A new strategic
As technology races forward,
the basis of competition is shifting.
As AI accelerates and parity spreads, features can be matched, prices undercut, and creative output automated. In this environment, authentic, coherent experience becomes the most durable source of advantage. It shapes behaviour, compounds loyalty, and is hardest to copy—because it’s built from how your whole system works together.
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imperative
Empower
Growth
The edge of
experience
Experiential Advantage is the competitive edge a business gains when it designs experiences - not just products or services - that people deeply feel, remember, and choose.
It’s the shift from competing on what you make to competing on how it feels to engage with you.Where technology and price can be copied, experience - when it’s emotionally resonant, coherent, and beautifully designed - becomes your most defensible and differentiated form of value.
Advantage
Orchestrated
The Experiential flywheel™
One system. Many disciplines. One felt outcome.
Extraordinary experiences are emergent: the result of product, brand, marketing, and sales operating as an interconnected whole, underpinned by an aligned operational and business model. When strategy, operations, and storytelling are deliberately choreographed, the message matches the product; the product matches the promise; and the outcome is trust you can feel.
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Coherence across the org → seamless flows of experience
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A single narrative from boardroom to browser
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Experiences that move people emotionally - at scale
designing the
end to end journey
Every moment matters. Each stage on the buyer journey is an emotional state - and each interaction shapes how people feel, what they believe, and whether they return. The most powerful experiences are designed end to end: turning the journey into a creator of value, not a funnel.
four levers of
A strategic approach
experiential value
The difference between good companies and extraordinary companies is the way they think about and approach problems.
Behind the world’s most admired products and services lies a consistent culture of thought and practise - one that balances empathy, imagination, clarity, and iteration. These principles aren’t trends, they’re enduring practices that help teams deliver design that truly moves people.
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See what’s happening — Replace assumptions with observation. Map signals across users, market, operations.
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Imagine what’s possible — Diverge with abductive leaps. Form bold hypotheses that dissolve trade-offs.
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Define a direction — Converge with criteria and conviction. Decide on a coherent play.
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Design how we’ll do it — Execute with feedback loops. Short cycles, real learning, visible wins.
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Growth
Tactical levers &
emerging trends
Tactical opportunities for design-led growth.
The landscape is shifting fast — and for experience-led companies, that’s not a threat. It’s a design brief. In a market where features flatten and technology spreads quickly, the edge comes not from what you offer, but how it feels to engage with you.
That’s where the opportunity lies now. From generative AI to predictive loyalty, from invisible interfaces to identity-safe personalization — new experience levers are emerging across the journey. These aren’t fleeting trends; they’re deeper signals of what customers are coming to expect. The challenge isn’t just to follow — it’s to reimagine: How could we serve with more fluidity? How could we remove friction and deepen trust? How might our experience become a source of surprise, clarity, or care?
These tactical plays are not about adding more — they’re about designing better. Better flow. Better feeling. Better fit with real lives. The companies that act on these signals now — with intelligence and intention — won’t just win attention. They’ll win attachment.
Download the
field guide
"Experience is Everything" is a quick-start field guide to crafting the kind of winning experiential advantage that lasts.
This short book distils the principles behind how extraordinary companies think and design differently to create experiences that count in today's marketplace.
Inside, you’ll find a clear-eyed diagnostic and practical framework for designing experiences that align product, brand, marketing, and operations into one seamless whole - creating value that compounds through feeling, not just function.
Whether you lead strategy, design, or growth, this is your quick-start playbook for building the kind of business that customers don’t just buy from - but believe in.
Get your copy for free, below.
"the edge of
experience"
Book a keynote presentation
“The edge of experience” is a 60-minute keynote from Andy Pye, Associate Director at Seymourpowell - exploring how brands can harness design to create the kind of emotional, enduring advantage that technology alone can’t deliver.
To book a presentation tailored specifically to you business,
get in touch here.
Empower
Growth
about me
Andy Pye
Associate Director - Seymourpowell
As Associate Director at Seymourpowell, I work with leading global brands to reimagine products, services, and experiences.Seymourpowell is one of the world’s leading design and innovation consultancies.
For over 40 years, Seymourpowell has helped ambitious brands imagine bold futures - designing products, services, and experiences that shape how we live, move, work, and play.
Working at the intersection of emergent trends, creativity, and global business - I focus on how design can unlock growth and shape what comes next, fueled by a belief in the transformative power of design.
andy.pye@seymourpowell.com
www.seymourpowell.com
