How customer experience relates to brand strategy

For most of us, the discussion that revolves around business strategy and branding strategy is about which gets more prominence in the overall scheme of things.

According to Thomas Gad, it is common to believe that business strategy comes first as a ‘long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal or set of goals or objectives’.

It is normal to believe that making money is usually the main goal, and that business strategy is the management’s game plan for strengthening the performance of the enterprise.

Nonetheless, he feels that over the years, brand strategy comes first, and that business strategy or plans that include goals of performance and the business model comes second.

“The reason for this change is that, in my practice and experience, I have seen too many businesses fail…not because they haven’t been able to come up with a very good business model and strategy for making money, but because they haven’t been attentive enough to customer needs and customer perception,” he added.

Essentially, Gad is of the opinion that enterprises must acknowledge wider and underlying customer needs and come up with an idea, a concept and a customer experience that leads to a high level of customer acceptance.

Its all about achieving a long-term relationship between the customer and the brand of the enterprise.

Gad feels that customer experience (CX) is how businesses are guaranteed a success.

The main risk of setting up a business with a smart business model is that technology and development seems to take the lead while customer experience takes a backseat.

Understanding the true customer experience is key.

Questions like ‘who are the customers and users?’, ‘what are their deeper needs?’, ‘how do you ensure your customer experience has less friction?’ are integral to the process.

Most businesses want to be different, and understanding the customer experience is the main way to create a holistic solution that exemplifies a smart business model with proper CX as a mainstay.

Source: Business Strategy Insider