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Emotive Branding

What Really Matters to your Brand’s Success? Empathy.

February 19, 2014 —

What Really Matters to your Brand’s Success? Empathy.

If I asked you what really matters to your brand’s success, you would probably only talk about things that can be explained rationally and measured empirically. Nothing wrong with that, after all that’s the way we think and talk as business people. However, if I asked you what really matters to you as a human being, I bet you would find yourself talking about things that are hard to explain rationally and virtually impossible to measure. You know, messy things like the need for safety, the desire for connectedness, and the joys of love and beauty. What really matters to your brand’s...
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The Goal is to Align Employees – But the Key Question is Not “How?”

January 5, 2014 —

The Goal is to Align Employees – But the Key Question is Not “How?”

Nothing slows down an enterprise more than a workforce that is working at cross purposes, unmotivated and uncaring. And nothing dims the prospects of an enterprise more than having a workforce that fails to innovate, isn’t inspired to be creative, and which just checks in and checks out day after day. The eternal question is “how” to align employees to what the business needs and there are many methods, tools and professionals devoted to getting employees to shift their attitudes and behaviors. But, even these efforts are not producing the desired result. We believe this is...
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Turn Your Brand Around Through Emotionally Meaningful Behavior

December 15, 2013 —

Turn Your Brand Around Through Emotionally Meaningful Behavior

Turn target audience members into hot prospects Turn hot prospects into customers Turn customers into regular users Turn regular users into loyal customers Turn loyal customers into brand advisors Turn brand advisors into brand recruiters Purpose: Do it by embracing a purposeful intent for your brand – a high order idea about how your brand makes life better for individuals, society and/or the planet. Empathy: Do it by taking on an empathetic attitude to all the people vital to your brand’s success – see the world through their eyes, walk a mile in their shoes, come to understand what...
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Emotional is Not Necessarily Emotive

November 7, 2013 —

Emotional is Not Necessarily Emotive

If you haven’t already heard the buzz about the new Johnson & Johnson ad campaign, you will. And after May 10, it will find its way to a page or screen near you. Thirty million bucks buys a lot of exposure. What caught our attention is the emotive premise of the campaign, which is called “For All You Love.” With a name like that, you can guess it’s going straight for your heartstrings. The teaser image on the J&J home page suggests we’ll see lots of loving parents applying Band-Aids® and baby soap. This is not just because the company wants to play off how much we love our kids. It’s...
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Meaningful Brand Strategies: The Consumers Perspective

October 31, 2013 —

Meaningful Brand Strategies: The Consumers Perspective

Consumers are expecting a lot from businesses, according to the 2013 Cone Communications/Echo Global CSR Study. Consider these findings relative to the role of a business’s social responsibility: “As global citizens become increasingly aware of businesses’ behaviors and CSR initiatives – in part because of social 
media, they are also becoming more astute about both corporate and consumer impacts. Around the world, the majority 
of consumers feel both individuals and corporations are having some degree of positive influence on social and environmental issues; however, just one-quarter feels...
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Good Leadership Character Leads to Good Brand Strategy

September 26, 2013 —

Good Leadership Character Leads to Good Brand Strategy

An excellent post at IMD.org speaks to two attributes that the writers, Professors Stewart Black and Allen Morrison, believe are necessary for leaders of global organizations today: emotional connections and integrity. I think this advice is great for any business leader, not only those operating at the “global” level. Here’s the section on emotional connections that talks about being sincerely interested in others, genuinely listening to others, and understanding different viewpoints. Emotional connections Global leaders need to establish personal, empathetic relationships...
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The Future Is Now – Humanize Your Product Or Service Or It Simply Won’t Sell!

August 14, 2013 —

The Future Is Now – Humanize Your Product Or Service Or It Simply Won’t Sell!

Brands often look to the future for clues on how to adapt to changing technology and culture. But much of what futurists say is coming can be acted upon today (e.g. human-centric branding). To learn about what the future may bring to digital marketing, Dana Rousmaniere spoke with Gerd Leonhard, “one of the leading media-futurists in the world.” What this futurist envisions Here are a few salient points from the discussion on the HBR blog: “You’re going to stop buying things from companies that don’t fit your values, just because you can’t see giving them the money.” “All of the companies of...
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New Emotions Invented By The Internet…And By Emotionally Meaningful Brands

July 24, 2013 —

New Emotions Invented By The Internet…And By Emotionally Meaningful Brands

As technology evolves, and touches on more of our lives, new and more complex emotions are being triggered. Pei Ying Lin studied Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art. As part of her project “Unspeakableness”, she took W. Gerrod Parrot’s graphic, “Emotions in Social Psychology” and identified new – and, as yet, unnamed – emotional states resulting from the experience of using the Internet. Have you ever experienced these unnamed feelings? Between surprise and anger – a sudden and irrational rage in response to reading a Twitter reply? Between torment and anxiety – a vague and...
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Making Meaning Evident vs. Claiming It

May 4, 2013 —

Making Meaning Evident vs. Claiming It

An emotive brand can’t simply advertise its way into being meaningful. It has to exude meaning at every opportunity. All too often brands seeking to appear more meaningful rely purely on tactical communications like an ad campaign. We are as likely as anyone to say, “that’s nice” after viewing an emotional commercial or a touching bit of Flash on a webpage. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there? Well, there can be. Sadly, these brands often come off as being superficial. They wear their feelings on their sleeves. And they use advertising to claim to be something...
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Employee Engagement: Turn Low Morale Into Purposeful Behavior

April 1, 2013 —

Employee Engagement: Turn Low Morale Into Purposeful Behavior

High morale. High energy. High interest. High collaboration. High innovation. Why not? Just ask, “What is standing between what our company needs and what our people really want?” You’ll see there’s a lack of balance. Your company needs your employees’ blood and sweat. Whereas, your people need better reasons than you now provide to invest their energy in helping your business succeed. The way to create a purposeful workplace balance is to evolve your brand’s intent, attitude and behavior: Make it your brand’s intent to matter to the people you...
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