There are countless articles around the interwebs which propound the nuances and intricacies of color theory.

The choice could be a blessing or a curse to your brand.

If you choose blue, you’re associated with security and trust. If you choose purple, you’ll be associated with creativity and wisdom. Red is reserved for brands with excitement and vitality.

While I can’t say how true these statements are, I know it’s not the most important thing when it comes to your brand.

You see, colors, logos, images, and fonts are the visual parts of your brand. Though they can help you make a good impression, they’re nothing without the real essence of your brand.

The experiences you produce define you

Cirque Du Sol is a Canadian theater company that’s claimed the title as the largest theatrical producer in the world. They have revenues approaching one billion dollars and are expanding across the globe.

If you’ve ever been to one of their shows, you’ll understand how much the experience matters. In fact, only the experience matters. It’s immersive, colorful, and alive.

Every spectrum of the rainbow is represented in their performances, and I doubt they stopped to think “this may make people feel weird, let’s change the color.”

That’s because colors support the experience and not the other way around.

You’re not Cirque Du Sol, and you’re probably not in the entertainment business. The next question is how do you create brand defining experiences?

1. Define your message first

You can’t be known for anything if you don’t know the message you want to send out into the world. One of the worst things you can do is have one message on social media, another message on your website, and still another message in your email marketing.

Defining your message is easier said than done. One sure fire way to get it right is to talk to or survey your customers.

2. Keep repeating the message

You, as the creator, will get tired of your message far sooner than any of your customers. On average, it takes 15 to 20 brand touch points before a purchase is made. Nike has been telling us to just do it for decades. I don’t hear anyone complaining.

Wherever your brand shows up, consistently put out the same message for your audience. Anytime that message is different; your prospective customers feel a disconnect. If you think no one is watching or no one will remember, think again.

3. Choose your distribution channel

You can’t be everywhere. That’s not a bad thing. Don’t try to dominate the search results, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and trade magazines all at once. Choose a few mediums that work well with your brand and focus more of your resources there.

If you’re a visual brand, then Instagram or Pinterest may be best for you. If you’re an education brand, then YouTube and the search engines may be a better option.

There’s no one size fits all solution for choosing your distribution channel so test a few and settle on the ones that work the best for you.

4. Craft the experiences

With the right message and distribution channel, a lot of your work is done for you. The last thing is to craft the experience and improve it over time.

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As humans, we experience, and we remember. We watch a film but only remember the highlights – most especially the end.

In a study by Daniel Kahneman, he documented 154 patients going through a painful colonoscopy. At the time of the surgery, anesthetics weren’t in widespread use.

Every sixty seconds, people were asked to rate the pain they were experiencing on a scale of 1 – 10. 1 meant there was no pain and ten meant the pain was intolerable. The operations varied in length from 4 minutes to 69 minutes.

What’s interesting is that people went through the entire surgery but only remember the peak moment and end moments in vivid detail. If the peak of the surgery was painful and it also ended on a painful note, people would recall the entire experience as painful. This held through even if most of the intervening time wasn’t as intense.

He called this observation the peak-end rule. The peak and the end of any experience are the most important for recall. Another important observation was that the duration was often neglected when remembering an experience.

We often remember experiences incorrectly due to what areas stand out in our mind.

What does this mean for you?

It means when you craft an experience for your customers, it’s important to nail the end and the peak moments in the interaction.

Let me give you an example that may hit closer to home.

I was on a support chat with one of our customers. They were livid because something had gone wrong and they didn’t have an easy fix. The first thing I did was acknowledge their frustration and our part in the issue at hand. They became much calmer.

From there, we spent the next forty-five minutes working through the issue. In the end, we found the bug and squashed it with a vengeance. I bid the customer farewell, and they sent in a thumbs up about my performance.

The peak of that situation was when I stepped into the conversation and acknowledged their right to be upset. At the same time, I didn’t attempt to downplay our part in the situation. The end of the experience was when we resolved everything, and the customer was able to go home as a happy camper.

The peak-end rule worked out beautifully as evidenced by the thumbs up they gave me. This is just one experience across the thousands that your customers will go through as they interact with your brand. Always keep in mind how you can make them better.

Conclusion

If you like, you can spend an inordinate amount of time on your colors, logo, and visual identity. You can also hire a designer to do it. If it’s not directly contributing to the experience you create for your customers, then it’ll never produce the ROI you need.

Instead, focus on creating a memorable experience for your customers at every touchpoint. You can achieve that by:

Honing your message Repeat the same message no matter where you’re found Choosing the right distribution channel Crafting experiences that emphasize the peak of the interaction and the end

The experiences you create don’t have to be over the top or expensive. It can be something as simple as helping your people in an authentic way. It may take some time to get it right, but it’s well worth the investment.

Featured image photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels