Topics

Brand Strategy

Asked by Marketing: “Who Else Should We Target?”

August 6, 2014 —

Asked by Marketing: “Who Else Should We Target?”

Marketing suffers when it seeks to appeal to everyone, brands thrive when they appeal to more than customers. One of our favorite cartoonists, Tom Fishbourne, takes a poke at eager marketers who dilute their efforts by vainly attempting to appeal to everyone. Of course, most marketing is an outbound effort, designed to maximize sales at the lowest possible cost. It is a complex and dynamic game, and it’s little wonder some marketers “go big and wide” in their view of the market. Sharp focus has multiple rewards At the same time, highly focused marketing efforts often prove...
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Is a Misunderstood Brand Holding Back Your Business?

July 29, 2014 —

Is a Misunderstood Brand Holding Back Your Business?

  There’s a price to pay when your brand simply languishes. It’s the cost of lost opportunities. First, you are missing the opportunity to change the way people feel about your brand, and hence, what they can do to make your brand more successful. By people, we mean customers, employees, partners, investors, communities, influencers, and so on…. Indeed, we mean all the people who are vital to your brand’s succcess. It’s their decisions and actions that determine your fate. They think and act based on what they feel. If your brand doesn’t make them...
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How Strongly Do People Want Your Brand to Be Meaningful?

July 3, 2014 —

How Strongly Do People Want Your Brand to Be Meaningful?

Based on our conversations with brand-owners (including our own clients), brands need to work harder than ever. There are many reasons for this. Brands want to get their employees aligned to a new vision, but their employees are unengaged. Brands want to attract new customers, but can’t find ways to break through the clutter. Brands want to hire good people, but don’t seem to attract people with passion. This list (which goes on and on) speaks to the gap between a brand’s rational business needs and the emotional human desires of people. When brands are self-absorbed, stuck...
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Why Brand Strategy Needs to Start in the C-Suite

July 1, 2014 —

Why Brand Strategy Needs to Start in the C-Suite

For brand strategies to have any real traction, they need to be born – at least in spirit – in the C-suite. Here are three reasons why: 1.  Capture and reflect vision The leadership team sets the vision for the enterprise. This vision informs the tone and spirit of the brand strategy. 2.  Engage senior management ownership A new brand strategy is a moment of transformation for the company. As active participants in the development of the brand strategy, senior leadership takes an ownership position in this change process. 3.  Signal senior management buy-in When it is well known...
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Branding in a World Full of Screens

June 18, 2014 —

Branding in a World Full of Screens

A world full of screens Joel paints a picture of a world that’s filled with screens – far more than the four business currently focuses upon: “The basic dilemma for marketers is this: there are now too many screens to count. Set aside PCs, tablets, smartphones, and TVs (connected or otherwise), for a moment. Your car, your thermostat, your washer and dryer, your refrigerator are all on their way to being “smart” as well – connected to the internet and to each other, featuring screens that offer up all sorts of information, from usage data to content, like a fridge that suggests recipes based...
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Does Your Business Need a Brand Narrative?

June 16, 2014 —

Does Your Business Need a Brand Narrative?

Here we explore the brand narrative as a key element of brand strategy, by explaining what constitutes a brand narrative, demonstrating how it supports the overall brand strategy, and showing the brand scenarios which call for a strong brand narrative. What is a brand narrative? A brand narrative is a central building block of a meaningful brand strategy. It is built upon the insights and information gleaned during the kickoff process, with a particular focus on the business-related shifts the brand seeks to make. A brand narrative contains four elements: Truths – four or five...
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Brand Promise: The What, Why, and How of Great Brand Strategy

June 9, 2014 —

Brand Promise: The What, Why, and How of Great Brand Strategy

There’s a lot of talk about the concept of brand promise. But, what is a brand promise? Why does my business need one? How would it make my business stronger? How does it relate to my brand strategy? Here we explore the answers to these pressing questions. What is a brand promise? And perhaps more important, what kind of a brand promise does your business need in today’s world? A brand is a promised delivered. A contemporary brand promise articulates an idea that goes beyond the rational benefits that worked in the past, and extols a higher-order emotional reward. A brand promise is...
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Connecting the Dots Between Brand Strategy and Brand Moments

June 5, 2014 —

Connecting the Dots Between Brand Strategy and Brand Moments

In one of our white papers, “Brand Behavior Drives Results”, I write about how emotive branding extends from high-level aspiration (that is needed for differentiation and appeal) to down-in-the-trenches action (that is needed to generate ideas, product,s and profits). Rather than being precious about the strategy element of our offering, we seek true brand transformation by delving deep into the interactions between your brand and the people vital to its success. We dig in, get our hands dirty, and invest considerable time in deconstructing the many ways in which your brand and...
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Your Brand Strategy for the Purpose Economy

May 27, 2014 —

Your Brand Strategy for the Purpose Economy

According to Aaron Hurst, we are moving 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, The Purpose Economy Hurst states: “When I say purpose, I mean more than serving others and the...
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The One Thing Your Brand Strategy Doesn’t Need

May 19, 2014 —

The One Thing Your Brand Strategy Doesn’t Need

The decision to develop a brand strategy or refresh your brand strategy will be typically driven by a specific need. Either you are just starting out and need to establish your brand, or you’ve found that your current brand strategy is holding your business back. Regardless, it’s critical to ensure your new brand strategy takes your business where you need it to be. Experience shows us that many brand strategies fail because they are inwardly focused. They are myopic in that they lead with product features and benefits and the business’s explicit needs to create growth and increase...
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