Top-of-Mind Business Issues for the C-Suite
When you spend a lot of time working with people in the C-suite, you’re exposed to C-sized business issues. And those larger strategic problems can’t be solved by the CEO alone, or often times by existing resources. When changes in your industry push you to shift business strategy, it’s a sign that your brand strategy needs to shift in a synchronized way in order to reposition for success.
We’ve surveyed C-level executives about the number one desire they have for their brand strategy. Know what they want? Differentiation. A competitive advantage. A defensible position. But differentiation is tough. And when your competitors are howling like wolves at the door, how can you stand out from the pack? So if your company plays a supporting role in a complex ecosystem, how can you stand out from the crowd? Brand strategy can help.
Here are a few business issues that you may have experienced yourself.
- A small, high-growth company in a congested ecosystem filled with other small, high-growth companies needs to sharpen its position and narrative to demonstrate a meaningful difference.
- A decades-old service company embarks on a long-term plan to upgrade technology and improve the customer experience. They want to update the brand and communicate what it means to people every step of the way.
- One company acquires another and discovers the need for a refreshed brand architecture and streamlined product architecture, a fresh visual identity, and internal transformation programs to get two cultures to mesh as one.
- A growing start-up in a lightning-fast technology category needs to lead with its authentic purpose in order to compete for engineering top talent in a field dominated by huge, established brands.
- A financial services company rolling out a new developer platform needs to understand their new target audience, recalibrate its positioning, build a new go-to-market strategy, and deploy a sales enablement program to scale quickly.
- An on demand start-up that’s achieved lift-off needs help preparing for its larger delivery footprint with a brand that delivers on its promise.
- A high-growth SaaS company needs to define a new category to align with a new set of product features and upgrades, create new product brand messaging, and refresh the look and feel of the brand across multiple offices in multiple countries and languages.
These are real scenarios, and if they sound familiar to you, you can probably empathize with leaders of these companies. Interestingly and notably, in each of these cases, the businesses solved their business problems through the lens of brand strategy.
And you can, too.
Successful high-growth. The need to attract top talent. Launching a new product. A shift in strategic direction. These can all have major impacts on your business. So make sure your business strategy and your brand strategy are well aligned. Changing strategic direction doesn’t happen instantly. And it definitely doesn’t happen by itself. In fact, it takes thoughtful planning, strategic involvement from the C-suite, and diligent execution all the way down the line.
If you have a strong vision for the future, but have business issues with your marketing, go-to-market strategy or positioning, a strong brand strategy can help you get from here to there.
Just ask any of our clients.
Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency that works with high-growth companies.
Read more about brand strategy here: Why Brand Strategy Needs to Start in the C-suite.
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