When you sit in your office and think about brand design, everything seems simple.
You can define your brand positioning and brand value proposition, then you write a brand identity charter and specify the brand language and brand essence and then compile all of these in the form of one or more documents.
But the customer and audience of the brand has nothing to do with your words and what you have designed for your brand. The customer and the audience look at their experience in facing the brand and the image of the brand in their mind is formed based on these experiences:
- How was the ad I saw from the brand?
- What was the tone of the call center employee?
- What was the packaging of the product like and what kind of feeling did it evoke?
- How did they treat me in the store?
The things we mentioned are examples of brand contact points with customers; What is called Brand Touch points in the literature of branding.
What is brand touch point?
Any type of encounter or customer/audience interaction with the brand that consciously or unconsciously creates a brand experience in the customer’s mind is called a touchpoint.
touch points can be completely under the control of the brand or out of the control and choice of the brand.
For example, the company’s call center is one of the most well-known, clear and controllable touch points for a brand. While the memories a potential customer hears about the brand from one of our current customers is an uncontrollable (and even untraceable) touch point.
Some examples of brand touch points
Consider a car brand.
An example of a brand touch point is the advertisement you have recently seen in the media about one of the new car models produced under this brand. An ad that you saw from this brand ten years ago and still remains in your mind is also an example of a touch point.
Your friend’s Instagram post in which he announced his purchase of a car – from this brand – is another point of contact.
If you have already rented a car of this brand somewhere, you should also consider it as an encounter with the brand and a point of contact.
In addition to these, the following are other examples of contact points with the car brand:
- Exclusive brand website;
- Sites that review and evaluate cars;
- The car dealership that you refer to as a customer;
- The person who speaks to you at the agency;
- The decoration of the car dealership and even the taste of the coffee served there.