Two Paths, One Brand Journey

Two pathways guide the trajectory of brands. The most successful find their strength at the intersection of the two.

One Path: Customer Journey

By mapping all the possible steps in the customer journey, you are looking at things from a customer’s viewpoint. This helps increase customer satis­faction and allows your unique brand promise to prove itself. When you think like a customer, you’ll be better able to address his or her pain points.

The customer journey is not only influenced by marketing and communi­cations, but by other factors that are more difficult to control. The role of a salesperson, the influence of social media, in-store communications, your environment, and opinions of friends and family all play important roles.

The Other Path: Company Journey

Where the customer journey is the external path, the company journey is internal. This path indicates the processes that exist within the organiza­tion, and it shows which steps are needed to connect with the customer journey. That sounds logical and simple. However, in practice, both paths do not connect with each other in many instances.

There are internal obstacles that are unfortunately visible externally in the customer journey. Usually, the gaps in the customer journey are quickly closed, but the gaps in the company journey tend to be forgotten and left open. What do you need to do to get this process back on track?

Time For A New Path

For a lot of companies and organizations, it is not easy to choose a new path. Where do you start?

Let’s start with a suggestion: close the online marketing depart­ment. Digital communication now leads, and it cannot be seen as a separate channel with its own messages, target groups, and brand promises.

Multichannel marketing starts within the organization. Stop thinking inside the box, and tear down the internal walls of the marketing communica­tions department. Remember that the overall business goal is the focus, not the channel. Start by determining the message and then decide how you will deploy via available channels and resources.

Subsequently, map out the desired content and create this content inde­pendent of any channels. Then the channel managers should optimize the content specifically for their channel.

This bold move requires courage, persuasion, and shared enthusiasm within the organization. Let the results be your compass. Without detours, you will reach your goal at a lower cost. You will have improved direct customer contact and obtain a higher level of effectiveness because of streamlined traffic along the paths.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Marc Cloosterman, CEO, VIM Group. Excerpted and adapted from his book Future Proof Your Brand.

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