The Experience Economy Isn’t Coming — It’s Already Here
Why Brand and Customer Experience Are Now Your Competitive Advantage
By Matthew Fairweather Studio
In 1998, the “Experience Economy” was a theory.
Today, it’s a fact.
Consumers, employees, students—everyone—now expects seamless, intuitive, and emotionally engaging experiences wherever they go. Whether buying groceries, enrolling at a university, or onboarding into a new role, people don’t just assess what you offer; they judge how you deliver it.
The brands that understand this are thriving. Those that don’t are slipping behind—even if their products or services remain technically sound.
Experience is the new battleground
Every sector, from retail to education to enterprise services, is competing not just on cost or features but on how it feels to engage with them.
Let’s break that down by audience:
Retailers must blend physical and digital with grace. Shoppers expect the personalisation of online with the immediacy and immersion of in-store.
Universities are now experience providers, not just knowledge centres. From student recruitment to alumni engagement, every touchpoint reflects the brand.
Large enterprises compete for talent and clients alike—on experience. B2B buyers want the simplicity of B2C journeys. Employees expect consumer-grade digital tools and purpose-led cultures.
B2B brands once hidden in the background are now customer-facing. Experience defines credibility.
You're not just competing in your category anymore
This is a critical shift. Your competitors are no longer just the company down the road or the rival brand in your industry.
You're competing with:
The ease of Amazon
The intuitiveness of Apple
The transparency of Monzo
The responsiveness of Netflix
These brands set the bar for how people expect all services to work. Whether you’re a global retailer or a local university, that’s your benchmark now.
The risk: treating experience as a bolt-on
Too many organisations treat experience like the final coat of paint—something to gloss over operations, not shape them. But in the experience economy, experience is the product.
If your digital journey is clunky, if your physical spaces feel neglected, if your employees don’t live the brand — you’re breaking the promise, no matter how good your marketing is.
The opportunity: treat experience as a strategic asset
Brand experience isn’t just the job of marketing. It’s a cross-functional lever for loyalty, trust, and long-term value.
Leaders in this space:
Map the full experience from awareness to advocacy — across digital and physical
Measure experience outcomes as rigorously as financial ones
Design for emotional as well as functional needs
Unify brand, ops, tech, and HR around a shared ambition for how people should feel
Where we come in
At Matthew Fairweather Studio, we help organisations reframe their brand as an experience — not just a logo or campaign, but a living system that’s felt in every moment of interaction.
Whether you’re a retailer transforming the customer journey, a university rethinking student engagement, or an enterprise making onboarding human again — we help you design and deliver experiences that differentiate.
Final thought: Experience is no longer a luxury. It’s your strategy.
The Experience Economy isn’t a trend. It’s the operating context for every brand in the 2020s.
The question is no longer “should we invest in experience?”
It’s: “How can we afford not to?”