What are touchpoints?
A touchpoint is a way that a consumer can interact with a brand and an example of this would be finding direction on a website or person to person appeal. This is the communication the brands can have with their consumers.
Why are Touchpoint important?
These forms of communication you have with consumers not only start the opinions consumers have about your brand, but it also shows an innovative touch to your brand as it shows the consumer how far, as a brand, is willing to interact with their users.
Through your touchpoints, you are wanting to show the purpose/ story of your brand as this allows a consumer to gain a sense of trust loyalty to your brand. Touchpoints also give you the opportunity to control how you tell your story and show your brand in an incredibly unique way. When approaching the ideas of your touchpoints, you should look at the relevance each touchpoint has as a more modern way can help benefit your brand with consumers. You can find what consumers find relevant by interviewing your potential target audience, looking at surveys and just general feedback.
When it comes to the impact this could have on your brand, it is best to look at key elements while you are on this brand journey.
- Consistency – You want to keep a regular update on the quality of your brand’s content; making sure that it is still appealing to your target audience and keeping up with the brand values you have.
- Attention to details – Making sure that your brand appears professional, and no mistakes are left untouched.
- Emotion – Keeping that connection with the consumer as it gains loyalty to your brand and betters the reputation.
- Experience – The experience for the consumer should be easy and smooth, make sure your touchpoints are not complicated and confusing.
What are the Brand touchpoints I may use?
Merchandise – You can create merch for your brand such as clothing, bags, or phone cases. This gives you another way of communicating with your customers. Merchandise allows a consumer to build a connection with the brand as wearing the brand shows a user’s interest in the company.
Stationery – Creating a smaller and extremely effortless way to advertise your brand is a clever idea to use. It is small but effective and a lot of consumers love the idea of free stationery.
Advertising – This is the main and most trendy way to communicate with your audience as it can go through an app display, a website, and adverts on social media. My main approach will be to an app display as it is the most popular and most used way of communication brands have with users.
I want to create a phone case and that is ideal for a bank card which makes the phone case also have a purpose as well. I want to create a piece of stationery as I want to have a smaller and more assessable way of advertising my brand. The last touchpoint will be an app as it is the trendiest way to interact with a brand.
Three Brands I feel have a successful relationship with their consumers.
The first brand I feel like has a good relationship with their consumers would be Tesco’s as It a very trusted brand for many and with its popularity still growing it has become a brand many u depend on. With so many across the UK it is understandable that it has gained the loyalty of many. One of their touchpoints that help with their relationship with customers would be their Clubcard. Clubcard allows the customer to gain points every time they shop and the more, they respond with this process, the more money they can get off or offers will become more available to them. Having a Clubcard appeals to me as a student as it does help with expenses and benefits me the more, I use it. This helps gain more trust within the brand and shows that the brand really does like to appeal to their targeted audience.
The second brand I feel also has a great relationship with their consumers would be Amazon. Amazon is a trusted site internationally as its delivery is usually fully accurate and the tracking of the orders allows consumers to feel at ease. Many of us have trust in Amazon because so many around us too as well. The brand also has diverse options on what you can buy and is very assessable for people at home. Amazon also appeals to students as their prices can be cheaper and there is usually a deal that would help benefit a student.
The third brand I may be biased towards as I work there and know a lot about the brand, but it would be KFC. KFC can have it issues; however, I feel that the relationship it has with consumers is what makes people always come back. I feel like the workers always display what the values are for KFC, and it was what makes customers feel excited when they come to KFC. Similar to the Clubcard, KFC also has an app that allows consumers to gain points every time they get a KFC. This offers limited lower prices, free food with points and money off as well. The app also has a student offer which gives you a discount and free food. Due to the launch of this app, many have begun using it and it is starting to become popular with consumers. It has Definitely gained trust for KFC.
