Blog
Building the Business Case for your Rebrand Project
Recognizing the Need for a Change Why build a business case for your rebrand? You know when your business needs one. There are lots of warning signs that indicate the need for a new brand. Whether it’s new, high-performing competition, an outdated look and feel, uninspired employees, dropping engagement and productivity within the workplace, trouble recruiting or retaining top talent, or a brand that’s simply fallen behind its own positioning, you need a change. Often those in HR and marketing are the first to notice the need for a change. The current brand is just no longer doing the work...
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Brand Strategy: What is the Role of B2B Branding?
What is the role of B2B branding? How is it different from sales and marketing? Why should B2B enterprises be adopting purpose-driven brand strategies? What benefits will they accrue by adapting themselves to the changing requirements of the Purpose Economy? It’s no longer business-as-usual in the B2B marketplace. Long-held beliefs are giving way to new opportunities. Many of the reliable tools of the past are no longer as effective as they used to be. All of this is prompting more and more B2B leaders to explore the idea of transforming their businesses into purpose-driven enterprises....
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Why Investing in Brand Enables Growth for Professional Services
Professional service companies, categorized as mid-market, might be looking towards 2017 with a bit of trepidation. According to the National Center for the Middle Market 3Q 2016 Indicator, business growth has been identified as a top challenge for these firms. And mid-market or not, business growth is a real challenge for every sector of professional services in today’s hyper-competitive economy. The Role of Brand in Professional Services Even when personal brands are strong, as they often are for professional services, an overarching brand is necessary. Your brand is your firm’s most...
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Co-Founders On Brand Strategy Today
Co-founders, Bella Banbury and Tracy Lloyd, weigh in on what matters in brand strategy today. It’s important to remember that, in the end, the age-old question is always the same. Client needs all come down to “How do we differentiate our brand?” It’s just the way people ask the question and the way we answer the question that evolves. Here’s what we’ve been seeing more specifically in the market: 1.Heightened attention around data security: Since 2016 was all about using data, now it’s all about safely storing and accessing that data. Gartner predicts that by 2018, 50% of business ethics...
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Why Millennials Love These Brands
Millennials: Center Stage for Brands Millennials now represent the largest group of consumers within the U.S., and thriving brands today are highly aware of this. When millennials are wielding over $170 billion per year in purchasing power, there’s no ignoring this group of consumers. Brands don’t win over millennials easily. In fact, in many ways, they hold higher expectations of the businesses they work for, the brands they buy from, and pledge loyalty to. Big Demands Millennials stand at the forefront of technology – demanding that brands offer more efficiency, innovation,...
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Why Lack of Internal Alignment May Be Holding Back Your Business
When Internal Alignment Is Holding Back Your Business The sky’s the limit. The future is full of opportunities. Until internal alignment becomes a dark cloud that prevents your business aspirations from being realized. What happens when the brand is ready to grow and thrive, but there is no internal alignment from leadership about where the business is going? Nothing. The brand is paralyzed by competing visions and nothing happens. And a lack of decision making due to misaligned leadership is a problem that will hold up your business. Strategy Without Alignment A brand strategy is hard work...
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How Creative Design Brings Strategy to Life for Businesses
Embarking on a brand strategy project is an investment. We know it takes dedication, time, resources, planning, and a collaborative, open mindset. And in order to get true value from a strategy project, businesses have to be able to clearly explain the strategy, its meaning, and its value to people across their organization. This is where the power of creative design comes into play. Powerful Strategy Isn’t Just a Deck A strategy that simply sits in a presentation deck with a small group of people holds no real value for your business – no matter how smart the strategy is. It needs to come...
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Brand Narrative is a Necessary Part of Brand Strategy
Here we explore the brand narrative as a key element of brand strategy, by explaining what constitutes a brand narrative, demonstrating how it supports the overall brand strategy, and showing the brand scenarios which call for a strong brand narrative. What is a brand narrative? A brand narrative is a central building block of a meaningful brand strategy. It is built upon the insights and information gleaned during the kickoff process, with a particular focus on the business-related shifts the brand seeks to make. A brand narrative contains five elements: Truths – four to five high-level...
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Why These Brands Are On Their Best Digital Brand Behavior
All Brands Need Digital Brand behavior is what brings brand strategy to life. And today, brands that aren’t focusing on digital brand behavior can’t compete. Digitization is becoming the main pathway for consumer journeys across all industries. And the number of digital touch-points for brands is increasing by 20% annually. So digital is an integral part of the overall brand experience. And the brands with the best digital brand behavior are thriving for a reason. Digital Brand Behavior That We Love 1. Tell a powerful digital brand story: GE Through story telling, GE invites consumers and...
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Six Steps to Improving Brand Behavior
On Your Best Brand Behavior Whether it’s B2B or B2C, brands need to be on their best behavior at all times. There’s nowhere to hide in this digital world when a brand misbehaves. A poor customer service experience, an offensive remark from a CEO, a bad workplace reputation, a lack of transparency, or lies, are types of brand behavior that create a lasting (and widespread) impression. When business suffers, often, a business can trace it back to a misstep in the brand’s behavior. And though it’s easy to revamp the website or roll-out workplace training as a quick fix, the real challenge...
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Law Firm Branding Project: Launching with Impact
A law firm branding project isn’t just about the strategy or the creative – it’s about getting the law firm ready, aligned, and joined together behind the change. A new brand is an opportunity to build excitement and momentum around the future of your law firm. And the launch plays a large role in this. But launching a global law firm brand and figuring out how you are going to share it with the people who matter to your business is no small task. Here are some tips for launching your new brand: Although pushing your new website live is often the symbol of a new launch, there’s a lot of...
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Overcome Startup Competition in a Crowded Eco-system
Startup Competition is fierce Startup competition is tough. People used to think that consumers have mind-space for only three brands in any given category: the leader, the challenger, and the one other company lucky enough (or hard-working enough) to be noticed and considered. The rule of three may still be true, but the sheer proliferation of brands flooding a truly congested sector can starve every brand for oxygen and make it difficult for any brand to stand out. We deal with a lot of clients in crowded, complex categories and ecosystems: technology companies, software companies,...
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The Art of Swift, Smart Decision Making in Business
Too Many Choices Business leaders can be gun-shy about making decisions – big and small, important and minute –when it comes to both their business and their brand. The abundance of scenarios about the unknown can easily feel overwhelming. But effective leadership hinges on effective decision making. And it’s impossible to choose a direction when you’re trying to please everyone and do everything. To Compete, You Have to Decide At the end of the day, there’s no room or time for slow decision making in today’s competitive, fast-paced landscape. In fact, businesses and brands in every industry...
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Six Secrets of Thriving Brands
This is the second post in our “Brand Strategy 101” series. Last time, we discussed why a brand is so difficult to define. While a brand might mean different things to different people and different businesses, at Emotive Brand, we think of brand as a driver of business. When a brand connects with the people who matter to your business, the business is positioned to thrive. But, for a brand to connect with people, some important factors come into play. We have identified six of the most powerful attributes that thriving brands and businesses have in common: 1. Meaning Every moment a brand...
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Moving from B2B to B4B: A New Code for B2B Brands
Could a subtle change in the way you think increase your potential as a B2B brand? For example, consider the difference between business-to-business (B2B) and business-for-business (B4B). B2B: Business-to-business suggests two separate and different entities, one “selling” to the other. B4B: Business-for-business suggests many companies in a value chain working toward a common goal of ever-greater end-customer satisfaction. A shift to a B4B stance means making your brand known as one that embraces the shared interests of all the businesses and people who will benefit from a stronger and more...
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