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Marketing

Why It’s Frickin’ Hard for Organizations to Brand Themselves

July 22, 2017 —

Why It’s Frickin’ Hard for Organizations to Brand Themselves

The need for a branding agency is hard to determine sometimes. Many of Emotive Brand’s clients come to us after failed attempts to develop their own brand strategy. Just last week, a client sent us some themes they’d identified in an internal brand survey, along with a frustrated note: “We’ve gotten this far. We’re stuck. Can you help?” Why is it so hard for organizations to brand themselves from the inside? Aren’t the people who live and breathe a brand every day the most obvious choice to articulate it? That’s a logical conclusion, and clients who have tried often feel frustrated that they...
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Marketing vs. Brand? Do You Know the Difference?

May 15, 2016 —

Marketing vs. Brand? Do You Know the Difference?

Marketing vs. Brand People are sometimes confused about the difference between marketing vs. brand strategy. This is not surprising, because they are not mutually exclusive ideas. They are interdependent strategic activities that feed, inform, and drive each other. The important distinction to make is in the intent and desired outcome of each area. Brand Brand defines how people should ideally feel about your business and products. It strives to find how to optimize belief in what you do offer and what you stand for in the world. It is an abstract idea held in the hearts and minds of people...
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Consider This Before Developing Your Go-To-Market Strategy

April 20, 2017 —

Consider This Before Developing Your Go-To-Market Strategy

Preparing to Develop Go-To-Market Strategy Developing a strong go-to-market strategy (GTM) is hard to get right – especially for any startup in high-growth mode. The right GTM requires bringing together all of the strategic assets that address your business and growth strategy: sales, marketing, product, channel, brand, and vision. The benefits of developing this kind of strategy are huge, but a lot of pieces have to come together in order to properly prepare and ready your organization for investing in it. Bringing in experts to help create a GTM strategy brings both a strategic and a...
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Positioning Strategy for High-Growth Tech Companies

August 1, 2017 —

Positioning Strategy for High-Growth Tech Companies

High-Tech Companies Have Banished the Word Brand Strategy I’m not sure when it happened. I only know it has. Brand strategy is no longer something the tech world is asking for. Well, let me be clear, they are still asking for it, they just aren’t using the term brand strategy. Positioning strategy is the new brand strategy, at least for high-growth companies where time is of the essence. I’ve felt the shift first hand. As a co-founder of an agency, I’m the person who takes the incoming calls from prospects looking for an agency. It used to be that I would patiently listen for the words...
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Top 10 Brand Strategy Articles of 2016

December 26, 2016 —

Top 10 Brand Strategy Articles of 2016

Top Brand Strategy Articles of 2016 In 2016, we created a lot of content meant to help you position your brand and business to thrive. These are the buzz-worthy posts that resonated the most this year. Enjoy our top 10 brand strategy articles. The Role of Company Culture in Business Success What is a Brand Promise and Why Do You Need One? Brand and Marketing? What’s the Difference? Brand Narrative is a Necessary Part of Brand Strategy Defining What a Brand Is: Why Is It So Hard? HR and Marketing: Building Your Employer Brand Together Investing in Brand Strategy Is Only Step One...
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Why Bring in an Outside Branding Agency?

September 19, 2016 —

Why Bring in an Outside Branding Agency?

In-House Mentality The age old question of determining if you need to bring in an external branding agency is still relevant today. Whether it’s because of tight budgets, a hesitation about letting outsiders inside your business, or a general ‘we can just do it ourselves’ mentality, many companies look internally to tackle even their largest branding projects. But whether it’s a repositioning, a new visual identity, or an all-around brand turnaround, this might be a mistake for businesses who really want to position themselves to thrive in a fast-paced, highly-competitive market. What Value...
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Readying Your Marketing Budget

September 14, 2016 —

Readying Your Marketing Budget

For most companies, Q4 is a time of strategic planning and where every CMO and VP of Marketing prepares for marketing budget planning for the upcoming year. Questions You Want to be Asking It’s important for businesses to start the new year with a strategic framework that sets them up for success. Look beyond your marketing department for alignment within the rest of your organization to help refine and define your marketing objectives for planning purposes. What are the strategic initiatives for your business? What are your top marketing priorities from these strategic initiatives? What mix...
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If Grandma Could Do It, Why Can’t The CMO?

January 10, 2014 —

If Grandma Could Do It, Why Can’t The CMO?

My grandmother used to tell stories to the kids in my neighborhood. She would gather us around, get this far-away look on her face, and start in on a tale of some kids in the woods or a rabbit in the meadow or whatever. They would always be just as long as they needed to be, no longer. We would hang on her every word. Once I asked her to retell a certain story we had heard from her years before, and she agreed. But as she told the story, it kept taking twists and turns I did not remember from the first time. ‘That’s not the story, Grandma,” I objected. She nodded with certainty. “Yes it is,”...
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