Despite touting so much about storytelling, most brand experiences are still designed for marketing funnels. In a world where data deprecation is rapidly constraining customer experiences and where digital sameness is ubiquitous, how do leading brands separate themselves from the pack to drive consumer engagement, loyalty, and topline revenue growth? With the forecast of a constrained macroeconomy in 2023, my colleague Joe Cicman and I set out to go find such brand experiences and better understand how they used technology to evoke visceral responses in their customers.
Through our research this year, we learned that your leading brands treat customer experiences as stories, where customers are characters whose journeys are continuously unfolding at each point of interaction. Story-centric commerce strategies are differentiated through:
- Attracting customers. They attract customers through engaging experiences in prequels and sequels that are unplanned and unpredictable for today’s marketing funnels — focusing on customer value all along their interactions and with no promise of monetary benefits.
- Leveraging technology. They focus less on purchasing and integrating more and more technologies. Rather, they focus on using technology better through content and data signals to drive ongoing experiences and engagement.
They engage with customers as characters in stories that are unique to the co-created experience between the brand and customer, building an unparalleled level of customer loyalty. We called this research, Unleash A Story-Oriented Commerce Experience Using Technology Creatively.
Sound like a lofty goal? Wait till you see the business impacts! Schedule an inquiry or guidance session with me to talk about how you can apply the principles of “Story World” to pivot from funnel-oriented approaches to story-oriented, co-created experiences that deliver increased business value. Forrester clients can read our new report, titled Unleash A Story-Oriented Commerce Experience Using Technology Creatively — Don’t Let Your Brand Story Be Caged Inside A Templated Page.
