Your hosts, Aransas and Dave, recently had the opportunity to speak with the true pioneers of Experience Strategy, Lou Carbone, Joe Pine, and Bernd Schmitt for a previous episode of The Experience Strategy Podcast. These pioneers shared so much valuable information that Aransas and Dave decided to sit down together and thoroughly unpack the ‘aha moments’ from that episode. Tune in to hear a breakdown of the key lessons these Pioneers shared.

 

IN THIS EPISODE: 

• [01:22] Lou Carbone discusses how experiences can transform companies and their employees.
• [03:00] Dave unpacks Lou’s description of the experiences he had as a strategist in the 1980s, learning different marketing execution approaches from companies like Disney, and how the pioneers decided to do something more transformational for companies.
• [07:00] Dave and Aransas discuss the importance of analyzing what the customer is experiencing and how companies can improve that experience for them. Favoring the comprehensive viewpoint as the customer is key in accomplishing this.
• [10:00] Aransas discusses Bernd’s opinion about looking at the consumer's sensory experience and how that goes into the consumer experience design.
• [14:00] Aransas and Dave discuss using customization in service of the consumer’s experience rather than the brand experience.
• [18:00] Data and technology has been a driving force in moving customization forward to create personal connections to consumers. Aransas and Dave discuss ways companies like Netflix and Stitch Fix have tailored their customers’ experiences through premium memberships.
• [23:00] Dave discusses “Journey Mapping” and delves into Harvard Professor, Michael Porter’s five forces, and how companies used these strategies to create their business models
• [26:30] Aransas discusses the change that’s taken place for businesses and consumers to connect with the advancement of technology and social media.
• [29:08] A clip from Bernd discussing customer experience management. Dave shares what that means and how companies can manage the customer experience by examining it holistically and innovatively by using measurement and analytics.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• The pioneers were part of a revolution in consumer experience by examining what big companies were doing for their consumers and then taking that information and transforming the experiences for other companies to utilize.
• Once companies started to market their services by looking at consumers' viewpoints and sensory experience, they could create a more targeted approach towards marketing to their ideal customers.
• Consumer experience changed heavily with technology and customization. Companies that were able to use data and technology to tailor to the customer’s specific needs were able to capture more positive experiences with their customers leading to more sales or premium service subscriptions.

 

Links Mentioned:

The Experience Strategy Podcast Episode 4 - Experience Pioneers

BIO:  

Lou Carbone

Lou Carbone is founder and CEO of Experience Engineering®, Inc..

Since the late 1980’s, Carbone has continuously been at the forefront of studying, exploring and developing value creation through experience management and is often referred to as the Godfather of Experience Management. He is recognized as a thought leader in the field as well as an experience management futurist, continuously innovative, hands-on academic/practitioner.

He wrote the book “Clued In: How to keep customers coming back, again and again, published by FT Prentice Hall which won Fast Company’s Reader’s Choice Award. 

Lou originated the concept of Emotional and Unconscious Clue Based Experience Design and Total Experience Management® and a robust proprietary methodology and perspective called Experience Engineering®. 

 

Joe Pine

B. Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings. In 2020 Mr. Pine and his partner James H. Gilmore re-released in hardcover The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money with many new ideas, frameworks, and exemplars plus a new Preview to their best-selling 1999 book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre; Every Business a Stage. The book demonstrates how goods and services are no longer enough; what companies must offer today are experiences – memorable events that engage each customer in an inherently personal way. It further shows that in today’s Experience Economy companies now compete against the world for the time, attention, and money of individual customers. 

 

Bernd Schmitt

Bernd Schmitt is Robert D. Calkins Professor of International Business and Faculty Director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School in New York. He is widely recognized for his major contributions to branding, marketing, and new technologies through his unique focus on the customer experience and innovation. He has published in the major marketing journals and written nine books which have been translated into 25 languages, including, among others, Experiential Marketing, Customer Experience Management, Big Think Strategy and Happy Customers Everywhere. Schmitt has consulted and developed brand, experience and innovation strategies for clients in consumer packaged goods, automobile, electronics, software, financial services, pharmaceuticals, beauty and cosmetics, hospitality, and media industries.