UX, Marketing & Brand: Designing customer experiences where digital marketing and product development intersect

This is the era of great customer experiences. All around us we see thriving examples of businesses that have disrupted their legacy predecessors by observant and intuitive innovators. The marketing and product development functions have long resided in separate parts of an organization. What is often missing in this bifurcated setup is a holistic approach to engaging and satisfying the consumer on their terms most, if not all of the time. For too long, digital marketing has been thought of in terms of “push” and “pull” tactics without sufficient consideration of the connectivity and continuity between the efforts. For example, “push” brand messaging is thought of as reach and segmentation. But what about “push” marketing strategies that are more relevant and far reaching, such as social media integrations that are “baked” into the product from the outset? Think about Groupon and the rewards you earn from friend purchases as an example. On the “pull” side of things, it is easy to forget about the product itself as a “pull” marketing vehicle. Digital storefronts (ecommerce sites, mobile commerce) and social platforms are hidden marketing workhorses when overlain with the personalization capabilities afforded by data. Carefully designed user experiences that are built on a deep understanding of user needs and pain points, easy-to-use ecommerce sites and mobile apps that convert with every “Add To Cart” tap or click accelerated by contextual information, content narratives on Facebook that entice and engage – these are all product experiences waiting to exert their natural pull on the customer. The goal is to create compelling interactions at every point in the customer’s journey in a deliberate and customer-focused way. Organizations must be ready to embrace new team structures, create a culture of systems-thinking, and most importantly, challenge the status quo in order to stay relevant in today’s fast-moving customer-led world. Read less