You ever stopped for a second to consider how the brands you buy got your attention? Furthermore, have you ever considered why you continue to buy?
I would argue that the answer to both of those questions is strategy and experience. The company that created whatever you bought actually had you in mind when it created it. Everything from the price to the colors of the packaging was designed to appeal to you and the circumstance you were in when you decided to buy it. Recognizing the frequency by which those particular circumstances would occur led the company (or consultant in many cases) to design a user experience that would more often than not make you a repeat buyer.
Marketing and advertisement don't create loyalty and repeat customers. Well thought out and executed user experiences do. Websites and applications alone don't create convenient ways for customers to interact with you and you with them. Well thought out and executed user experiences do.
Logo's and other brand communications don't increase your competitive advantage. They're not sustainable ways of "stealing" market share. Their needs to be a strategy behind it.
We're all apart of someones strategy. A unique experience was crafted just for us way before we ever laid eyes of the products and services we can't live without.
The next time you have a great idea you think the market place needs, keep in mind the ways you've been sold. Think about the products and services you could never do without. Consider the thought that went into that loyalty. Write down the steps of your decision making process. Adapt, augment, and reposition those steps to reflect the goals of your new idea. The most important step of them all is to complete these tasks from the view point of the consumers you are trying to provide value to. Never forget that step.....it's the first one.
