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Brand Promise


What Generation Z Values From Brands

What Generation Z Values From Brands

Just a few years ago, Millennials were the hottest and most talked about generational cohort on the block, driving consumer behavior and value trends in the market. But in 2020, Generation Z has noticeably taken the wheel, accelerating actions and demanding accountability for brands to live and breathe diversity & inclusion, authenticity, and social responsibility. Who is Gen Z and why are they so influential? Gen Z, ages 8-23 today, are true digital natives. The first generation to be fully foreign to life before the digital landscape, Gen Z accounts for 20.46% of the total U.S....
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Customer Journey Mapping: The Key to Delivering on the Experience You Promise Customers

Customer Journey Mapping: The Key to Delivering on the Experience You Promise Customers

Everyone’s Offering ‘A Great Experience’ Today, brands that aren’t focused on the entire customer experience simply can’t compete. Every touch point counts. Every interaction matters. Brands are expected to live up to their promise at every moment. And to do so, everyone within a business must behave in ways that help make this promise ring true authentically. We see a lot of brands today differentiate themselves on “great experience” or “unparalleled service.” But in order for businesses to truly commit to creating unrivaled customer experiences, they have to fully align their value with...
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Enabler Brands Are Inspiring, Too!

Enabler Brands Are Inspiring, Too!

Disruptor vs. Enabler Brands These days, disruptor brands get all the attention. Companies like Airbnb, Netflix, and Uber have each skyrocketed into popularity by rattling the industries they came from. We get it. There’s something inherently inciting, even American, about the idea of taking down the big guys with your off-kilter vision of the future. It’s easy to root for. But here’s the thing about trailblazers — if everyone blazes their own unique trail, customers are faced with a dizzying network of singular (and often incompatible) solutions. In the course of one day, a person might...
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Branding Is the Heart of Demand Generation

Branding Is the Heart of Demand Generation

Demand Generation for B2B Marketers In the dark old days of 2012, the process of tracking a lead through a sales cycle was a slow, manual process. With the rise of automation platforms and integrated CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot, our pipelines are now routinely filled with promising leads. The only problem? Everyone else has access to the same toolkit. What might have been considered a competitive advantage is now table stakes. Demand generation might fill the barrel with fish, but it’s the strength of a brand that hooks the lead.  Refresh Your Brand According to Forrester Research, 68...
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What Is Brand Generosity Anyway?

What Is Brand Generosity Anyway?

Why so generous? Brand generosity is in. As consumers become increasingly connected to social media and exposed to marketing ploys and tricks, suspicions rise about the authenticity of brands. Many consumers are looking for a genuine social commitment from the brands they engage with. As a result, building a bond with the people that matter to your business is more important now than ever before. People are looking for brands that give more than what’s expected. They want to feel good about the brands they are buying into, and how those brands are giving back to the world at large. What is...
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Reducing Stigma Through Branding: A Moral Dilemma

Reducing Stigma Through Branding: A Moral Dilemma

Anti-Stigma Campaigns Need Authenticity Inauthenticity is the Achilles heel of purposeful brands. More than ever, people gravitate toward companies that radiate transparency and accountability. We laud brands that shift our perception to break down stigmas. However, if these sensitive topics are clumsily handled, the backlash is harsh and swift. Failing to sell a luxury item is one thing. But misrepresenting a sensitive topic for financial gain? That’s another. Nowadays, it seems hardly a week goes by without a public apology in response to a tone-deaf branding effort. So, how does a...
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Brand Differentiation: Where Do You Even Start?

Brand Differentiation: Where Do You Even Start?

Brand Differentiation In B2B marketing, creating brand differentiation is a critical output of all marketers whether you are managing a B2B or B2C brand. When your brand is truly and meaningfully differentiated, it works as a magnet to attract new customers and employees, as a glue that keeps people loyal, and as a warm glow that means people always come back for more. So how do you differentiate your brand? The problem for most brands is that they have yet to find a distinct place in the whirlwind of modern commerce. These brands are being buffeted by the winds of change and the waves of...
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Making Your Brand an Intuitive Choice

Making Your Brand an Intuitive Choice

The power of intuition We can all easily recognize our own powers of intuition. They are there whenever something immediately makes sense to you – think of children playing with iPads. You also feel these powers every time your social radar sends alarms – think of all the times you’ve meet someone and immediately had a foreboding feeling. Some people are more intuitive than others. Some don’t trust their intuitions (until they back them up with “proof”). But we all have them, and they play a dominating part in our decision making, including our decisions about brands. How do you get your...
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If You Want a Meaningful Brand, Make a Meaningful Impact

If You Want a Meaningful Brand, Make a Meaningful Impact

Being a Meaningful Brand The data is in, and to be a meaningful brand, you must make meaningful impact. It is inescapable. The most powerful and profitable brands – regardless of sector – are brands that enhance well-being and enrich peoples’ lives. The Center for Positive Marketing at Fordham University recently published “The V-Positive Report,” which ranks brands according to how they affect consumers along seven dimensions of human needs and wants. The dimensions of the study span from basic physical function to the capacity for building relationships. The most “V-positive” brand in 2015...
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Entrepreneurs — Why You Need This Advice for Your Next VC Pitch

Entrepreneurs — Why You Need This Advice for Your Next VC Pitch

The Entrepreneur Pitch Every day, in offices up and down Sand Hill Road, founders meet with venture capitalists to make their pitch. For entrepreneurs, these aren’t mere meetings. They are defining moments, perhaps life-changing ones. Only the truly clueless would be unprepared for meetings of this magnitude. Rock-solid business plan? Check. Technology road map? Check. Go-to-market strategy? Market analyses? Financial projections? Check. Check. Check. And yet…despite all that exhaustive effort, many entrepreneurs are not truly ready for what might one of the most important meetings of their...
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