Experience Is the New Differentiator: What H-E-B and In-N-Out and Other Experience Leaders Can Teach Marketing Students

A recent article in Fast Company, “The power of experience: Uncovering which brands are winning—and why,” (October 10, 2025) called my attention to the ChangeUp Experience Report 2025.

The report introduces a new, experience-driven way to measure brand success, emphasizing how physical retail and restaurant interactions create lasting value. Based on over 6,000 consumer surveys and 300,000 data points, the report ranks the top U.S. brands across eight dimensions of “resonance power,” including memorability, advocacy, and substitutability. The findings go beyond traditional KPIs, such as satisfaction scores, to uncover how physical experiences foster brand loyalty and emotional connections.

Top performers like H-E-B and In-N-Out Burger succeed not just through operational excellence but by crafting distinctive, consistent, and memorable customer experiences. These brands become irreplaceable in consumers’ lives. Conversely, brands that underperform are often forgettable, easily substituted, and overly transactional. The report and article offer excellent teaching materials for illustrating brand familiarity, experience design, marketing research techniques, and strategies for revitalizing legacy brands.

Relevant Chapters in Essentials of Marketing

Over the last decade, our book, particularly Chapter 8, has increasingly emphasized the importance of the entire customer experience with a brand. This, of course, follows from what we observe in business practice today. This report notes its importance in driving customers to higher levels of brand familiarity (also in Chapter 8). The report describes ChangeUp’s methodology, which could be discussed in market research (Chapter 7) or in Chapters 8 or 12. I added Chapter 12 because the report focuses on retail and restaurants.

Class Discussion Ideas

The article and report are chock-full of exemplar companies and practices. One critical thinking opportunity here is to get students thinking about how they can apply the concepts to real businesses they interact with on a regular basis. Some of the following activities and questions get students thinking at this deeper level.

In-Class Activities

• Brand Resonance Simulation. Break students into groups. Assign each a brand from the top or bottom of the ChangeUp list. Students must brainstorm improvements to one of the eight dimensions (e.g., memorability, novelty).
• Experience Walk-Through. Ask students to visit a local retailer or restaurant and evaluate it using the eight dimensions of brand experience. Present findings in class.

Discussion Questions (with Answer Ideas)

1. What is brand familiarity, and how do H-E-B and In-N-Out reach the level of brand insistence? (Chapter 8)
   • Answer Idea: They create emotional bonds, consistent positive experiences, and strong brand communities. Their resonance makes customers actively seek them out and resist substitutes.
2. Why are physical experiences still relevant in a digital-first world? (Chapter 8)
   • Answer Idea: Physical experiences offer sensory engagement and emotional memory that digital often lacks. They’re key in high-touch industries like food, retail, and hospitality.
3. What is “resonance power” and how is it different from satisfaction? (Chapter 7, Chapter 8)
   • Answer Idea: Resonance measures long-term emotional impact and irreplaceability, while satisfaction captures short-term fulfillment.
4. How can sentiment analysis and large-scale surveys improve marketing decision-making? (Chapter 7)
   • Answer Idea: They uncover patterns in customer language and behavior that guide brand positioning and experience innovation.
5. Why might some brands with strong operational systems still fail to resonate? (Chapter 8)
   • Answer Idea: They may lack emotional or sensory differentiation, feel generic, or fail to evolve with customer expectations.
6. Which of the eight dimensions of experience would be hardest for legacy brands to improve? Why? (Chapter 8)
   • Answer Idea: Novelty and substitutability. Legacy systems often make it difficult to innovate quickly or stand out in crowded categories.
7. What role does community and culture play in a brand’s memorability? (Chapter 8)
   • Answer Idea: Shared rituals and identity cues (like In-N-Out’s “secret menu” or H-E-B’s disaster response) build cultural relevance and attachment.