Digital has become a primary way that we engage with our world. Therefore creating user experience that is intuitive, seamless, and delightful are now very important factors that contribute to creating positive brand perceptions on a mass scale.

There is a plethora of ways that people find, are exposed to, and experience a brand in the digital space. Here’s one straightforward example of a poorly designed user experience flow across touch points: A person liked what they saw on a television ad. Their mobile device was in hand. They searched for the brand/product, but they couldn’t find it or couldn’t find it easily. When they found the site it wasn’t optimized for mobile. Instead they received the dreaded Flash requirement warning, an extremely slow site, a poor navigation experience, or all of these.

At this point, the user is either mildly to greatly annoyed by the fact that they couldn’t explore what they wanted to explore in the way they wanted. A range of potential thoughts about the brand are entering the user’s mind: the brand is difficult, the brand isn’t smart, isn’t fun, doesn’t get me, etc. These perceptions go against personality defining statements in most brand briefs. Therefore, this scenario is not only a disappointing experience for the user but a disappointment in the brand.

Best in class user experience is not being championed enough by marketing people. Marketers spend millions of dollars on TV campaigns to create positive brand perceptions, but in a series of digital moments, they greatly diminish the positive equity they created in a person’s mind about the brand.

There are a couple of reasons for the lack of user experience championing. First, it’s not part of their habit of thinking. Marketers are still bound by the thought patterns of historic marketing/advertising practices. Second, the communication silos (politics) of big companies prevent seamless, brilliant consumer ecosystem flow. The result of this is a competitive gap and an opportunity. The company that can overcome, or is designed to close this gap, will be greatly rewarded.