12 Most Underutilized Brand Touchpoints

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“When you say ‘branding’ what exactly do you mean?” I am continually surprised by how often I have conversations that start like this. It’s true. Branding is a broad pursuit that can take on many forms. It’s so sprawling that, for the most part, when people come into contact with this abstract concept, they quickly confine it to a single category like graphic design, when that’s only a part of the bigger picture.

You see, your brand is not just your logo. It’s not your company name or tagline. Your brand is made up of the gestalt experience your fans, followers, customers, and community create based on interacting with your organization across a multitude of touchpoints. As such, every single touchpoint matters.

And yet, too often we focus on the marketing touchpoints — ads, collateral, websites, and the like. If you look at storied brands like Apple and Starbucks you quickly see that these organizations are leveraging all of their touchpoints. To help you build a stronger brand, let’s take a look at twelve of the most underutilized brand touchpoints.

1. Packaging

Avoid the trap of tossing your product into the cheapest box or of not using the packaging itself as a canvas. Remember those Gateway spotted cow boxes? Or how an Amazon box smiles at you when it arrives. As Apple’s design chief Jony Ive says, “Packaging can be theater, it can create a story.”

2. Invoices

No one likes getting the bill! Why dress it up? For that very reason. Take an experience that both sides dread and turn it into an event. Add personal notes, quotes, jokes, or simply turn your graphic designer loose on it to make your invoice a remarkable touchpoint.

3. Packing slips

You mean that thing the machine spits out that we toss in the box? They’re called ‘touchpoints’ for a reason. If your customer touches it then it’s part of your brand experience. When you rework your invoice, create a unique packing slip as well. Why not even design a custom packing slip sleeve to carefully wrap this touchpoint?

4. Price change letters/renewal notices

This isn’t a fun message either but often there is sound reasoning that goes along with increased fees. This is an important story to tell. Rather than having accounting blast out a form letter, get your creative team involved in a well-crafted piece that ties an increase or renewal to your ethos like ‘Because we care about providing you with the most technically advanced website development services …’

5. User guides

Just as you should turn your designer loose on your invoices and packing slips, you should let your copywriter have some fun with your user guide. This critical and often frustrating touchpoint is the only thing that stands between your new customer and fulfilling their dream of using your product. Don’t mess it up! If you’re a service business — have you ever considered creating a user guide on how to work with your organization?

6. New business proposals

On the other end of a user guide is the new business proposal. Like the invoice, many consider this a fragile, potential painpoint. With the stakes this high, your document needs to work just as hard as those slick brochures that most people pitch after first contact at a trade show. Rather than a cobbled together Word document, this piece should paint a rich picture of what it’s like to do business with you.

7. Vehicles

If your brand has vehicles, you may be thinking that this touchpoint is covered. While it may be, it’s probably not maximized. Consider the myriad trucks of general contractors that you pass daily in traffic with simple contact info lettered on their doors in a boring font and then think of the Oscar Mayer wiener-mobile. Which one do you think best embodies the brand?

8. Search ads

Patrick Hanlon’s Primal Branding notes that one of the seven pieces of a brand’s “primal code” is sacred words — a special vocabulary the defines your brand. At Starbucks you don’t order a small, medium, or large. You order a tall, grande, venti. Words matter. Though often managed by the analytical side of your marketing team, make sure your search ads are aligned with your brand’s lexicon.

9. Holiday cards

With all the hustle and bustle, it’s easy not to send out holiday cards. It’s important to touch customers at this most touching time of year. Show them that they matter to you. Forget off-the-shelf cards and design your own brand of seasonal cheer.

10. Inter-office/company newsletters

Your team can be among your most vocal brand advocates. Too many organizations forget to communicate their brand’s core beliefs internally. This leaves your closest advocates without the right messaging to take to the masses. Use newsletters and inter-office updates to provide reminders of your core values.

11. Employees

Few organizations fully utilize their customer-facing employees as brand touchpoints. This can manifest itself both in appearance (think of The Geek Squad’s signature duds) and values (think of Zappos delivering ‘WOW’ with service).

12. The back of the fence

There’s a defining story about young Steve Jobs building a fence with his father where he teaches his son to take just as much care in building the back of the fence that no one sees. Jobs used this insight throughout a career of creating remarkable products with great care, often concerning himself with the appearance of circuit boards that no one would ever see. What part of your brand experience is the back of your fence?

Remember, branding isn’t a singular, isolated discipline. It’s a sprawling mosaic that encompasses many different interactions that together make up a customer’s experience with your brand.

At the end of the day, you don’t own your brand. Though you create various touchpoints, ultimately your brand lives in the hearts and minds of your community. So it’s important that you activate as many remarkable touchpoints as possible to create a compelling and memorable experience to help you stand out in our increasingly noisy world.

This list is a start but there are always smaller pieces of that brand mosaic waiting to be transformed into a remarkable interaction. What underutilized touchpoints can you use to enhance your brand experience?

Featured image courtesy of Jeff Filman licensed via creative commons.

Nick Westergaard

https://www.NickWestergaard.com

Nick Westergaard is a Brand-Driven Blogger, Consultant, and Speaker. He is Vice President at Westergaard, a second-generation brand strategy firm in the Midwest that builds strong brands and activates them across essential media touchpoints. He blogs about building brand-driven communities with social media at NickWestergaard.com. He's also the author of the free eBook, Google+ 101.