In my head (which is a wonderful place), I’m hearing all my loyal blog followers think – what? I don’t get Paul’s blog title and is this one about his desire to innovate the airline sector again.

Well, one answer is no – I’ve moved on from my continual quest to innovate (cough, upgrade) my international trips and in this blog, I’m focusing on multiple streams of consciousness which I’m hoping I can link together.

My theme is customer experience – and how a great customer experience can make a world of difference. This all came about after reading this article in The Guardian where a Taiwanese bookstore is allowing people to read for free in a relaxed and cosy environment at all hours of the day. The outlet, busiest between the hours of 10PM and 2AM, allows customers to read their products for as long as they want, without having to pay. First impressions of the business model you might shudder, but wrapped into the customer experience is a wine cellar, teashop and other retail outlets that cater not only to the night owl but also the outgoing book reader – who might have the Kindle or App, but still enjoys the actual pleasure of reading physical pages. It’s also reinforcement that what’s old is not necessarily dead. In fact, many months ago, the same publication, published an article stating that United Record Pressing will press an unprecedented 60,000 Vinyl records per day.

And here comes the tenuous link. Whilst we all know that the market is moving extremely fast, there are old habits and customs that will remain true and represent an untapped opportunity – like my experience with The Guardian.

Living in London, my habit, every Sunday was to buy 4 papers and spend the morning devouring them – each served a distinct purpose and what the News of the World delivered in triviality, The Guardian delivered in content – and don’t even get me started on the Observer Monthly Magazine – picking a winner between Observer Sport and Observer Food is similar to the challenging question that I imagine parents with two children will be asked at some stage in their life.

I digress. When The Guardian launched its Australian edition, it not only delivered the content that I craved, it defied the trend of the firewall and delivered a customer experience not only of the ‘past’, but one that would change my online newspaper behaviours. While I might flick to The Age Online in the morning, it’s The Guardian that I now refer to as my main source of news. The midday newsletter (delivered at the same time every day) reminds me throughout the day to check in and their Twitter feed will bring me back of an evening. It’s a simple customer experience I have with them – but one that consistently delivers.

So while you might not know whether to read a book, play an old vinyl or enjoy the non firewall Guardian, I hope the tenuous link between great brand stories and customer experience has come to light and the impact that experience has on advocacy.