Packaging is Not Customer Experience

Mark Hurst recently blogged about the importance of focusing on the customer in Packaging is Not Customer Experience

I recently spoke at a conference on “customer experience and the brand”, hosted by a group of branding experts and attended by brand managers of some of the most recognizable brands in business today. I was struck by how often the other speakers would talk about “customer experience” as though it was found mostly in the brand’s packaging, color scheme, logo, or positioning in the marketplace – as opposed to the substantive part of what the customer actually consumed, tried, wore, or otherwise used.

Hurst explains that this particularly holds true online. Because of the lack of packaging on a website, online branding needs to place a greater emphasis on the customer’s experience. He advises:

The customer experience isn’t the promise on the label – instead, it’s what the product or service actually delivers to the customer. Make *that* good, and your customer might actually tell a friend.