One thing about me – I’m an emotional buyer. I care about experiences, and I’m a sucker for anything that sells a new, shinier, cooler reality.
That’s why I’m a huge advocate for the Brand Experience – the way a customer feels about a brand from both direct and indirect exposure. We talk a lot about Customer Experience (CX), but the Brand Experience (BX) is just as important. BX is the first step in a customer’s journey, before that sales lead is even generated. It’s the feelings we have based upon our societal bubbles.
Let me provide an example of the power of Brand Experience.
TikTok, the app we know and love and spend way too much time scrolling on, has spawned a new generation of ‘It-Girls’. These new TikTok It-Girls have a huge influence on what’s hot or not (RIP Skinny Jeans!!).
The trending aesthetic involves slicked back buns and claw clips and dainty gold jewelry and crystal-clear skin with natural makeup and slicked eyebrows. Lululemon belt bag around one shoulder, always, and an oversized water cup in hand. Right now, it’s the Stanley Quencher, but was formerly the Hydroflask. There’s the girls that casually wear blazers with crop tops. The girls that wear crop tops to their office job (Where do they work??!), donned in Zara and Aritzia pieces. The girls that everyone aspires to be.
That’s the cool girl aesthetic right now, at least on my For You Page. Can anyone else relate?
The latest beauty craze on SkinTok (the app’s skincare trends) is to have a million different face creams, lotions, and potions. I’ve learned all about retinols and that I should have started using Tretinoin five years ago. The shade from not wearing sunscreen daily is real – I promise I’m a loyal SPF 50 girlie now.
One trending brand is The Glow Recipe. They’re the cutesy pink serums sold in Sephora that look like a mini potion bottle. It’s what the ‘it-girls’ call a holy grail. The ones with the belt bags and blazers etc.
To my delight, one of these little glass bottles landed on my doorstep in the Fab Fit Fun subscription box (SIDE NOTE: does anyone ever get that name right??? My brain throws all the letters together and calls it the Fat box. I literally had to google its actual name right now)
They sent The Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Glow Pink Juice Moisturizer.
Before that, I used the likes of Cerave and Neutrogena. Despite the high-end skincare trend, there’s also a SkinTok comeback of the creams you would find in your grandma’s bathroom cabinet. Looking at you, Ponds.
The Watermelon Glow Pink Juice Moisturizer comes in this heavy glass bottle. Heavy like you know it’s from Sephora and not CVS. It has these wavy grooves. There’s one tiny square label – no clutter. Minimalist and chic. And then there’s the color – pink. Pastel pink. Baby pink.
So I tried it out, looked in the mirror, and there I was. Belt bag, blazer, slicked back bun, dainty gold jewelry, and the bad-ass confidence to show the slightest bit of midriff in the office despite it just seeming wrong.
Plot twist- I wasn’t. I was actually stood there in a baggy shirt I got in college, now demoted to a pajama outfit.
But I felt like I was that girl.
All from one serum and hours of TikTok scrolling. I had a second-hand appreciation of it before I had even tried it for myself. That’s the Brand Experience.
The point here is that it’s not necessarily the product, it’s the experience I had with the product.
I had linked the branding and bottling with the it-girl aesthetic I saw online. I didn’t use the serum, I experienced it.
When it comes to marketing a product or service, the key here is to create an experience. Tie it to who the audience aspires to be. Make it an integral part of becoming that desired person.
Why did this work so well for The Glow Recipe? Well, to be super rational, it felt like a regular Hyaluronic Acid. Hydrating, enjoyable, watermelon-scented, but I still felt the need to slather on my trusted Cerave afterwards for a bit of substance.
The product itself didn’t rock my socks… the experience did.
I’d probably repurchase because it made me feel a certain way. And when you feel that type of way, you feel like you’re one step closer to also being an it-girl.
The Glow Recipe wins by leaning into this aesthetic. And that’s on Brand Experience.
TL;DR – It’s not about the product, it’s the experience you build around the product.