WHY CX SHOULD STAND FOR CREATIVE EXPERIENCE, Schemes and Mind Maps of Business

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The go-to guide for turning creativity

into a growth accelerator

WHY CX SHOULD

STAND FOR

CREATIVE

EXPERIENCE

Foreword

Customer experience (CX) is one of the most popular phrases in marketing, with google searches nearly tripling in the last decade and hashtags like #CX being thrown around like crazy. The concept, however, is still misunderstood.

Your CX is your brand - it communicates why you are in business, who you are, what you stand for and how you are different com- pared to all those other brands out there.

In a world of chaos, CX is your anchor. It is how you set your brand apart from others and entertain, engage but also inform and guide your customers.

But how exactly do you create an exceptional CX? Some marketers might say “You need technology to transform your CX!” or another favorite “You need the emerging technologies of today to shape the CX of tomorrow.” But let’s dig a little deeper, into what truly makes a great CX and differentiates a brand.

FOREWORD

CONTENTS

CX is king

The technology curse

Put your money where your brand is

Brace for impact

Introduction

1 - Introduction

Over the past 5 years, the rat race to own the CX has been on. Across industries, brands have increasingly invested time and resources to design, manage and improve their CX. In fact, re- search by Reports and Data indicates that the CX management market will grow at a compound rate of almost 30% per year for the next six years. The secret is out, every marketer knows how impor- tant their CX is for brand differentiation.

As a result, marketers have invested and adapted technology at an unprecedented rate. Fear of failing to keep up and following the outdated marketing dinosaurs into extinction had tech spend skyrocketing - with the global MarTech industry now estimated to be worth a whopping $121.5 billion.

But where do we draw the line for relying on technology to im- prove the CX? Can you even differentiate your brand and create a memorable experience with tech alone?

We don’t think so…and probably most of you do too. Heck, even the researchers at Forrester agree.

INTRODUCTION

1 - Introduction

Think about how Aesop quietly conquered the world by embracing design in a unique way, how Aldi revolutionized grocery shopping by positioning the brand as the “good different” and how Pixar combines storytelling with technology to differentiate from the com- petition.

These brands are successful because they apply creativity to all customer touchpoints and put it at the heart of the experience.

2 - CX is king

Certain terms are used so often that they can become unclear or lost in translation. CX is such a term. CX as we know it, stands for customer experience. Your customers’ perception of their expe- rience with your brand.

The “C” in CX stands for “customer”, not communication or cam- paign or content. This is about your customers. The “X” stands for the experience customers have with your brand. How customers interact and journey through your brand’s touchpoints will deter- mine how they remember your brand and whether or not they will come back again.

CX IS KING

In a nutshell, your CX will basically determine who of your cus- tomers will be loyal to you and who won’t. The importance of CX has been long recognized by marketers and it’s no wonder why we have declared it king.

2 - CX is king

Technology is created to help us scale our marketing and commu- nicate our brand to more people than we could have ever imag- ined. Unfortunately, at some point, we got so caught up in the process, that we forgot what we were using it for in the first place: as a tool, an enabler, to get us closer to the people we wanted to reach.

We have been suffering from the shiny object syndrome

It’s easy to over rely on technology. But technology without a vision or purpose will never create a distinctive and memorable CX that meets your customer expectations.

Despite what some sales people say, you can’t just plug in a tool and expect magic to happen.

SOS: Shiny Object Syndrome

2 - CX is king

But how?

et’s take a step back and start with the beginning, your brand. Michael Vromans, one of our creative directors, has strong views on what it takes to build a unique brand. Many years ago, while he was still with JWT, he learned early on that everything in marketing begins with the brand.

Contrary to popular beliefs of “marketing begins with the cus- tomer”, building your brand should be your first priority. If you don’t know who you are as a brand, what you stand for and why you are in business, how can you communicate and connect with cus- tomers? Well, exactly, you can’t, at least not in a memorable and meaningful way.

Customers connect with brand personalities they can relate to. Here’s how Michael and the team have done that for one of our clients, Forward You (FWU), a German tech-financial company.

2 - CX is king

FWU provides life insurance through AI investment methods. They are ambitious and were about to make a big move when they reached out to us for help. Transitioning from a traditional business to business brand to a business to consumer brand is never easy, even more so in an already crowded and competitive insurance marketplace.

We started with a rebranding first and looked at three pillars: strat- egy, personality and identity. Together these form what we call the brand design system which essentially holds all brand elements. This brand design system facilitates the communication and production process and informs us on look and feel, behavior and tone of voice. This way we ensure a consistent and coherent brand experience across all touchpoints, no matter what we are devel- oping; the website, a client portal or a lead generation funnel.

But how do you make a life insurance brand stand out and appeal to millennials, FWU’s target audience? FWU is a tech company with people at its heart. They stand for possibilities and are all about making people’s lifelong dreams come true by offering tailor-made investment solutions. Whether this is buying a big house, a beautiful new car or sending your kids to university.

FWU: life insurance is anything but boring

2 - CX is king

The artwork shows the target personas in real life, while the hand-drawn illustrations display their dreams and goals. The vivid and original animations connect with the audience on an emotional level, painting a dream world where all of their life goals are reached. The hybrids support FWU’s brand narrative, set it apart from competing brands and make it appealing to FWU’s target audience.

2 - CX is king

It’s tough to define what a brand stands for and then communicate the brand consistently in everything an organization does. You need skills to understand your brand, what it stands for and how to connect this with an audience. These are precisely some of the skills that are lacking today.

FWU is a great example of integrating brand,

content and product into a CX that engages and

converts. Working alongside a bold client who is

not afraid to innovate certainly helped us to use

creativity as a differentiator.

Michael Vromans DPDK Creative Director

2 - CX is king

Hegarty also adds that the Church was selling belief, which should resonate with modern brands, because nowadays “We’re in- creasingly selling things you can’t see and 2000 years after its founding, the Church is still going strong.”

At DPDK we believe in the power of consistency, but we also need to be constantly refreshing our brands as times change and evolve. You have to be consistently new.

3 - The technology curse

It’s an understatement to say that marketers have become ob- sessed with technology. It’s easy to see why - any book or article that you read or conference that you go to is always talking about the next trends in technology you should not miss out on or invest in. When you look around, everywhere you see people on their phones, laptops or ipads, trying to stay connected to one another.

THE TECHNOLOGY

CURSE

Even though we have tried to improve CX by investing in technolo- gy, unwittingly CX has become stagnant instead. Customers are having difficulties distinguishing one experience from another. Nowadays, everyone is “customer-obsessed”, “green” or “innova- tive” and digital sameness has taken the center stage.

Technology has become the star of the show,

but at what cost?