Blog
Employer Branding Trends for 2019
Fun Work vs. Fulfilling Work How we hire changes every year. Is there any page on a company’s website more volatile than its careers tab? At the start of the decade, it seemed like a place for plucky young startups to showcase almost everything besides what the organizations actually did. You’d have to scroll through two ping pong tables and at least one company dog before you got to any open positions. But at the end of the day, fun will only get you so far. Why We Work Now, the tech scene has largely outgrown its dorm room aesthetic. Prospective hires are looking for far more than bean...
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Great Design Shifts Perception
One of my favorite quotes about identity comes from American architect, author, and designer, Buckminster Fuller. “Ninety-nine percent of you who are,” he says, “is invisible and untouchable.” No matter how much we think we understand, there is always something unseen and overlooked humming beneath the surface. Great design can function in a similar way. A logo or a car engine each has a tip-of-the-iceberg function that appears obvious. But behind every glyph and gear, there is an invisible force that has the power to fundamentally shift how we think about and move through the world. Great...
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The Role of Voice Technology for Brands
Voice Technology Is Older Than You Think Voice is the newest technology platform on the block. And like all seemingly new things, it’s actually much older than you think. In the early 1960s, IBM introduced the Shoebox, an early effort at mastering voice recognition. This bulky little machine could recognize 16 words spoken into its microphone and convert those sounds into electrical impulses. Basically, it was a voice-operated calculator. Dressed in a tuxedo at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, developer William C. Dersch performed the miracle of turning your voice into a search engine....
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We’re Grateful for Our Amazing Clients
Here in the U.S., it’s Thanksgiving. Which means it’s a perfect time to pause and reflect on what we’re grateful for. We’re grateful for strong coffee. We’re grateful for stronger cocktails. We’re grateful for the passionate, creative, curious people who come to Emotive Brand every day to make brands matter more to people. And of course, we’re incredibly grateful for our growing list of clients that give us their time, expertise, and trust to help them transform their brands. We couldn’t do it without them. As we sign off for the rest of the week, we wanted to do a quick roundup of some of...
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The Pros and Cons of Launching a New Category
What’s Old Is New Again People have been drinking coffee, listening to music, and shopping for groceries forever. But if you peered into the modern household, chances are these common operations would look completely foreign to someone ten years ago. One might load a coffee pod while streaming an album from their phone, then ask their voice assistant to add something to their online cart. This is the brave new world of brand category creation, and it’s something that we’ve written about extensively. The reason we spend so many words on this topic is that it’s absolutely paramount to...
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The Key Difference Between Graphic Design and Branding
Graphic Design vs. Branding Brand is a dirty word. It’s misunderstood and misused by people in and out of the industry. Some people think it means a new logo. Others, an advertisement. And as a company that has “Brand” in its very name, we spend a fair amount of time educating exactly what this word means. Today, we dive into a key distinction: the difference between graphic design and branding. That may seem basic, but you’d be surprised by how many projects are stymied by this lack of clarification. Understanding this distinction is a crucial first step in creating a visual identity that...
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Five Challenges Brands Must Overcome in 2019
As 2018 comes to a close, we at Emotive Brand can’t help but reflect on the trends and forces that defined the year. The Golden Age of subscription services continued to shine brightly, bringing personalized eureka moments to thousands of people. Politics seeped into everything, with brands either choosing to walk the line or pick a side. And our data, once seen as merely a byproduct of business, has continued to become the engine of business itself. Looking ahead to 2019, we examine five challenges that brands are facing right now – and how to overcome them using a transformational business...
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Renaming Your Business? Here’s the Low-Down on Emotive Naming
The first time a shopping buddy suggested I visit Pottery Barn, I declined – imagining a rustic space filled with hippies and rust-colored earthenware. Why would my friend recommend such a place? I wondered. Pottery Barn – as if! Pottery Barn is lucky. It succeeded with a name that’s disconnected from both the functional and emotional truths of its brand. The experience of the brand – beautiful stores, upscale products – dominates brand perceptions. Nobody even thinks about the name bespeaking a cow shed with a kiln in the corner. For companies considering a name change today, few, if any,...
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Generation Z: A New Generation With New Challenges for Brands
Gen Z, Already? For the past several years the spotlight has been on one generation: yes, millennials – the most studied and arguably the most sought after (or talked about) generation by brands and businesses to date. We, for one, have discussed: what brands they love, where they put their money, where they put their loyalty, why where they work matters, if all the “millennial advertising” hype is even worth it… Now, it seems the focus is shifting. The internet, advertisers, and marketers today are starting to pay a little more attention to those millennials’ younger siblings:...
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Sales: The Critical Element of a Growth Company’s Brand
Sales and Brand: A Connection Worthy of Discussion Sales teams exist to grow revenue and keep customers happy. They’re also brand builders and the face of the brand to many customers. They hear what customers want and keep a pulse on the market. When it’s easy for sales to share their observations with product development and marketing, their feedback spurs product improvements, brand definition, and growth. The first step in this process, though, is for sales to provide a clear explanation of the problem their product solves. Recently we caught up with Pier Barattolo, a sales leader with...
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Integrating Company Cultures After a Merger or Acquisition
High M&A Activity Mergers and acquisitions are at an all time high, with $4.7 trillion of global deals signed last year according to a recent M&A report by KMPG. And although the payoff of a successful M&A is great, these are high risk deals. It’s not just about the financial gains. Reputations are on the line. Stakeholders observe nervously. And in order to ensure the expected return on investment is delivered, a great deal of planning around integrating company culture must go into the preparation. Cultural Integration Issues After an acquisition, the merger is a difficult...
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The Role of Company Culture in Business Success
The Corporate World is Restructuring Company Culture Your company culture matters more than ever. Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016 survey, “The new organization: Different by design,” maps and draws connections between the talent, leadership, and competitiveness challenges organizations around the world face. This year’s data indicates a shift: CEOs and HR leaders are more focused on culture as a source of competitive advantage than ever, and they are turning to restructuring their organizations to increase employee engagement and retention, improve leadership, and build the...
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Business Growth Strategies for a Brand Turnaround
Business Growth Won’t Last Forever Business growth should never be taken for granted. Even when things look promising, your business could still be at risk for falling into a slump, or worse, taking a dive. It’s impossible to deny that the market is volatile and unpredictable. Competition is abundant, and all businesses lose market share at some point. When revenue hits a speed bump, it’s common for leaders to anxiously ride it out. But when business growth really slows down, denial isn’t going to get you out of the rut. Leadership may react with a mad scramble to redirect the sinking ship:...
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Customer Journey Mapping: The Key to Delivering on the Experience You Promise Customers
Everyone’s Offering ‘A Great Experience’ Today, brands that aren’t focused on the entire customer experience simply can’t compete. Every touch point counts. Every interaction matters. Brands are expected to live up to their promise at every moment. And to do so, everyone within a business must behave in ways that help make this promise ring true authentically. We see a lot of brands today differentiate themselves on “great experience” or “unparalleled service.” But in order for businesses to truly commit to creating unrivaled customer experiences, they have to fully align their value with...
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On Creating Resonant Digital Brand Experiences Today
Digital Brand Experiences We asked our design team about their point of view on building resonant digital brand experiences today. Here’s what they said. Historically, brands used to rely heavily on brand marketing and advertising for awareness of their products and services. But in the digital age, many brands are born solely online or as an app. In essence, screen only experience(s). What makes some of these brands good vs. great? Great digital brands are true utilities. Once you get into someone’s life and seamlessly integrate into their every day, that’s when you find success as a...
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