Topics

B2B Brands

How do you differentiate your startup in a crowded category?

May 29, 2015 —

How do you differentiate your startup in a crowded category?

Startups in crowded categories should lead with brand. There are many wake-up calls for the founders of startups. One of the more difficult realizations comes fairly early into your journey; the day you wake up and discover that despite your unique, disruptive offering, you have plenty of company. When you first started, when you made your investor pitch and got that angel round, you thought you were so far ahead, there was no category to contain you. But while you’ve been heads down, looking for funding, hiring people, grinding out product, and trying to get customers, a crowded category...
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Top B2B Business Problems We are Asked to Solve

April 14, 2015 —

Top B2B Business Problems We are Asked to Solve

When you’re a brand strategy firm with a B2B technology focus, there’s no better place to be than the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area. Silicon Valley has extended everywhere the bay waters touch the shore, so our location on the Oakland waterfront puts Emotive Brand at the epicenter of the action. Living and working in the middle of this incomparable start-up mecca, we’re surrounded by some of the greatest technology companies ever built, with leading VCs and amazing entrepreneurs as friends and neighbors. For many years, we’ve used brand strategy to solve business problems. Since we...
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The “Best Places to Work” Aren’t Places at All

April 16, 2015 —

The “Best Places to Work” Aren’t Places at All

There’s a new trend in Silicon Valley with tech brands. Famous tech brands are building enormous headquarters designed by famous architects. They’re using the greenest, healthiest materials, the latest environmental technology, creating the most unusual, innovative workspaces, and bringing thousands of employees under one roof. What’s the goal? Some companies say to foster innovation. Others tout togetherness. Some have interior design strategies that force ad hoc employee interactions. Others describe the spontaneity that will happen in casual communal meeting places. But it turns out that...
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How Global Enterprise Tech Companies Can Re-brand

July 1, 2015 —

How Global Enterprise Tech Companies Can Re-brand

In the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s impossible to escape the blinding pace of technology. Ideas, innovations, and companies emerge like skyrockets, lighting up the sky and sometimes the world. We’re used to the speed because we live here, and because many of our clients are start-ups. We build meaningful brands to guide their stratospheric growth. Then there are companies that have been around for a while. Venerable tech brands that have stood the test of time. Some dating back to the days when Silicon Valley was populated not by software geeks on corporate campuses, but by apricot and prune...
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Win by Going Beyond Features and Benefits

September 7, 2016 —

Win by Going Beyond Features and Benefits

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 factors separate us from other life forms. We also prefer to emphasize our thoughts because we are able to talk about them, explain them, and defend them. However, what is clear is that we are emotional beings. We navigate...
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B2B Brands Desperately Need Ways to Differentiate Themselves

May 20, 2014 —

B2B Brands Desperately Need Ways to Differentiate Themselves

The pressing need for differentiation in B2B “Features easily blur into other features. It is increasingly difficult to differentiate on a product or service level as competitors find it easy to quickly duplicate innovation. So, where can B2B brands effectively differentiate? We think it’s by connecting to people on a higher level through meaning and feelings.” It is natural for people engineering teams, product teams and product marketing teams to see their B2B product or service as something special, unique, and important. Unfortunately, this makes it all the more difficult for...
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Is Your B2B Brand Feeling Crowded In By Competition?

September 9, 2013 —

Is Your B2B Brand Feeling Crowded In By Competition?

Many B2B brands find themselves victims of intense competition, growing commoditization and confusion about how to make the best use of branding. If your brand is just a set of superficial marks, colors and trademarked words, the pressure is sure to crush it to smithereens. However, if your brand is built from empathy, purpose and emotion, it stands a fighting chance to stand out, get noticed and be seen as emotionally important. After all, as the owner of an emotionally meaningful B2B brand, your business will stand out from the crowd, its presence will transform any perception of...
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Capitalizing on the Human Dimension of Professional Services

March 24, 2013 —

Capitalizing on the Human Dimension of Professional Services

I find it ironic that many of the most people-driven enterprises in our economy – law, architecture, consulting, and engineering firms – are often the most superficial with branding. For most professional service firms, “branding” is only about logos and color palettes. It seems branding’s only goal is to project a serious, professional, and trustworthy identity. Unfortunately, this limited view of branding leads most professional service firms to the same bland destination. Indeed, the Internet is littered with the drab, me-too, institutional websites of professional...
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Rational vs Emotional: With Brands, It’s Not “Either/Or” It’s “Both/And”

March 4, 2013 —

Rational vs Emotional: With Brands, It’s Not “Either/Or” It’s “Both/And”

Neuroscience is telling us that every “rational” decision is surrounded and influenced by emotions. As such, brand decisions are neither rational or emotional – they are invariably both. But how do you work with an insight like this? How do you bring an emotional dimension to your brand, especially if today it is emotionally neutral? How do you change the behavior of your brand – and the people behind it – so that every interaction is either striking, or responding to, a relevant emotional chord? How do you do this in a way that isn’t seen as exploitative,...
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Brand Strategy for Professional Services Can Be Emotive

January 15, 2013 —

Brand Strategy for Professional Services Can Be Emotive

Professional services, like law firms, would do well to move beyond the rudimentary basics of branding such as identities, symbols, and colors, according to a blog post on Forbes.com. We couldn’t agree more. Like all businesses, professional firms face a challenging future with hyper-competition, commoditized knowledge, and accelerating change all looming on the horizon. These firms clearly need to get fit for the future – and their preparedness plan needs to include a major tune-up for their brands. However, we believe professional firms need to also leapfrog over the traditionally...
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