Nielsen Norman Group, Brand is the Experience in the Digital Age

"As brands adapted to the digital world and consumers gained access to information and became increasingly influential, the definition of brand evolved to represent a broader set of experiences across all channels.

Definition: Brand is a subjective perception of value based on the sum of a person’s experiences with a product or company that ultimately influences that person’s sentiment and decisions in the marketplace.

[...] If brand is reliant upon a total set of experiences as discussed above, then what a company looks like, sounds like, and how it behaves are all equal components of brand in the eyes of a consumer. Therefore, people experience brand (and brand can be expressed) through three areas: visuals, tone, and behaviour.


Visuals comprise the graphic elements used to communicate the brand, including the logo, typeface, images, and other elements of a common style guide.

Tone is the style of communication the brand uses, from the text on a website to the messaging developed and used in targeted advertisements and to the manner in which staff speak to customers.

Behavior represents how the company acts in certain situations. Does the company reflect the morals and values of their customers? Do they actively express those values through their actions?

[...] To examine these components more closely, consider Southwest Airlines. This airline is recognized for its consistent and differentiated brand, which claims to put customers at the center of its business model. Southwest showcases this core brand message and its “love of People” through the brand visuals, tone and behaviour.



For example, last year, Southwest launched a new look for the exterior of its planes, calling it a “bold new look that puts our heart front and center for everyone to see.” It extended its brand visuals to even the plane itself, putting the heart logo that represents its love for its customers on the belly of the plane.

[...] In digital systems, customers interact with the representation of the brand in the form of websites and other interactive services, making behavior a crucial attribute of brand. The granularity of behavior as a brand attribute can and does vary and can be expressed holistically at the level of entire processes and interactions on a site, but also at a finer level, in the specific qualities of those interactions (e.g., transitions, animations).

[...] Most people can’t differentiate how they feel about a brand from how they feel about the experiences they have with that brand, so in many situations, UX becomes the brand differentiator. It can be part of — or all of — the reason a customer chooses to engage with a company or its products." [source]

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