Agile Brands are the New Norm

More than ever before, people expect brands to evolve around their needs, anticipate their desires, and cater to the ways they want to connect with the world. The expectation to keep up with market innovations and business trends translates into a demand for agile brands. Customer behavior is always shifting, and values are changing faster than most companies can keep up with. Consequently, people dismiss brand communications that are behind the consumer curve. For businesses, this mean it’s often hard to keep up. Fittingly, Wired calls this an ear of “Digital Darwinism”: a time when “technology and society are evolving faster than businesses can naturally adapt.”

Struggling to Adjust

The need for speed is an inherent challenge for many businesses. Others are dismissing the need to adapt altogether: stuck in a business-as-usual pattern, putting money towards investments that may not even be aligned to the shifting landscape, and as a result, stunting their evolution as a business. It’s no question that it’s becoming harder and harder to be relevant, let alone stay relevant.

Take advertising as an example. We’ve heard all the recent buzz surrounding the question: is advertising dead? Advertising isn’t dead, but advertising, as we knew it has most definitely changed. Because people today understand the tactics of communicating, discovering, sharing, and experiencing advertisements, consumers are often the ones ahead of the innovation curve, quickly dismissive of the old ways ads used to reach them. As a result, advertisers are trying all kinds of new tactics to connect with savvy consumers. And if they can’t move quickly enough to adjust to consumer’s new needs, they’ll end up fading into the clutter. The business risks losing money, time and resources on an irrelevant campaign.

Marketing teams face similar obstacles. This new era presents many challenges for businesses looking to exceed expectations and stay ahead of the consumer curve. Consumer expectations for how a brand communicates at every touchpoint – from a newsletter, to a digital ad, or in-store experience – have heightened. Markets are changing, consumer behavior is progressing, and smart businesses are focused on how to stay ahead of shifts. The ones that truly compete are able to anticipate how to adapt. In this new era of connectivity, the expectations for brand communications are high, and agile brands need the right kind of approach that enables it to adapt, shift, and gain respect and loyalty from consumers.

A Need for Speed

Staying ahead and quickly reacting to shifts is hard work and can be a drain on internal resources if your business is always in reactionary mode. Creating cutting-edge, vision-driven and transformational communications that are truly ahead of the curve stems from a strong and agile brand strategy. With external support, you’ll be able to move faster and more strategically to pinpoint what audiences matter to your brand, why they matter, how your brand can reach them today, tomorrow, and years up the line. A strong brand isn’t enough to break through. You need an agile, flexible, and strong brand to sustain business growth and relevancy.

Just as people are demanding more from brands, businesses are demanding more from agencies. And successful agencies are adapting to those needs – adopting faster, more efficient models for doing business. The objectives of brand strategy have evolved, and with it, agencies must also evolve.

A partner that is nimble and agile is critical to bringing your brand up to speed. By helping your brand meet the needs and expectations of your target audience today, you’ll be in a stronger position to anticipate the needs of the target audience for tomorrow. Staying relevant requires agility, speed, and a focused mastery of the industry.

Fast Forward

We know that many brands need a new, more agile approach to address the changing dynamics of markets and businesses. To meet those needs, we’ve developed Fast Forward for agile brands. Our approach offers a set of strategy development frameworks, tools, and practices designed to empower learning, gain superior return on capital, and accelerate implementation. Learn more how we can Fast Forward your business, build an agile brand that sits ahead of the curve, and transform your business.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.