Topics

Strategy

Aligning Business Strategy to Brand Strategy for Long-term Growth

August 13, 2018 —

Aligning Business Strategy to Brand Strategy for Long-term Growth

Planning for Tomorrow We’ve written a lot about the importance of aligning brand and business strategy. But many leaders dismiss the business strategy as something necessary for the brand strategy. However, without understanding where the business is going, the brand can’t help the business grow in strategic ways. Aligning Leadership It’s obvious to work with the marketing team when developing a brand strategy. But gaining clarity on the business strategy can’t happen in a silo. You can’t develop a coherent brand strategy without internal alignment around the business strategy. That means...
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The Balancing Act of Creative Direction

August 2, 2018 —

The Balancing Act of Creative Direction

The Journey Is the Destination When I was studying fiction at San Francisco State University, I had a professor that used to say, “If you know exactly what you want to write about, then why are you writing it?” It was a soft-ball criticism aimed at a particular kind of writer. Those that came in overconfident, inflexible, and usually with their entire story already mapped out beat for beat. In their rigid defense of what they thought the story should be, they missed the opportunity to truly discover what it is or what it could be. If there’s no journey of discovery, no unanswered questions...
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A Corporate Narrative: Convincing the Skeptics

July 17, 2018 —

A Corporate Narrative: Convincing the Skeptics

The Case for a Corporate Narrative CEOs often doubt the necessity of a corporate narrative. As a marketing or salesperson, you see messaging and storytelling as strategic tools. But what if they’re only fluffy buzzwords to whomever signs the consultant’s check? How do you convince someone who sees the world in revenue and profit to invest in a positioning process? You speak their language and you support your arguments with numbers. We’ve listed some quantified benefits of a corporate narrative to convince even your toughest negotiators: 1. Drive Corporate Value McKinsey & Company found...
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The Power of Debate in Meetings to Drive Business Forward

June 21, 2018 —

The Power of Debate in Meetings to Drive Business Forward

Meetings: Valuable or Valueless? What’s more frustrating than sitting through endless meetings and coming out on the other end asking: What was the point of those? As technology introduces even more ways to communicate offline, you would think we’d see the quantity of meetings decreasing. However, the opposite has been shown. Research shows meetings increasing in length and frequency. In the 1960s, executives spent less than 10 hours in meetings. Now, executives spend about 23 hours a week in them. And although no one loves a day jam-packed with meetings, what’s really at the heart of the...
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Mistakes to Avoid When Activating Strategy

May 17, 2017 —

Mistakes to Avoid When Activating Strategy

Activating strategy is an integral part of moving your brand and business forward. Your brand strategy is a road map for success that positions your business for the future. It’s the set of tools meant to bring your brand to life and move your business forward. Activating strategy means you need a strong go-to-market plan in the hands of a motivated, aligned marketing team to steer how the brand looks, behaves, and speaks – inside and outside your business walls. Strategy is Set. So, What’s next?  The value of a strong strategy can’t be fully realized until the strategy comes into real life...
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Emotive Brand Co-Founder on Evolving a Business and the Challenge of Change

March 27, 2018 —

Emotive Brand Co-Founder on Evolving a Business and the Challenge of Change

A little over nine years ago, Bella Banbury and I started Emotive Brand on a bit of a whim. Now, almost 10 years later, we have 20 people in our company. We’re recognized as a top agency in the strategy and branding world. CEOs of companies seek us out to achieve transformative shifts in their business. People hire us because they’ve been reading our content for years. Agencies around the world cite our content as smart and forward thinking. We didn’t expect all of this. We just started our agency and that was that. The cobbler’s children DO have shoes As we reach our double-digits, we’re...
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Emotive Data: Designing Quantitative Research for Emotional Insight

February 13, 2018 —

Emotive Data: Designing Quantitative Research for Emotional Insight

Emotive Brand may not seem like a green eyeshade kind of place. After all, we’re in the business of creating emotional connections between brands and people. You may ask, “Why use quantitative research at all? Isn’t qualitative better for emotional insight?” In fact, we find quantitative research very rich – and extremely useful for building our clients’ brands and businesses. Qualitative insight is important too, but whenever we can, we start with quant. It helps us move the needle on both functional and emotional measures. It also provides a baseline from which to measure change. We...
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Brand Strategy Trends: What These Shifts Mean for Businesses and Brands

January 9, 2018 —

Brand Strategy Trends: What These Shifts Mean for Businesses and Brands

Looking Back, Looking Forward: 2018 B2B Brand Strategy Trends Any new year brings up the opportunity to reflect on the year that’s been – and what’s to come. As Emotive Brand’s Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, I talk to individuals in different roles, at companies of every size and maturity. I am truly lucky – it puts me on the frontline as B2B brand strategy trends develop in real time. Here are some of the most interesting trends I observed in 2017 and what’s on my mind as we move into 2018: 1. Messaging That Can Flex Whether it’s short attention spans or Twitter’s influence, our...
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What Brands Need to Do Right to Nail Their Digital Strategy

December 13, 2017 —

What Brands Need to Do Right to Nail Their Digital Strategy

Emotive Brand Experts #5: Michael Beavers Continuing our Emotive Brand Experts series, we’re interviewing past and present Emotive Brand clients to discover what they do better than anybody else – and how that expertise can be used to embolden your brand today. Michael Beavers is a Silicon Valley-based digital strategist who works with leading technology enterprises, consumer brands, and startups. A veteran from both sides of the client and agency relationship, he’s worked with Google, Yahoo!, Intel, and many others. *** How do you define digital strategy? Digital strategy describes the...
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Want Better, Faster Design? Bring Your Creatives to Strategy Meetings

November 14, 2017 —

Want Better, Faster Design? Bring Your Creatives to Strategy Meetings

Emotive Brand Expert #4: Eve Maidenberg Continuing our Emotive Brand Experts series, we’re interviewing past and present Emotive Brand clients to discover what they do better than anybody else – and how that expertise can be used to embolden your brand today. In this post, we speak with Eve Maidenberg, the Creative Services Director at Stitch Fix. Before that, she was a VP of Marketing at Marqeta. *** Left Brain vs. Right Brain Strategists and creatives are the left and right brains of a branding agency. In every project, you need the right mix of sequencing and imagination, linear thinking...
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