What's your brands signature touch?

Brands that have a clear purpose win. But purpose, and the promise that comes with it, isn't always enough. How brands live those two aspects through actions and experiences are critical. This means creating an experience that clearly expresses who the brand is through signature touchpoints. Brands that are able to identify the touchpoints that matter most to customers—and own them in their signature way—will ultimately win their loyalty and wallet share of their customers time and time again.

Some brands have got this spot on, while others have a bit of work to do. Here are four quick cases of who is getting it right, and those who still have a ways to go:

Swiss Air With its well trained and proud Swiss staff handing out premium Swiss chocolate before landing, Swiss Air has made the human factor—their flight attendants—a major

r touchpoint in conveying their brand purpose. It is a telling reflection of their purpose converting to the active, consumer-oriented brand promise, one of the highest product and service quality. The small, sweet act has become their signature touch.

Treetops Nurseries This company has a vision to maximize the potential in every child, using an illustrative story about a character named Roarie the Tiger to reflect that purpose. In expressing the purpose through the character and the story, Treetops Nurseries has created a seamless experience, from organizing parent visits, to follow up calls, and more, all guided by an excellent CRM-based sales approach. However, it falls short on the critical human-to-human connection. Putting your child in someone else’s care is one of the most vital decisions a parent has to make, and selecting a nursery is one of the very first times a parent needs to learn to “let go.” Here, understanding the customer's emotional needs, and journey through them is paramount. For Treetop Nurseries, this means being locally relevant and creating a trusting experience on a human level, rather than just a CRM based sales approach based on data and pushing information. The signature touch here is being subordinated by a computerized system—the human element needs to be brought further into focus in order to truly realize the brand purpose and promise.

Argos As a good example of striking the purpose/promise human/brand balance, Argos recently opened new concept stores where it replaced its popular catalogues with iPads and a more automated approach with less staff on site. But to maintain their signature touchpoints, they have introduced a “team” for each particular store with funny pictures and backstories on the iPads, relating to customers that there is help if needed, and what’s more, these are folks just like you or I—but with specific knowledge of the products and goods offered by Argos. This touch makes the transition to technological and automated service infinitely more personal, helping the customers make decisions faster and bolstering brand loyalty along the way.

Barclays While their in-store retail experience is similar to other retail banks (when is a bank experience ever a truly great one?), Barclay’s has shifted gears to focus on creating the best online banking experience possible. Key apps such as PingIt and the general Barclays banking app make banking “on the go” seamless and simple and certainly true to Barclay’s brand Purpose: helping people achieve their ambitions. Even though their retail experience is less than stellar, their key touchpoint of online mobile banking has definitely delivered in changing the traditional, slow and difficult banking experience into a more positive one.

There is a truth for all brands: defining and designing signature touchpoints is not simple, and often it can take years of iteration and testing, creating and killing products and services, and talking to customers, to get it truly right. But, when a brand comes upon exactly what it is that gives them that unique, signature touch—it can bring the purpose and promise to life, and that’s what truly counts.