It IS all about the Brand Experience

What is a brand experience? It can be a banner ad, a radio spot a billboard and for retailers certainly the point of contact in a store is an important one.

No matter what the brand experience is - the impact it can have on a brand is enormous

I've had the opportunity to work on a fast food brand in the past. It's a fun, exciting category that is full of tough competitors. And each and every day the brand is built one guest at a time. A brand that I have often marveled at has been Sonic. My first experience with Sonic was down in Florida and each and every time they over delivered. The food was tasty, the service was prompt and courteous and overall it was a great brand experience.

This past Sunday evening we decided to visit a Sonic on the east side of St. Paul. We've been there before and have had good brand experiences. However, this past Sunday night all the good things that the Sonic brand means to me were severely damaged. One bad brand experience and all those positive impressions I've had in person and all the millions of dollars of positive marketing support were diminished.

It took about 10 minutes for them to take our order and then we proceeded to wait 30+ minutes for our food. Isn't this a fast food restaurant? And they weren't even busy - with the parking lot at about 25% of capacity. The staff seemed very nonchalant and not at all interested in serving their guests in a prompt and timely manner. I truly wonder how the store owner would have felt if he would have seen this happen.

So the Sonic brand is a quite tarnished from my perspective. And all because of one brand experience that was very disappointing. So the the next time you hear a store owner talk about how important the brand experience is - you should be listening. No matter how good the marketing is, no matter how good the food quality is - if the customer service is bad - the entire brand takes a hit.

I can only hope that my next Sonic brand experience is a little better. But I have a feeling it might be six months away when we next visit Florida. It IS all about the brand experience for retailers each and every day. Any good or bad brand experiences that you want to share?