Blog
Your Startup’s Growth Strategy Starts with Brand Strategy
You’re running a startup. When should you invest in brand strategy? Put another way, when do you need to grow? When do you need to acquire new customers, build your culture and recruit the right people? For a startup whose primary job is growth, brand strategy can be a critical tool. So the answer to the question about when you need brand strategy is: Not at the very beginning, but probably earlier than you think. We recently branded a stealth-mode software startup whose CEO is a highly successful serial entrepreneur. He has worked with Emotive Brand several times. This time, he brought us...
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The Future of SEO Is Voice Search
Between Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant, voice technology is quickly becoming a daily part of the modern landscape. Beyond creating grocery lists or sending texts, voice search is how many people are now discovering and connecting with brands. To remain relevant — and searchable — brands need to begin thinking about how to include voice search into their overall strategy. After all, whether someone is using their thumbs or their voice, don’t you want to be found? Voice Search Breaks the Rules of SEO Sometimes, the most advanced technology takes us right back to where we started....
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Business Transformation: How to Drive Successful Change
The Need for Change Management There are many reasons why an organization might come face to face with the need for a business transformation. Increasing competition, new seemingly unattainable prospects, large growth goals, or not meeting the expected return on investment are among many of the most common we see. These reasons and warning signs are by no means mutually exclusive. A business transformation generally involves large shifts that dictate change at every level of the business and brand – small and large scale. And managing a change of this scale is no easy task for businesses or...
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Why Have a Purpose Beyond Profit?
Why have a purpose beyond profit business strategy? Developing a purpose beyond profit business strategy has been gaining momentum in the business world, with both positive and negative attention. For decades, enterprises have had “mission statements”, “vision statements”, and “values”. Check almost any corporate website and you’ll find these “drivers” of the business buried deep down and many clicks away from the surface. Despite having taken on these important steps to say what their business is all about, there’s often a big...
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Brand Naming: Bodega Startup Sparks Major Backlash. Here’s Why.
Bodega is not your new bodega. The online world is angry with Silicon Valley startup Bodega, which has chosen a brand name that equates itself with the beloved New York corner store. The brand articulates its value as “everyday essentials, instantly.” It offers large vending machines / minibars / mini-shops – whatever best fits the environment – all contained within a box. The brand calls the boxes Bodegas. Bodegas use the latest technology to create cashless, card-less experiences. Gym-goers can buy new headphones when they forget them. College students can purchase last-minute detergent...
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Emotive Brand’s Take on the iPhone X Design: Color Us Skeptical
iPhone X: Revolutionary or Not We’re a design studio, so it’s a given that Emotive Brand people are Apple fanboys. We followed the iPhone X launch enthusiastically and our collective hearts beat a little faster when Tim Cook announced the most revolutionary new product since the first iPhone hit the market. But as iPhone X’s new features were revealed, the collective air went out of the team — not just for the product, but also a bit for the Apple brand. The product definitely struck us as evolutionary, not revolutionary. And a brand that is beloved for over-delivering needs to be...
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Nothing Sells Itself: Why Storytelling Should Drive Demand Generation
Emotive Brand Expert #1: Greg Howard As a brand strategy and design agency, we have the privilege of being able to visit innovative companies from a myriad of fields. From global law firms to burgeoning start-ups, we get to pull back the curtain and observe how brands are built, from the inside out. Drawing on our ever-growing network, we’re excited to launch our Emotive Brand Experts series. In these posts, we’re interviewing past and present Emotive Brand clients to discover what they do better than anybody else – and how that expertise can be used to embolden your brand today. In this...
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Thoughts on Creating a Strategic Narrative: Interview with Strategist Sara Gaviser Leslie
At Emotive Brand, we’re blessed with an incredibly diverse pool of talented individuals. Our team comes from the management consulting world, branding agencies, technology industry, advertising and everything in between. Each of these viewpoints brings something new to the table. In this post, Sara Gaviser Leslie discusses how her background as an analyst makes her a better writer and the importance of creating a strategic narrative for brands. You’re a bestselling author, executive communications consultant, strategist, analyst, and storyteller all wrapped up in one. Can you walk us...
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The Role of Digital Behavior in Brand Building
The Role of Digital Behavior The ways people experience a brand’s digital behavior have deepened and become more complex as the digital landscape expands. As a result, there are seemingly infinite brand touch points that can strengthen a brand. On the flip side, businesses have to be careful to behave in a way that doesn’t fragment or dilute their brand, but instead helps to build a more powerful, impactful, and engaging experience that rings true across all platforms – digital and non-digital alike. Behaving in Line with Your Brand Because the digital landscape is shifting at...
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Checking In: One Month of Strategic Writing at Emotive Brand
Chris Ames has now officially been with Emotive Brand for one month – who knew he’d make it this long?– and as a new writer in the branding world, we wanted to see what he’s learned thus far. In this post, Chris talks about the importance of strategic writing and shares some advice that he’d give to other young creatives looking to break through in marketing and branding. What has been your biggest surprise so far? The sheer amount of strategy, planning, and forethought that takes place before even a single external word is written has been impressive and humbling. As a writer, I tend to...
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Putting Emotion in Motion Graphics: An Interview with Keyoni Scott
As a Junior Designer at Emotive Brand, Keyoni Scott comes to EB having just graduated from Arizona State University. One part motion graphics enthusiast, one part film buff, Keyoni sat down with us to discuss his approach to design and what he’s hoping to get out of his first job in “the real world.” First off, welcome! We’re super excited to have you on our team. Can you tell us a little about your background? I just graduated from Arizona State University with a major in graphic design and a minor in film media and production. The funny thing is, everyone told me that was a weird...
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Disruptive Technology: Paving Cow Paths or Breaking New Ground?
What is disruptive? Is it the company that reinvents a category, or the one that creates an entirely new category? In the case of cities, London’s road system was based on paving ancient pathways, while Washington D.C.’s grid was laid out in advance of breaking ground. Both are great cities today, but their structures came from entirely different ways of thinking. The same is true of companies and brands. Innovation is swirling around the financial sector today with companies reinventing ways to buy, sell, get paid, lend or borrow money, and finance companies. But for the most part, they are...
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Can You Be a Design Intern for Just One Day? Stella Raab Just Did: Read Her Interview
Design Intern for a Day Intern for a day? Why just a day? We had the same question and more. Read what Stella Raab, a talented, young designer from Berlin who interned for us (for yes, a day), had to say. So, why just one day? Don’t you want to spend more time with us? I’m a student in Berlin and there’s this weird gap between classes and my official internship that starts in September. I had one month to kill. I thought, “What would be a funny way to spend it?” I’ve never been to San Francisco before. I wanted to get experience in a new city, but it seemed absurd to do a one-month...
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Brand Differentiation: Where Do You Even Start?
Brand Differentiation In B2B marketing, creating brand differentiation is a critical output of all marketers whether you are managing a B2B or B2C brand. When your brand is truly and meaningfully differentiated, it works as a magnet to attract new customers and employees, as a glue that keeps people loyal, and as a warm glow that means people always come back for more. So how do you differentiate your brand? The problem for most brands is that they have yet to find a distinct place in the whirlwind of modern commerce. These brands are being buffeted by the winds of change and the waves of...
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Making Your Brand an Intuitive Choice
The power of intuition We can all easily recognize our own powers of intuition. They are there whenever something immediately makes sense to you – think of children playing with iPads. You also feel these powers every time your social radar sends alarms – think of all the times you’ve meet someone and immediately had a foreboding feeling. Some people are more intuitive than others. Some don’t trust their intuitions (until they back them up with “proof”). But we all have them, and they play a dominating part in our decision making, including our decisions about brands. How do you get your...
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