A newbie to HubSpot’s INBOUND Sales and Marketing Conference this year, I had the pleasure of hearing the company’s CEO Brian Halligan speak for the first time. Not only did I learn a lot about what is making new brands like Away and Casper so successful, but I also got a great ab workout in from Brian’s laugh-provoking presentation.
The topic of his talk was on a new species of brand in the economy, which he dubbed “experience disruptors,” their difference being how incredibly easy they make it on the customer to do business with them. Halligan painted a picture of many of the brands achieving this right now as he described a typical night in his home, name-dropping brands like Lyft, Spotify, Chewy, DoorDash, Netflix, Casper and Dollar Shave Club, and how they make his routine incredibly seamless.
The bulk of Brian’s presentation went on to discuss the five key differentiators that make these “experience disruptors” just that. Here they are:
- The first differentiator he described as experience market fit, and how building a great product matters, but a great product with an even better experience will win every time.
- Next, these challenger brands have frictionless flywheels. They eliminate all pain-in-the-ass aspects of their buying/selling process.
- These new brands all provide their customers a personalized experience, a piece of the puzzle that you really can’t go without these days. Consumers demand personalization.
- Experience disruptors have adapted to sell THROUGH their customers, as opposed to traditionally selling to their customers. Halligan mentioned Glossier CEO Emily Weiss as an incredible example of this. She encourages her customers to create content and share their experiences with her products on social, reaching potential new customers in a really authentic way.
- And finally, Brian Halligan described the experience disruptors as brands that are disrupting the business model, not conforming to it. These brands spend all of their time and energy ADDING value to their customers, instead of trying to get it from them.
Brands like AWAY Travel, Warby Parker, Carvana, Glossier and more are beating out traditional brands by embracing a customer-first mentality that is entrenched at every touch point, from a customer initially learning about the product, to their day-to-day usage. How are legacy brands going to stand their ground and innovate to keep the loyalty of their customers?
Email us to learn more about Crowdly and how we engage your customers with personalized experiences to foster loyalty and effectively sell THROUGH your best customers.