The Branded Buying Experience Online—
How People Shop

April 2008 E-NEWS
from Steven Donaldson and Michael Zinke, the Brand Guys

Creating the Visible Brand in a multi-channel world—web, retail, print and electronic media. We send these brand "bites" monthly to give you insights and tips on building value, uniqueness and loyalty for your brand. Your brand's critical differentiation helps your customers find you, remember you and come back to you.

In this issue:

Branded Buying Online—You Have to Know Your Customers: Women shop differently than men: sites that sell electronics, wine or apparel should deliver completely different experiences.
Brands the are Verbs—When the Brand Becomes an Experience: You know how folks say "FedEx it" or "Xerox it" or, if you can't find it, "Google it"—what's this say about the brand experience?

Branded Buying Online: You Have to Know Your Customers

Women shop differently from men: electronics sites, wine sites and apparel sites should offer very different brand experiences.

OK, we're going to stereotype gender behavior here, and I know some folks are going to say this isn't always accurate. But, retailers and marketers, ignore this at your peril! The consumer brand experience is either reinforced or lost through the shopping experience.

When women shop for fashion, whether it's online or in a retail environment, they are seeking experiences that allow them to select, mix and match until they get to the best final selection. How e-tailers structure this experience online can build loyalty or create frustration and abandoned shopping carts.

Perusing a range of products, in this case skirts, dresses, shirts and accessories, is about having an assortment of choices available to evaluate before making a purchase—a process of choosing and refining the selections. In the actual store environment shoppers will select two or three different styles or colors and then try them on together before they make a final selection. Online, providing this comparative capability is a critical process that guides the shopper to the final checkout.

The brand experience here is about self-selection, comparison shopping and product elimination. Getting what you want is about getting rid of what you don't want.

For men, shopping online at a retail site such as newegg.com is about a different type of comparison—a comparison of specs and features. What does this brand of flat screen TV have over this other brand? What do other customers recommend? The sorting and evaluation process happens in a different way and it's about features and performance.

The brand experience here is about getting the best dollar value versus the highest-rated performance and features.

Knowing how your store, your brand performs for the customer is critical to structuring the buying process and giving customers exactly what they want. Understanding buying patterns—how shoppers shop—builds loyalty.

Building a Branded Buying Process Online

Create a subliminal sense of connection to your store brand.
Reaffirm that your brand is the right place for your audience to get what they want.
Guide the shopper the way they buy—make it an intuitive experience.
Build the most important thing in branding—a positive brand experience.

Brands That Are Verbs—
When The Brand Becomes an Experience

You know when folks say "FedEx it" or "Xerox it" or if you can't find it "Google it"—what's this say about a brand experience?

It's not an every day occurrence that you use a brand name to convey an action or thing you want done. You don't say I want to Coke or Pepsi that drink. Sounds kind of weird doesn't it? However there is a range of "brand verbs" that we all use and ones that continue to be added to our lexicon of actions and experiences.

We all know that many brands do become generic terms for a process or product. Linoleum, nylon, escalator, kerosene and zipper are all former brand names that have become generic in there use—to the chagrin of their IP attorneys. But how do you become a brand verb? And, what does this mean to your brand? Is it good or bad?

When you use a term as a verb you are using the brand as a unique experience or action that can usually be done no other way. It's short hand for a complete detailed explanation for how to get something done. This recognition adds tremendous brand equity. The downside of becoming a verb is that the owner can lose legal claim to the name as it enters common usage. Vigorous public declaration of ownership is needed—IP attorneys earn their keep at this point!

"FEDEX IT": When you say this it implies the entire expectation you have about sending a package out—get this out and make sure it gets where it's going OVERNIGHT and on time. Because of the unique, narrow focus and the power promise of delivering on time overnight, FedEx has created a new brand experience.

"XEROX IT": When photocopying began to really take off in the 1970's the leader was, hands down, Xerox. Although they did not want you or me to say it, everyone in the office who need a photo copy said it: "get me a Xerox of that". Again, implying a very specific way of copying a document.

"GOOGLE IT": Lastly, the newest branded verb to jump into common use is to Google something. It is, again, short hand for online search but not just any search. It's search through Google that makes the result, by implication better and more reliable. Why didn't we end up saying Ask Jeeves that, or Yahoo! that for me? Again a very narrow focus on one key capability done well.