Why digital experience should be part of your branding process

The digital part often becomes an afterthought in the branding process. A website that’s considered once the branding phase is closed. An app or an e-commerce platform that’s built by external parties as a ‘technical add-on’, not an integral part of brand experience. 

And as this list goes on, an important aspect gets forgotten: the way the website looks is as important as the way it behaves, communicates and flows. And that’s defined by branding. 

In the conversation with our developers Tom and Matthijs, we discuss the importance of an integrated approach to building a digital brand experience that converts.

What changes when developers join the branding process?

Tom: You annoy the designers (laughs). But in all seriousness, when we join early, we spot technical possibilities and we push for them. It really allows for the right synergy between tech and design, where a brand story can be brought to life in a unique manner with visuals, animations and flows on the one hand, and the strong technical backbone on the other.

Isn’t it a given nowadays?

Tom: A lot depends on the type of experts behind the project. Often, design agencies reach the limit of their technical capabilities when the website requires something advanced: an AI integration (our work for Flanders MAKE is a good example), a robust e-commerce platform (a very common yet underestimated challenge), or a more complex booking plugin such as the one we did for Toran, a helicopter flight academy. And that works the other way round, too: companies that are strongly tech-oriented may quickly meet the limitations when it comes to design and creativity.

Matthijs: Clients sometimes assume a branding agency can't handle the technical complexity. We built our careers on exactly that complexity and today, we use it at SKINN to extend the brand strategy and story into the digital experience as accurately as possible.

What does ‘extending a brand into digital’ actually mean in practice at SKINN?

Tom: Next to all the technical aspects, we follow the principles of emotional design: three layers that connect brand story and UX. Take MERMET, our client specialising in window sunscreens, where every competitor makes roughly the same promise and navigating the offering is not as obvious as with brands that sell everyday use products. To help them stand out, we needed to get the connection between brand and digital fully on point.

The first layer’s visceral: basic attraction. You land on the site and something feels different: the statement typography, the refined photography, the motion that subtly evokes the movement of sunscreens. You want to interact with it before you’ve read a single word.

Then comes the behavioural layer: can you actually use it without getting frustrated? For MERMET, that meant building the platform and its e-commerce part around how customers actually move through a buying process, not around what’s convenient for the company. That’s where the promise of customer centricity had to be felt.

The last layer’s reflective: does the experience stay with you? Would you tell others about it? When all three are consistent, the website truly ‘speaks the brand’ and connects with people.

Matthijs: Absolutely. Because next to some universal UX good practices and well-researched principles, there’s never a one-size-fits-all answer. That’s where the workshops with clients, user journeys and brainstorms with designers, writers and strategists come in.

How does such a multidisciplinary approach influence the outcome?

Matthijs: The needs of the business and brand owner and those of the end user are central to us. At SKINN, we believe that brands exist to be chosen. And every touchpoint a brand has, including the digital ones, should guide people towards that choice in a natural way.

Tom: Every time a brand hands off the digital work to an external party after the branding phase, something gets lost in transit. The new team wasn't in the room when the strategy and brand guidelines were built and they're reverse-engineering a story they didn't write. That's the problem we're solving by bringing those two worlds closer together, so that the digital experience seamlessly continues the brand rather than only reflects it.

The duo of Tom Deleu and Matthijs Stichelbaut is the cornerstone of SKINN’s digital team. Developers pur sang, they built their careers as programmers across diverse business contexts before landing where they are today: laying bridges between strong brand design and the digital brand experience.

As a graduate of Technology and Multimedia in Kortrijk, Matthijs very quickly chose the path of helping Flemish SMEs build their online presence in a professional way. Tom, on the other hand, after finishing the same school as Matthijs, embarked on various corporate journeys, supporting brands such as Sony and bpost, building software essential for their functioning. Later on, these two entrepreneurs met and created their own venture, which today has become the foundation of SKINN’s digital expertise.