Jörg Dietzel - Touch: Building Your Brand in the Experience Economy

Copyright 2020 Jrg Dietzel

Published by Marshall Cavendish Business
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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Name: Dietzel, Jrg.

Title: Touch : building your brand in the experience economy / Jrg Dietzel.

Description: Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Business, [2020]

Identifier(s): OCN 1133229865 | e-ISBN 978 981 4868 99 0

Subject(s): LCSH: Branding (Marketing) | Advertising. | Communication in marketing.

Classification: DDC 658.827--dc23

Printed in Singapore

Cover illustration: Freepik.com

For Klaus Dietzel (19372013)

I am much indebted to PingPing Han, who helped to bring the experience economy idea to life for our talk at Singapore Management University (SMU).

At the university, I am grateful to Professor Francis Koh, who first hired me many years ago, and to Professor Michelle Lee and Professor Jin Kyung Han, who welcomed me back. Dr Lim Lai Cheng at SMU Academy saw potential in me to share my experiences with her SkillsFuture classes. Sam Wu for always having my back. Also to the brands I have had the privilege to meet or even work with over time many of them have found their way into this book.

Thank you to my previous and current students who through their enthusiasm and participation create an inspiring learning experience for me every week.

My good kaki Muhammad Al Khatieb (Memet) helped make sure we received the materials we needed from the brands selected, in his own friendly way. I couldnt have done this without you.

Thank you to Clarence Singham for your wise counsel, and to Nathan Goh for continuously challenging me to look at life in a new light. And Melvin Neo at Marshall Cavendish went from editor to good friend, gently nudging for delivery and always believing that I still have a few books in me.

Thank you to my mum Margret Dietzel, who reluctantly let me go out into the world, again and again, knowing this is what I needed to do.

Finally, I thank Singapore, my chosen home, for accepting me as one of your own.

I have always been interested in people, brands and experiences.

From a young age, our house was open for guests from India to Africa, the Americas to Asia; club friends from a charitable international organization my parents were volunteers in.

I remember, as soon as I had picked up some English, sitting behind the living room door with my sisters, listening to the conversations, lapping up the tales from faraway lands, of orphans saved and money raised. I knew there was a big, interesting world out there, just waiting to be explored by me.

My journeys began when I was 12. My parents put me on a plane to the UK, on my own, for the summer holidays. A few years later, when I was 16, it was California, USA. I remember landing at LAX (Los Angeles Airport) after a long flight with nobody to pick me up (the dog had scared away the telegram courier informing my hosts of my departure) on the 4th of July 1978, only to spend literally all of my travellers cheques that were supposed to last me for six weeks on a single cab ride to Simi Valley.

During my studies in the then German capital city of Bonn, some part-time work in journalism and public relations took me first to Liverpool. There I wrote about the 1983 UK election campaign my report was called Watching the elephant die. Then off I went to Bali, accompanying the ballroom dancing world champions on their tour of Asia.

Experiences fascinated me the more foreign, the better. So I was happy to receive a post-graduate research scholarship to spend a year studying in Durban, South Africa, in 1988. During my year there, I did anything but study from trips to Stellenbosch to speak at their University, to Swakopmund in Namibia, term breaks spent on farms in Zimbabwe, or daytrips with our local Bible fellowship up-coast to Zululand and the Drakensberg. I created my own experiences.

As expected, work then led me from Germany to London, Beijing, Berlin, Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea. In 2019, I returned to Singapore, my home of choice.

The advertising agencies and marketing departments I worked with over the past 25 years or so were in the business of creating experiences for their clients brands. These ranged from emotional TV commercials to memorable events. Later there were Instagram stories of island trips (for Audi), concerts, exhibitions and an ambitious coffee-table-book magazine.

It was in mid 2019 that the Singapore Management University, where I have taught since 2005, asked me to present a talk to their alumni. They wanted something on branding, featuring a business started by an alumnus. I immediately thought of my friend PingPing at Culturally.co, and during discussions we both realised the urgency of the topic. It instinctively felt right, and first a talk and then this book were born.

Exhibition in Korea showcasing Audi Magazine.

When selecting the case studies for the different areas of the experience economy I looked at a mix of brands that I was familiar with, with somewhat of a focus on Asia. Because, having lived here since 1998 (with one brief intermezzo at Audi Global HQ), I do believe that the future is Asian in services and tech, travel and political power, healthcare, manufacturing and, yes, experiences.