Architect of the brand experience

An architecture student becomes an architect - Philippe Knupp disproved this notion immediately after leaving ETH. Immediately after graduating as an architect, he slipped into consulting. This was at the management consulting firm Accenture. "You learned to work right away. It was also a good opportunity to immerse himself in something new," he says in retrospect. That's probably where he learned the most. Above all, it was exciting to find out what else you could use your studies for. Thus, one aspect in particular still accompanies him today: the holistic development of an idea. After all, he says, studying to be an architect is not only strongly analytical, it also involves taking into account a wide variety of framework conditions. "There is a long way to go from the creative idea to the result in order to create something holistic," Knupp explains. A great deal of foresight is required for this, he says. In retrospect, the switch from architecture to management consulting was a great stroke of luck, a broadening of horizons, and ultimately even an entry into a new field.

Sideways movement in the raceway

After about four years at Accenture, Philippe Knupp decided that he should acquire a broader knowledge of business after all. So he did an MBA in Canada and Holland, "funnily enough in Rotterdam, where I also rediscovered a strong architectural connection," he adds. At the same time, Knupp wanted to make a kind of sideways movement in his career with the MBA in Rotterdam, but basically also to swing back "into a more creative area," as he says. When he was asked from several sides what he actually thought of branding, he began to look into the subject in more detail and with growing interest. Knupp got his start in the branding world through a former fellow student in Rotterdam who worked at Interbrand. At Interbrand, he had a strategic, analytical role, which gave him insights into the value worlds brands can build. "Brands convey images and are also projection surfaces," Knupp says of his first impressions of branding. An overriding goal of a brand, he says, is to create an experience that positively influences customer behavior and thereby generates value. Through the brand experience, the brand promise is either delivered or not. This in turn has a corresponding positive or negative influence on value-driving parameters such as purchase probability, customer satisfaction, willingness to recommend and loyalty. The most important prerequisite for creating a brand experience is therefore to develop an understanding of the customer perspective: "Understanding customers means seeing the world through their eyes," summarizes Knupp.

Create brand experiences

Philippe Knupp also briefly worked at Nestlé, which gave him the opportunity to get to know the "branding story," as he calls it, from the corporate side. But the corporate side was not his world. As a result of his architectural heritage, he prefers to work in a project-oriented way. These tasks are more related to the matter at hand than the political games that always play a role in the background of large companies. After that, Philippe Knupp moved on to strategy consulting. At Prophet's Zurich office, he had the opportunity to work on international projects right away. The focus here was strongly on strategy development. However, Philippe Knupp missed the holistic approach, from strategy to implementation. Therefore, after Interbrand and Prophet, he came to the conclusion that an "owner-managed boutique" would suit him much better than an international network. This is because smaller agencies like Branders have a very good opportunity to work together as a team, to exchange ideas, he says. "Another reason I'm here now is because I want to further strengthen the analytical, strategic component of Branders," Knupp tells us. In addition, he says, a smaller agency always has the opportunity to develop tailored solutions instead of running the risk of applying the same models over and over again. This is generally his credo: "Nothing off the shelf," he continues. Instead, Branders wants to create brand experiences.

And this is where strategist Philippe Knupp comes in: "A brand experience is made up of many moments of experience, so-called touchpoints. As a customer, you come into contact with many such touchpoints. And the number of touchpoints is increasing all the time, partly due to technical innovations. This is where the difficulty lies for companies, namely to create an appearance that is holistic, coherent in itself - so that the overall brand experience can be traced back to a core or an idea that stands at the center," is how Knupp describes the challenge. So for the past four months, the brand agency has had an architect who focuses on strategy-driven creation of holistic brand experiences. "The important thing here is to convey the same image at all touchpoints," says Knupp. After all, it would be confusing for customers if a brand presented itself differently on Facebook than, say, in its sales outlets or as part of its marketing communications. What sounds logical in theory requires a strategic approach and detailed planning in practice. Despite the greater complexity that a presence on all channels entails, Knupp is convinced: "Being present at all touchpoints, and doing so with a coherent holistic image, is a necessity today.

"Customer focus remains the be-all and end-all".

"In addition to its external impact, however, every touchpoint also has an internal company component that must be taken into account," emphasizes Knupp. The creation of individual moments of experience is ultimately also the result of internal structures, process organizations, responsibilities, all the way to the behavior of each employee, which must be geared toward correctly reflecting the brand and making it an experience. "Silo thinking would be out of place here," he adds, and takes a breath, "What is needed is holistic, cross-functional management. This is also the reason why branding is treated as a corporate strategy issue in many places." Philippe Knupp is also personally fascinated by the processes of a brand experience. Accordingly, he advocates a clear strategy: customer focus remains the be-all and end-all, and the design of brand experiences must be based on this. This extends to the detailed design of individual customer interactions and the positioning and sequencing of positive moments of experience. In this context in particular, it is important to prioritize weak points, as negative experiences have a four to five times higher impact on the overall experience than positive ones. This is all the more critical because today's customers can also actively comment on their brand experiences and recommend brands to others, or not.

"Companies used to tell customers what their brand was, but today customers tell each other," says Knupp, summing up the current branding situation. In addition, it is not possible to exert the same influence everywhere. That's why it's all the more important to convey clear consistency and as coherent an image as possible at the points that can be influenced. In addition, customers today are increasingly involved on an individual basis. "Nike is a case in point," adds Knupp. NIKEiD offers its customers the opportunity to design their own sneakers. In addition, customers can use the NIKE+ Fuel- band to record for themselves and let others know where they are jogging along (perhaps even wearing the shoes they designed themselves). Philippe Knupp talks about other peer-to-peer and involvement measures with the same enthusiasm - the architect is completely in his element. He says he often deals with companies that are completely unaware of the sheer number of contact points with their customers, even if they know their brand very well. But when it comes to bringing a brand to life, that's exactly the point: "The overall picture of where and how a brand is present everywhere creates the basis for building a compelling brand experience."

Ursina mason

In a nutshell

Philippe Knupp has been Strategy Director at Branders Group AG since July 2014. His specialties are branding, marketing, innovation, design and analysis. As his last education, he did an MBA at the Rotterdam School of Management. October 1998-August 2003: Consultant at Accenture March 2005-July 2008: Senior Consultant at Interbrand July 2008-August 2009: Strategy Development Manager at Nestlé September 2009-June 2014: Senior Engagement Manager at Prophet Since July 2014 Strategy Director at Branders Group AG.

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