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Tech Brand

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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Why the Best Brands Act Like Tech Companies

August 18, 2016 —

Why the Best Brands Act Like Tech Companies

Everyone’s in Tech Today, it’s not a question of tech vs. non-tech. At the end of the day, every company is a technology company.  This means it’s time to throw away preconceived notions about what tech companies are, what they do, or where they do it. Technology companies don’t only thrive in Silicon Valley. Technology companies aren’t all as big as Google. In fact, you don’t even need to sell technology to be a technology company. It’s not always about the product. It’s about how you do business, how you compete, and how you offer the most meaningful value to customers. It’s about...
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Differentiate Your Product With A “Why” vs. “What” Approach

March 31, 2016 —

Differentiate Your Product With A “Why” vs. “What” Approach

Are you looking for strategies to differentiate your product? There is one key shift you can make to change the way people think, feel, and talk about it. It’s only natural for you and your team to focus on the “what” of your business. After all, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your product is in the app store, on the shelves, online, and on the minds of consumers. You built the product. And you live your product every day. You know it inside out. You know exactly how it works. You know all the ways that your product is better than the others. The only trouble is...
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Time to Reconnect Your B2B Brand to Your Bottom Line

March 9, 2016 —

Time to Reconnect Your B2B Brand to Your Bottom Line

Is your B2B brand disconnected from your daily operations? Do your senior executives consider your brand as they make decisions, sell to clients, hire staff? Are your employees able to draw from your brand the inspiration and motivation they need to be effective and gratified in their work? Do your partners know enough about what your brand is trying to achieve to offer the best possible assistance? Are your investors believing that your brand is building value for them? Do your customers resonate with your brand in ways that distance you from your competition? If your brand is simply a logo...
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Uber Rational: A New Brand

February 4, 2016 —

Uber Rational: A New Brand

Yesterday, Uber launched a new brand identity, and it has sparked a lot of media attention. It’s amazing that an app icon update and a new website can create so much buzz, attention, and debate, but it got us thinking: What’s the real impact of changing an already established brand identity? We believe brands need to consider both rational and emotional needs when embarking on telling their story. Uber’s new identity focuses on telling a rational story about what they do. But it lacks the emotional impact of why they do it and why consumers flock to it. ‘Why’ is critical because...
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Fast Forward: Our New Offering for High-Growth Companies

January 25, 2016 —

Fast Forward: Our New Offering for High-Growth Companies

Developing Fast Forward, an agile marketing, branding, and business offering was the right thing for our team to develop for startups, to address the issues startups are facing right now. We have created Fast Forward designed for our high-growth clients that need to make strategic shifts to quickly address product, industry, competitive, alignment, and other issues. Fast Forward is an agile workshop approach that very quickly develops a strategically aligned and nuanced understanding of your business and brand’s current situation. We bring the most important issues to light — business...
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How Brand Strategy Can Meaningfully Improve Product Design

May 14, 2015 —

How Brand Strategy Can Meaningfully Improve Product Design

We’ve noticed a product trend, especially with technology companies. Products can suffer growing pains if they are conceived, gestated, and born into the world without the guiding hand of the brand. On the flipside, brand strategy can have an enormously reassuring influence on the design of a product. In fact, our brand strategies exert positive influences on the product designs of most of our clients, in direct and indirect ways. Here’s how. Empathy Brand strategy always starts with a thorough study of target audiences, which means understanding what makes them tick. Their needs,...
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How Global Enterprise Tech Companies Can Re-brand

July 1, 2015 —

How Global Enterprise Tech Companies Can Re-brand

In the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s impossible to escape the blinding pace of technology. Ideas, innovations, and companies emerge like skyrockets, lighting up the sky and sometimes the world. We’re used to the speed because we live here, and because many of our clients are start-ups. We build meaningful brands to guide their stratospheric growth. Then there are companies that have been around for a while. Venerable tech brands that have stood the test of time. Some dating back to the days when Silicon Valley was populated not by software geeks on corporate campuses, but by apricot and prune...
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Why Do Startups Have Prehistoric Ideas About Branding?

March 25, 2014 —

Why Do Startups Have Prehistoric Ideas About Branding?

Startup Brand Strategy One of the ironies of today’s world is that the leaders of the most innovative startups have the least innovative ideas about what it takes to create a brand and the value of investing in startup brand strategy. The fact is, logos and messages don’t make a brand. At least, they won’t make a brand that will thrive in the world today. Studies prove, and we are talking about a lot of research here — People (as in your customers, prospects, employees, partners and investors) are all looking for more from brands when they invest time and money. They...
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Humanizing Technology: It Isn’t All About Apple

December 19, 2013 —

Humanizing Technology: It Isn’t All About Apple

Humanizing technology is essential, but it doesn’t mean copying everything about Apple. It seems everyone holds up Apple as the perfect brand. Human centric design. Humanized communications. A human touch at every moment. Great products. Great marketing. Great branding. Great success. All good reasons to respect, and even envy, the Apple brand. However, does that mean Apple has a monopoly on the idea of humanizing technology… and the success that comes from doing that? Hardly. But a technology brand doesn’t have to copy everything Apple does (and look like a copycat in the...
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