Blog
The Meaninglessness of Logos as Brands
Hugh McLeod once again hits the nail on the head with this cartoon. Logos only have value when people associate something they value with them. A logo alone does not convey meaning. When a company, product or service has an established brand promise and a meaningful way of being, people start to ascribe that meaning to the logo (and the company, product or service behind it). A brand promise matters when it relates to the needs, beliefs, interests and aspirations of people, and promises to make their lives better and more gratifying. A brand promise matters when it creates positive feelings...
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Can Your Brand Tell An Employer Brand Story Like This?
We’re willing to bet that more C-suite bottoms sit on Herman Miller chairs than any other brand chair. We’ll also go as far as to bet that a majority of those well-seated C-suiters would have a hard time telling an employer brand story as compelling and meaningful as Herman Miller’s. As they say in their videos, Herman Miller is more a company you work with, than one you work for. You may say, we just don’t have such a great story to tell. And we would say, “You don’t? Really?” We think you probably do more good than you’re aware of, because...
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Thoughts for CEO’s
Business is hard. Companies face a never-ending stream of challenges. Ask a CEO, “What’s the matter?”, and he or she is likely to talk anxiously about need to scale faster, recruiting top talent, lagging innovation, disgruntled customers, growing competition, the threat of commoditization, investor concerns, and a litany of other issues. These are real issues and concerns. They are often complex issues that are difficult and expensive to address. And, try as they may, many CEOs have trouble implementing the changes needed to counter these disruptive and destructive...
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Why Leaders That Matter Look Outward
One of the biggest challenges for any leader is to maintain a holistic perspective of the world. Too often, the pressures of the market, of shareholders, and the organization, keep the leader looking inward. This inward-looking behavior extends to the rest of the organization, because people “follow the leader”. As a result, the organization continues to spiral down into egocentric, myopic and self-serving behavior. Unfortunately, this self-serving attitude, and way of being, puts the organization in the class of “most” businesses, and therefore, dilutes whatever...
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Purpose Beyond Profit – A Shift in Perspective
At Emotive Brand, we’re big on the concept of Purpose Beyond Profit. Apparently, people interpret this phrase in interesting ways. Some jump to the conclusion that it means “purpose instead of profit.” That’s a valid approach for B-Corps, perhaps, but most companies – including this one – would prefer to make some money. Some people think the phrase means “profit plus being good to the environment.” We’re okay with that definition, but it’s still too easy for many brands to dismiss for one reason or another. The deeper definition applies to all brands, if they can make a simple shift in...
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How I See Our Culture – David Ogilvy
I worked for Ogilvy and Mather for nine years. At the beginning of my time there, it was still a privately-held company – though within a few years of my tenure, it was absorbed (and changed forever) by WPP. I came across this piece written by David Ogilvy (whom I had the pleasure of meeting once), about the culture of Ogilvy back in the day. I think all leaders should use it as a culture check-list for their companies. From The Unpublished David Ogilvy. Here is how I see our culture. A NICE PLACE TO WORK Some of our people spend their entire working lives in our agency. We do our damnedest...
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Employer Brand: It Doesn’t Happen by Messaging Alone
“The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.” – Saint Augustine People today, including employees and prospective recruits, are looking for more meaning in their lives and in their work. This is why there has been a rise in budgets directed to more meaningfully connect with employers and an increase in budgets to develop a company’s Employer Brand. Messaging alone won’t pull employees in This is especially true when investing in your Employer Brand, and trying to build a Meaningful Workplace. It becomes far more involved than simply sending a PDF of the...
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Why Don’t More Companies Value Their Values?
Corporate Values This question comes up for us often because we’re engaged with brands at an emotional level, not just intellectually or strategically. We’re working hard to connect brands to humans who make lasting emotional decisions a lot faster than they can come to logical ones. One of the strongest emotional binders for human beings is shared values – they’re the basis of religion, among other things – so it’s logical to conclude that companies with strong brands put a lot of value into their values. But often, they don’t. More likely, they neglect them for long stretches of time, and...
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Humanize Your Brand
We are constantly communicating. One generation ago, when my father left the house in the morning he did not communicate with my mother until he returned home in the evening – now we text all day. There’s a constant stream of information flooding into pocket via our smart phones. This has changed how a product or service promotes itself. How it gets attention and how organizations engage with people. If you’re not in people’s newsfeed, you don’t exist. This means brands must shift from talking at you to conversing with you. It means being louder, bigger and in your way more often, doesn’t...
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Investing in Brand Management?
A brand strategy can take what people know and believe about your business to new levels. Active brand management takes a valuable asset that may now be largely underused, and turns it into a powerful competitive weapon. Regardless of how sophisticated your current approach to branding is, your business has a “brand” today, though you may have acquired it by default. Simply by being active in the marketplace, your business will have accrued a reputation, a level of fame, and a degree of notoriety (for better or worse) with your customers, and within your industry. A brand strategy will take...
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What Does This Say About Your Leadership Style?
Leadership style. What is yours? Gianpiero Petriglieri is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD, a regular contributor to the HBR blog, and a prolific and insightful tweeter. Indeed, the title of this post is taken from one of his recent tweets promoting his latest piece on HBR, “There is no shortage of leaders.” Professor Petriglieri’s main point is that the methods and goals of leadership are misplaced. He suggests that the current view of leadership development and practice is falling short of what’s needed in today’s world. “There is no shortage of leadership at all.”...
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The Meaning Gap and What it Means for Your Business
Your business’s performance suffers when people don’t do what your business needs them to do. So why aren’t they doing what you need them to do? The meaning gap represents the distance that’s growing between your business and the people vital to it’s success. As your business becomes more sophisticated, measured, and managed – in other words, less human – it moves one way. As people, acting as customers, employees, social media users, and citizens, become more mindful, concerned, and discerning – in other words, more human – they move in a different way....
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Business Success is All About Building a Meaningful Workplace Culture
“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” – Albert Einstein A business’ fate is determined in large part by its culture. A business culture is the reality created by how people act, react, and interact with each other based on their attitudes, beliefs, and ambitions. The most damaging business cultures are those in which aggression, neglect, and punishment leave employees feeling they have no reason to commit their energies and skills, share their ideas, or help the company advance. Wanted: A culture that unites and connects...
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Innovative Leaders Articulate the Way Forward
Innovative leaders. Getting Innovation right. Seth Kahan, a change specialist who authored the book, “Getting Innovation Right” presents three practical secrets for the innovative leader. We were particularly struck by his second secret. Articulate the Way Forward People rely on their leaders to craft a vision of the future that makes sense and can guide their everyday decisions. Most of the leaders I have met improvise this activity and many do it badly. And yet articulating a rousing vision of the future isn’t difficult. It can be your secret super-power, if you just master...
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Is it Time for Your Business to Embrace the Purpose Economy?
According to Aaron Hurst, we’ve moved from the Information Economy to the Purpose Economy. He states that this is a natural evolution, which is taking us from the first levels of human organization, the hoe-and-plow Agrarian Economy, through the smokestacks of the Industrial Economy, to the data farms of the Information Economy, and now to the human-centric Purpose Economy. Each of these economies been built on top of the proceeding, and represent evolutions more than revolutions. In his book, Hurst states: “When I say purpose, I mean more than serving others and the planet. Service is...
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