Reflection - After working on my brand over the last 5 weeks we have created over that time, we are now looking at the way it will be interacted with by the customer. The touchpoints of a brand are the way someone interacts with your brand, they affect how the brand is talked about affecting the overall success of it.

There are lots of different areas that are touch points and they don't have to be physical either, of course, there are physical ones like packaging, merch, and in-store encounters, that can create very positive and personalized real-life experiences that create lasting impressions to establish a relationship with it. An example of this would be Apple they have great physical touchpoints with their welcoming in-store experience allowing you to try products while talking to friendly staff reinforcing the idea of convince. They also do the same with their packaging being easy, stylish, and timeless making you feel that this is the right choice of product.

There is also digital brand touchpoints like social media, apps, Websites, and online advertising. It is all about showing the message of the brand and what it is made up of in a virtual space to establish a relationship, an example of this is Banana Block which is a ‘living museum and event space’ which is located in East Belfast, they have a great social media platform which spreads the news about them and all the events they hold with the different business, their social media is used very effectively promoting each event, they also do a month story posts which then is always at the top of their page making it easier to access as a post about the events could be missed. I think they have really established a relationship with their customers as a result.

https://www.instagram.com/bananablockni/?hl=en

Communication touch points are mostly advertising in different forms like on the radio, TV, and news coverage. These types of touch points are all about sharing information and telling people about your brand. An example I can think of is when watching TV or in the cinema that adverts the play of Volkswagen showing all the possibility that comes with their car, making this car not just about driving but the lifestyle that comes with it.

Human touchpoints are the person's real-life experience that you get from someone who represents the brand. An example is Lush they are very well known for this personal relationship that they establish with each customer, every time I have been in I get complimented on one thing I'm wearing and so does everyone else I know. The staff is also very good at telling you the message behind and the sources of the products, which establishes the brand as progressive, fun, and positive, making people come back.

After considering that touchpoints are what make your brand successful and its selling point, I started looking at what my own was made up of and the values that I wanted it to represent. My bank values are Easy, Safe, Accessible, Honesty, and Convenient, keeping this in mind I started considering what touch point would be the selling point for my bank, I started reconsidering what age range I was focusing on which is 18 to 23 and the target audience being university students. I began thinking about a ring that would allow you to tap to pay or share details and know that other brands have a ring to pay for, Mclear is the main product that does this, that is all about convenience and durability. This brand however has more of an older target market, so with my focus on the university target I thought about what they would use and how they would carry it with them. I chose to switch to key fobs that allow uni students to just tap to share details that will automatically pop up on the app to send money to one another making it less awkward and just easy to send money.