The Brand Experience Manual: Addressing The Gap Between Brand Strategy And New Service Development.
ABSTRACT Customer experience has now become a central arena for competition in services. Companies are working hard not only to develop memorable customer experience, but also to infuse those with brand associations. To be able to transform brand strategy into a service concept capable of delivering a brand-aligned experience, the New Service Develop (NSD) teams need proper brand input. Nevertheless, literature and practice suggest that current brand manuals do not address these needs properly. This paper, through an extensive literature review and interviews with practitioners from the fields of Service Design and Branding, proposes the concept of Brand Experience Manual as a way to bridge the gap between brand strategy and the NSD teams. In doing so, it contributes to a better understanding of the status of current brand manuals, the evolution of branding, and advocates for an experiential focus on brand manuals.