builds custom scents for brands, events, you name it. Any location or event that could benefit from the added dimension of smell to help carry a moment in someone’s day from just another slice in time to a delectable experience that will reside deep in their memory, to be summoned once and a while in the future, particularly when that person is exposed to the same smell.

Other companies are making ends, as we say in the barrio’s of Ottawa, by creating sonic tags for brands - more than little dings and jingles, they’re as definitive and memorable as the lines in any logo. Why doesn’t the Nike Swoosh, you know - SWOOSH!!!!!!

Brands are seeping out of the traditional constraints of media all over the place. It has nothing to do with some mystical fragmentation of media (people are moving from print and TV to the web, not very hard to understand that). What everyone is moving towards is the experience economy. Fill my time! Entertain me, give me memories.

We’ve all been raised to think that the world is ours, that we can do anything. Viagra’s cured our sex problems. Nordstrom Rack makes even the less affluent LOOK affluent. You can live on $30 a week now that dollar stores are turning into grocers. There aren’t specific problems to solve anymore. Solving literal thirst isn’t enough.

Brands need to solve our boredom with life. Don’t tell me that Axe will help me pick up chicks. Give me the product and help me experience it in context, at some party where the drinks are free and the girls are numerous. Don’t tell me that your car drives faster than the other one. Put me in the seat digitally and give me a side by side comparison so intense that my chair gets wet.
From sweat, I mean.

Then I’ll remember you, believe you - and buy you.