Some people have a concern that manufactured moments aren’t going to be authentic. It might be true that manufactured supawood isn’t so-called “real wood”, but experiences aren’t supawood. Experiences don’t work like that.

It’s easy to think about an example; in the middle of an argument, we can recognise that sometimes feelings might arise which seem displaced. We recognise that perhaps we shouldn’t feel hurt, or angry, or afraid, and yet we do. And those feelings feel very real to us.

And if that’s true for the obvious negative examples, then we can recognise the possibility of it being true for the positive examples. We know that the magician didn’t really make the ball disappear, and yet because she’s a good magician, because she’s expertly designed the experience, the awe we feel is absolutely authentic.

And so you can be the magician of your brand, and you can expertly orchestrate a moment, or a series of moments for your audience, your customer, in such a way that they have an absolutely authentic emotional experience. And because you’re the designer, you can design for awe like the magician might, or for laughter like the comedian might. And it’s not a given that all the experiences you’re designing for need to be feel-good.

You might be working for animal rights, and you might design for a certain kind of sadness, like the talented folks at Pixar do when Nemo goes missing.

The point is that you can design for absolutely authentic experiences that move your customer. We live in an experience economy now, and you shouldn’t leave a good experience to chance.