Topics

Emotive Branding

What is Emotive Design?

January 1, 2015 —

What is Emotive Design?

Emotive design is a component of emotive branding that engages people in a focused way that strives to evoke the specific feelings the brand seeks to own. Using color, lines, shape, form, texture, light – and nothingness – designers create both passive and interactive experiences that resonant with the brand’s emotional space. Emotive design is not overtly emotional design. Operating at a subtle and subconscious level, these design cues work to reinforce and enhance other dimensions of the way people interact with the brand. From the highly tangible experience of using a product to the...
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Bridging the Meaning Gap

November 11, 2014 —

Bridging the Meaning Gap

A great post by Tom Fishburne talks about the risks of going too far in your efforts to matter to people. He cites the example of the “Dove Campaign For Real Beauty”, a notable example of a meaningful brand presence, which started as a concept many steps up the brand ladder. When those “too grandiose” ideas were shot down by real people (formerly known as consumers), the focus turned to building meaning from the product up. The lesson: in your pursuit to bridge the meaning gap, and to create more meaning around your business, product, service or brand (a smart thing...
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Brand Strategy: Why Are Purpose and Feelings so Important Now?

October 2, 2014 —

Brand Strategy: Why Are Purpose and Feelings so Important Now?

Brand Strategy: Why are purpose and feelings so important now? An emotive brand is the persona-driven presence and experience of an organization that has proactively decided to orient itself around a meaningful and purposeful promise. Such brands do so with the intent of emotionally connecting to people on a deep level, by addressing core human needs. Most significant, an emotive brand strives to forge these attitude and behavior changing connections both inside and outside their organizations. To summarize, an emotive brand is:  – Proactively meaningful across all its actions  –...
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The Next Wave of Brand Strategy

September 18, 2014 —

The Next Wave of Brand Strategy

The role of brand strategy What makes your brand unique? How does it stand out in your category? What “significance” gets people flocking to your brand? What “stickiness” keeps people coming back to your brand? We wouldn’t be surprised if these questions keep you awake at night. After all, it’s clearly getting harder for brands to differentiate themselves. Categories are becoming commoditized as competitors mimic each other in both products and communications. Brand advantages based on innovation are short-lived as others rapidly copy technology, benefits,...
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Brand Truths That Focuses on What’s Truly Meaningful

August 11, 2014 —

Brand Truths That Focuses on What’s Truly Meaningful

Brand Truths In our latest white paper we list five fundamental principles that drive our efforts to help your brand thrive in the 21st century. Here, we explore one of our drivers: “truth, authenticity, and credibility.” This is what we refer to as brand truths. Here’s an explanatory extract from the white paper: “Emotive brand strategies are built out of what is already true about your brand. As such, the new purpose and behaviors we propose are authentic to what your brand is, and are welcomed by customers and employees as credible offerings from your brand.”...
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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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The Language of Meaningful Brands

July 28, 2014 —

The Language of Meaningful Brands

“Actions speak louder than words.” This adage is at the core of our beliefs about great branding. As we say, our most valuable contribution to a brand’s strategy is nothing but a set of words until the brand and its people act upon them. Indeed, we believe success is only achieved when a brand’s behavior, driven by a purposeful promise, leads to new meaningful outcomes. Of course, language is part of behavior. What brands and their people say is important for the creation of meaningful outcomes. As such, the move toward a more meaningful brand presence invariably calls for new...
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Purpose-Led Brands: Is Purpose Only Created by Adopting a Cause?

July 25, 2014 —

Purpose-Led Brands: Is Purpose Only Created by Adopting a Cause?

There is a fantastic post from PR company Edelman on their notion of “purpose”. They see purpose as the next evolution of cause marketing. They point to 1983 as the start of cause marketing, when American Express sponsored the restoration of the Statue of Liberty by having each American Express Card purchase trigger a donation to the cause. They now claim we are in “Cause 4.0”, which leads to what is called “Social Purpose”. This is all about business doing well by doing good, but is it really only cause marketing? We don’t believe that a business...
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Is Your Brand’s Biggest Threat…Your Brand?

June 25, 2014 —

Is Your Brand’s Biggest Threat…Your Brand?

  Someone once asked Larry Page what presented the single biggest threat to Google. “Google”, he said. That’s right. Larry Page believes his own company is a threat unto itself. Is your brand’s biggest threat… your brand? It is, if people don’t understand why your brand matters. It is, if people don’t feel your brand is emotionally important. It is, if by “people” you mean not only your customers, but also your employees, partners, suppliers…indeed all the people vital to your brand’s success. Turn what might possibly be...
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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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