What a great event in New Orleans. The annual thinkAbout conference was well attended by alumni and newbies of the Experience Economy. Enjoy the two days of capturing.
In The Clouds
Learning From Alice
In the Experience Economy, understanding the flow is critical in the success of any staged experience. A good example of how this works is through the story of Alice in Wonderland.
In order to develop a complete experience for your customer you must address every phase of the experience from the enticement to enter through the extending of the memory.
Creating Experiential Places
Completed on July 3rd, 2016, went public July 4th, 2016. Yes!
Authenticity in the Experience Economy
Just the graphic…
Business Alignment
No matter if you’re a small business, large corporation or non-profit, there are connections in our purpose, communication and the places we connect in. I have written before on the importance of alignment and I am going to do again, but this time I want to break down the idea into steps.
I believe that the three key principles in all businesses are these; Culture, Brand and Place. The principles are not free-standing as some would treat them. No, all three of these are linked in an interlocking pattern. Adjust one and it affects the other two.
Take culture for the first example. What you and those around you believe about the same goal or outcome is your purpose and drives your brand message and the promise your communicate to others.
Your promise to others needs a place that reflects this promise and helps facilitate your interactions with others. Your brand frames what your place should be no matter if it is physical or digital. The real message here is that both your physical and digital places should reflect your brand and not merely be a trendy place or a copy of someone else’s place.
As I stated at the beginning of this post, all three are connected and each reacts and influences the others. The place where you interact must also support the belief and intention of your culture. It must stimulate those who enter to your belief and help become the stage of your people to communicate your message.
It is very important to always remember that these three principles apply to business, play and home. What you believe is reflected in how you speak and what you speak about. Your place becomes a manifestation of those ideas. It is very important to always remember, that all three principles either nourish the whole or jeopardize the possibility of growth and success.
Misalignment Hassles of Life and Business
Have you ever experienced a car that was out of alignment. The strangest of noises occur. Excessive wear on the tires, possibly leading to unusual balding patterns. Eventually this misalignment can cause costly repairs and replacement if allowed to go unchecked.
Misalignment is true of our personal life as well as for business. Unlike the alignment of a car, realigning ourselves can be much more complicated. Like your car, unless you are trained at detecting the conditions and causes, you can cause greater harm than good. When we attempt to repair our own problems and try to realign that which is out of alignment, we tend to allow for subtle imperfections or incomplete repairs to save time or money. Hint, there are no savings to doing correctly.
Take a look at one of my favorite diagrams for personal and business. Now, imagine that every interaction you want to create for another, be it friend or client, you want to be memorable.
Ask yourself some basic questions as they relate to staging this experience.
- What is the Experience you are staging for others? (The Experience)
- What are your beliefs and are they focused on the purpose of this experience? (Culture)
- What is the promise you communicate to others that will become part of the experience you want to stage? (Brand)
- Where will this experience happen and is it a reflection of your promise and beliefs? (Place)
- What language or phrases will you use that can be associated only with the experience? (Language)
- What elements of decor or environment pieces will support and theme the experience? (Decor)
- Where will the interaction of the experience be found? (Engagement Zones)
- Finally, are all these elements of an experience in alignment?
If you are a business or organization, this alignment model becomes quite complicated and at times almost impossible to make work, but stop there. As I have said in the past and posted about, I don’t believe in the “Impossible” only the improbable. All things are possible once you understand how. If you don’t,then find someone who can help.
Just like taking your car to a service station to get realigned, it is best to seek others outside your organization or yourself to help guide you through the process of realignment.
Until next time. Focus on the creation of memories and not the mechanics of the Experience for the experience happens when the memories are created.
Posted in Business Conceptualization, Conversation, Journey Maps
Tagged Authenticity, brainstorming, branding, business, Experience Economy, graphic facilitation, James Gilmore, Joseph Pine, small business, start-up, storytelling, strategy, The thinking Canvas, theater, Visual Thinking
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