Physical to Digital: Does your corporate brand image make the correct transition?

There’s not much the pandemic hasn’t changed; from the private to the public, from the personal to the professional, every sphere of life has witnessed an upheaval the likes of which no one could have predicted even at the beginning of the year.

Some of the earliest shifts were seen in retail businesses. Forced to service their clients remotely, businesses had to take their operations online to continue to stay afloat. Taking a business almost entirely online also means translating everything a brick-and-mortar offered customers to the digital space. Were, and are, businesses prepared for that?

Given the vital role the physical store/office plays for most businesses, a well-thought-out and significant investment in design and architecture are commonplace – first impressions go a long way in cementing a brand image. Everything from pleasing aesthetics like a well-lit waiting area to the functional aspects like easily accessible water fountains help create a psychological impact, which can determine whether or not your prospect turns into a customer.

Enter 2020, and all that has changed. The physical business space is grossly underutilized, it has become, for all intents and purposes, redundant. It has pushed the digital touchpoint to the forefront of brand-customer interaction, and it will stay that way long after we’re past the pandemic.

This is the year the digital takes the lead. This is the year for real, lasting digital transformation.

The reduction in access to physical touchpoints has created a level playing field; what that means is a large, established organization with elaborate physical touchpoints and a start-up with a modest space are now both competing equally. They’re vying for the customer’s attention on digital touchpoints, where only the most creative, well-thought-out strategies will come out on top. It’s a great time to strengthen and build new relationships by upping your digital presence.

Anyone coming into contact with your digital touchpoint– customers, stakeholders, distributors, employees – is able to form an opinion about your brand based on their experience with that touchpoint. It’s important to create a lasting impression as a business – working towards that will mean giving your stakeholders a cohesive, seamless experience between your physical and digital touchpoints.

Developing your digital presence is only the first step – it’s important to ensure its constant evolution to reflect your business, changing consumer attitudes, and market trends. There are some crucial questions a business must ask itself before designing/refreshing its website, mobile app, digital platforms, etc.

     - Do they

1. reflect the essence of our business?
2. justify the brand we’ve built?
3. provide customers enough options to get in touch with us?
4. communicate the visual language of our physical touchpoints?
5. enable easy navigation?

And most importantly – what distinguishes them from the digital touchpoints of our competitors?

It’s more important now than ever for businesses to create a lasting impression with their digital or remote touchpoints, with the same, if not better, effort that went into creating physical touchpoints. 

How can you do that? It could be re-focusing efforts into your website, mobile app, video conferencing infrastructure, the way your team members conduct with various stakeholders. Since digital interactions will be the primary touchpoint of businesses in the new normal, there is no room for complacency – investment in digital touchpoints will be crucial to come out ahead of the game later.

An investment bank, for instance, would typically have an extravagant office, with expensive interiors and state-of-the-art infrastructure. However, if their digital touchpoints don’t reflect this polished brand image, it is clearly a huge missed opportunity.

A website/mobile app/ with an acceptable level of functionality doesn’t cut it anymore – it has to be intuitive, seamless, and stay true to the brand image. The aim should be to make everyone who interacts with your digital touchpoint to think your company is a great place to invest in, buy from, work for, or work with.

Essentially, as you are forced to make a transition from physical to digital, does your corporate brand image make the necessary transition as well, or your digital touchpoint does not quite convey the real you??!

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com