Customer Experience Branding: Driving Engagement Through Surprise and Innovation

“Surprise and delight” is a customer service tactic used by brands to ensure customer loyalty, such as MasterCard’s “Priceless Surprises” campaign, which rewarded uses with unexpected gifts. The challenge for brands is to keep creating these incentives that are continually innovative and attention retaining.  On the other hand, surprise can also work the other way, such as when a brand’s product gets unexpectedly adopted/used by a large group of people.  Branding expert Thomas Gad argues that a brand’s success lies in its ability to quickly and nimbly respond to this surprise.  He expertly reviews the considerations when devising brand strategy that introduces an element of newness and interest into customer interactions.  He uses case studies from that have continually achieved this, including Apple, Starbucks, Virgin, LEGO, IKEA, Google, Uber, GoPro, Instagram, and adidas.