Glossary

A brand touchpoint describes a single point of contact that a person has with a brand. For example, in the hotel lobby, in a store, a telephone call, the website or in a company's conference room.

Why effective contact points are so important for companies

Every single point of contact is a gateway into the world of a brand. This is where people come into contact with it, get to know it and perhaps even appreciate it. This is where they decide whether to buy, buy again, recommend, or whether they are perhaps even prepared to pay more (price premium). Consequently, the brand-specific quality of the contact points determines the business success of a company.

To put it clearly: The touchpoints are where the added value is created that a company needs to be successful. That is why their controlling, management and systematic maintenance are indispensable.

On their decision-making journey (for or against a purchase), people encounter a large number of brand contact points. These are therefore rarely singular, but always part of the overall picture of the customer journey. With the journey mapping method, these are presented in a sequence.

The contact points shape the customer journey

This is important: the overall impression of the brand that a customer gains on the customer journey is determined by the weakest brand touchpoint. Consequently, the best brand strategy is of no value if it does not ensure a consistent customer journey in line with the brand.

For this reason, strong brands manage every single touchpoint along the customer journey: both those that belong to the company (e.g. product packaging) and those outside their sphere of influence (social media comments).

Brand rules: How to control the quality of your touchpoints

Simple brand rules are formulated as a control element to ensure the successful implementation of the brand strategy at all touchpoints. These are used to implement, check and make the brand tangible at all touchpoints along the entire customer journey.

The use of brand rules is based on the principle that complex systems can be controlled with simple rules. They serve to translate the brand strategy into an operational framework for action.

Companies use brand rules to recognize: Do the contact points match the brand strategy? Using simple yes/no questions, they can examine, evaluate and optimize the compatibility of each contact point.

If a contact point fulfills all brand rules, it is clear that the brand and its specifics can be experienced there.

Points of Excitement: Contact points that excite and are remembered

Within a day, a person is confronted with around 3,000 touchpoints from different brands - but only six brands manage to remain in their memory.

For this reason, special experiences at touchpoints are very important. With them, a brand can win the battle for attention. If a brand can inspire, it stands out from the crowd. It is perceived and valued more strongly. We call such brand contact points "points of Excitement".

A "point of Excitement" is a point of contact that offers a "wow" moment. This makes it stand out and remain in good memory.

Excitement is triggered by surprising, passionate or joyful experiences. They stimulate the reward center in the brain and generate positive feelings that people associate with the brand and store for the long term.

This "excitement effect" of a brand touchpoint has a direct and measurable influence on the performance of the sales funnel. An econometric analysis showed that just one percent more customer excitement leads to a larger brand audience, more recommendations and purchase intentions. People are more likely (plus 1.7 %) to reach for the brand that has inspired them first.

A single point of contact can increase a brand's sales performance and trigger enthusiasm - even within the company itself. (Excitement Points 2023 study by Deloitte, YouGov and APG)

Particularly effective: the little wow moments

It is often the small experiences that make you smile, that you think back on fondly, that you share with others and that make you reach for a brand again.

Underestimated brand touchpoints in particular, which are considered rather unimportant, offer the potential for such a wow moment. This is because people do not have high expectations of them, but rather pragmatic ones.

For example, this could be the parking lot, the door sign or even the toilet. Negatively connoted contact points in particular, moments of frustration - an invoice or a reminder, for example - can surprise and inspire through brand specificity. The frustration that people normally feel at such points is transformed into amazement and contributes to a lasting improvement in brand perception.

How to calculate the number of contact points

There are net and gross contact points.

A net touch point describes a single brand touchpoint that a customer can theoretically come into contact with - for example, packaging, a magazine advertisement or an email. If you count all the contact points registered on the customer journey, you get the number of net contact points.

Gross touchpoints are used to describe the reach of a net touchpoint. A single net brand touchpoint is counted as often as stakeholders have interacted with it.

Example: Email is a net brand touchpoint. If the employees of a company write 1,000 emails in a day, this results in 1,000 gross contact points.

The calculation would be:
1,000 recipients * 1 e-mail = 1,000 gross contact points

The number of gross contacts per net brand contact point - i.e. its reach - can be used to determine the prioritization of brand contact points in the customer journey, among other things.

Optimizing touchpoints: How to find out which ones you should prioritize
There are several ways to determine which brand touchpoints should be optimized first. Of course, this decision always depends on a brand's capacities, resources and goals. In all cases, however, it is advisable to carry out a brand audit to identify the real pain points and quick wins among the individual contact points. Based on the results, an appropriate prioritization can then be made, for example:

1. Prioritization by contact frequency: Brand touchpoints with the greatest reach are optimized first. These are determined based on the interaction frequency of the touchpoints or the number of their gross touchpoints.
2. Prioritization according to customer relevance: For this purpose, the "moments of truth" during the customer journey are optimized first as contact points that are decisive for sales.
3. Prioritization based on brand rules: An audit is used to identify those touchpoints that are particularly "red", i.e. do not fulfill the brand rules. These are processed first in order to eliminate particularly bad touchpoints from the brand experience.
4. Prioritization according to resources: Quick wins can be identified if quick effects or a low use of resources are desired. Here, those brand contact points that can be adapted and optimized to the brand rules faster than others with little effort are processed first.

   Find out more here:

• Article: Managing brand touchpoints - here's how it works
• Study: From product to experience - turning brand touchpoints into an overall experience

Do you have any questions or suggestions about the glossary contribution or would you like further information? We look forward to receiving your e-mail.