Blog
Why Law Firms Need Brand Strategy
Consulting Firms are brands too Within professional services and consulting firms, there’s very little that distinguishes one brand from another. Practice areas and services all lead with the same claims: excellent client service, tailored solutions, and global reach. So much similarity makes all consulting firms blend together. Taglines echo. Logos mirror each other. Marketing copy follows the same jargon. Ultimately, they become indistinguishable. As the shift to a buyer’s market solidifies, competitive rivalries intensify. It’s no longer enough for a firm’s identity to be solely linked to...
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Fast Forward Your Startup: Agile Strategy for High-Growth Companies
A new approach for supporting high-growth companies We work and compete in a fast-moving world, driven by an accelerating pace of technological and social change. The markets we compete in shift quickly, competition intensifies, and expectations rise. Flux is the new normal. This increases the pressure on high-growth companies and brands to evolve and implement strategies in shorter and shorter time frames. As a brand strategy firm, we discovered that many of our high-growth companies, especially those operating in crowded, in-flux categories, needed a much more agile approach to addressing...
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Brand Strategy Case Study for a High-Growth Tech Brand
PubMatic Brand Strategy Case Study “The PubMatic rebrand has had an impact on our business results including improved costumer satisfaction, product marketing, and go-to market strategies.” – Matt Wolfrom, PubMatic VP Corporate Communications. High-growth businesses need a strong brand story in order to retain and recruit top talent. When PubMatic came to us with serious hiring ambitions, it was clear they needed an employer brand. Marketing technology is a highly competitive space and PubMatic had to figure out a way to stand out as a great place to work. But, as it so often happens,...
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Emotion is Key to Driving Brand Loyalty
Brand Loyalty is deeply tied to emotional significance between people and brands. We all have products we use with little thought or consideration. In fact, truth be told, we have little feeling for most of the products we use every day. Indeed, if we were unable to find one of the meaningless brands we regularly buy, we would be more than happy to settle for another brand. After all, as far as we are concerned, very little separates one from the other. For some, there is no alternative But for some of the products in our lives, there is no alternative. This is because we have developed a...
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Startup Brands Should Follow This Strategy to Authentically Differentiate
Startup brands stop leading with features and benefits! If only more startup brands understood the value of brand strategy and how it could lead them away from leading with features and benefits vs. why the brand matters. Convincing minds by capturing hearts: the new brand-building approach. What comes first? The rational decision to take the next step on the path to purchase, or the emotional trigger that gets them started on that path? Aren’t we humans cool? We pride ourselves on our cognitive skills, our ability to weigh pros and cons, and our decision-making power. After all, these...
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How Being a B-Corp Truly Matters in Business
Is their value in evaluating the idea of your business becoming a B-Corp? A B-Corp is a newer breed of businesses that is founded on an amazing set of principles. B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Today, there is a growing community of more than 1,600 Certified B Corps from 42 countries and over 120 industries working together toward 1 unifying goal: to redefine success in business. “The B Corp movement is one of the most important of our lifetime, built...
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Meaningful Millennials: Collaboration and Teamwork
This is the fifth installment of “Meaningful Millennials,” our ongoing series where we interview millennials on a variety of different subjects that are top of mind for us in the studio. At Emotive Brand, we believe that successful collaboration and teamwork in the workplace are not only key to brand’s success, but to building an overall meaningful, sustainable, and inspiring work environment. At EB, we rely on teamwork for creativity, innovation, and alignment. We strive to build and foster successful collaborative environments with all of our clients, so we understand firsthand how...
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Credit Union Brands are Ripe for Transformation
Credit Union brands take note. There is a huge opportunity for credit unions to invest in a brand transformation initiative to more meaningfully connect with people and communities. According to Gallup more than 70% of people are customers of a bank, yet only 30% have confidence in banks. The key question comes down to why? Perhaps it’s because we feel like we’re just a customer at a bank. And banks make profit from their customers. Profit is their purpose — the answer to the question of why they exist. The mission of credit unions is different. The purpose of credit unions is to meet their...
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CEO’s Perspective on The Value of Branding and Strategy
A CEO’s perspective on the value of branding and strategy At first glance, “empathy” feels like a strange word to use in connection with a business like Central Valley, a building and agricultural supply company serving Northern California’s wine country and surrounding areas. But in recent years, building a culture based on empathy – the ability to relate to customers and to one another – has been a cornerstone of the Central Valley strategy under the leadership of third-generation owner and CEO Steve Patterson. Steve has worked at the family business since the mid-1990s, shortly...
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Is Your B2B Brand Talking to the Wall?
We believe B2B brand owners need to rethink how their brand behaves in the marketplace. While we appreciate the humor of Hugh MacLeod’s cartoon, we actually think some brands talk in a way that leaves people feeling numb. This is especially true of B2B brands which seem to think that business buyers are robots, that it is dangerous to have a personality and that buzzwords and cliches are poetry. Perhaps the reason why so many B2B brands are so unadverturous is because they haven’t yet realized the value of connecting meaningfully with the people to whom they are selling (you...
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Top Brand Strategy Firm Shares Thoughts on Brand Purpose
A brand strategy firm perspective There’s been a lot of buzz lately around brand purpose – a concept that San Francisco’s Brand Strategy Firm, Emotive Brand has championed from our very beginning. Unfortunately, with buzz, comes confusion. It’s easy to get lost in the vernacular and repetitions and lose the answers to the key questions at hand. Tracy Lloyd, founding partner and Chief Strategy Officer of Emotive Brand, offers some clarity, opinions, and answers to questions surrounding the concept of purpose-led brands. 1. What does it mean to be a purpose-led brand? A purpose-led brand...
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Differentiate Your Product With A “Why” vs. “What” Approach
Are you looking for strategies to differentiate your product? There is one key shift you can make to change the way people think, feel, and talk about it. It’s only natural for you and your team to focus on the “what” of your business. After all, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your product is in the app store, on the shelves, online, and on the minds of consumers. You built the product. And you live your product every day. You know it inside out. You know exactly how it works. You know all the ways that your product is better than the others. The only trouble is...
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Five Company Experts You Need for a Good Sustainability Report
Producing a corporate sustainability report (CSR) is a team sport. The stronger the team is, the stronger the sustainability report will be. Each player needs to bring specific expertise that is complementary to the team as a whole. So, it is important to recruit and rally the key experts that can deliver what you need to make the company’s report a success. Choose carefully and look for people who already demonstrate some passion about sustainability. In most organizations, there are one or two departments that lead the sustainability report. Those functions will likely be a reflection of...
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The Role and Impact of Brand Purpose
Brand Purpose I recently reread an older HBR blog post by Graham Kenny that details the difference between the increasingly popular idea of brand purpose and the traditional corporate drivers of vision, mission, and values. His conclusion echoes our beliefs about the role and impact of a company purpose: “If you’re crafting a purpose statement, my advice is this: To inspire your staff to do good work for you, find a way to express the organization’s impact on the lives of customers, clients, students, patients – whomever you’re trying to serve. Make them feel it.” Mr....
Read more >The Role of Planning, An Interview with Emotive Brand’s Strategy Director
As Director of Strategy at Emotive Brand, Taylor works at the intersection of analytical rigor and creative inspiration. An account planner with a background in both research and creative strategy development, his work helps leaders and organizations discover and embrace positive change. In this post, he offers his thoughts on the significant role of planning when it comes to creating a meaningful brand strategy. What’s your best definition of planning? I spoke with a guy at NASCAR and when I asked him what he did he said: “I make the car go faster.” Simple as that. I would argue that...
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