Author: Chris Ames
Content Strategy Trends for 2020
As the decade winds down to a close, we’re taking a look at the most important trends affecting your business, brand, and culture heading into 2020. First up, we’re examining all things content strategy: tone, technology, and personalization. Let’s do it.
Mobile > Everything Else
The simple truth is if it doesn’t work on mobile, it doesn’t work. There can be no compromise when it comes to the look, feel, or content strategy of the mobile experience—considering it is the dominant experience. In 2020, even more emphasis will be placed on increasing mobile user interaction. If your content is not custom-fit to the screen, you will lose out. Call-to-action buttons, for instance, need to be intuitive and easy to tap. Subject lines should be short and punchy so they fit on the screen. Animations need to auto-play or be optimized in another format. The list goes on.
No Sound? No Problem
In the infinite scroll of the internet, your precious, clever content needs to be accessible in the least forgiving way imaginable: viewed quickly, on mute, in a sea of other content. It’s been reported that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Make sure your videos are embedded with captioning and conveying your message and the emotional impact you’re seeking—even without sound.
Use Your Voice
As we have mentioned before, voice and audio mediums are leading a sonic revolution. If you want your content to be discoverable in this new era, you must consider how your brand feels with no visual support. That might be in the form of a podcast, creating audio versions of your blogs, or simply optimizing your SEO for vocal assistants.
Speak Like a Human
We know that by 2020, 50% of search queries will be voice searches. Google’s Hummingbird update encourages conversational, long-tail semantic phrases rather than using typical keyword phrases. So, instead of searching for “top marketing automation software,” one might ask, “What are the top marketing automation solutions for small business owners?” To cater to this changing user behavior, brands need to alter their content strategy.
Let Robots Do the Rote Stuff
Chatbots are no longer considered a new trend in the marketing industry. This once-clunky tool has proven itself to be vital for a surprising number of industries. AI is helping brands to be more interactive when it comes to engaging customers, automating rote tasks, freeing up time for higher-level thinking, and paving the way for conversational marketing that allows brands to guide users in their buyer journey. Just look at our work with Moveworks.
Think Outside Department Lines
Content strategy begins with marketing, but it should never end there. If every department uses marketing’s content, why not bring in those other minds to diversify the thinking? As an agency, our best work comes when we ignore department lines and fuse the best of our ideas together. If you create materials for sales without ever consulting your sales department, you’re doing it wrong. Engaging and nurturing the ideas of all the stakeholders is how you craft content people actually use.
Have a Heart
Always remember: people don’t need brands, brands need people. You need to build authentic, personal relationships with customers rather than just trying to sell to them. If your content doesn’t accurately reflect your brand’s voice, your mission, or the specific value you hope to bring your target audiences, you might as well not create it in the first place. No matter the year, authenticity and personalization are always on-trend. The numbers speak for themselves:
- 86% of consumers say that authenticity is a key differentiator that leads to a purchasing decision.
- 73% of consumers would pay more for a product if the company behind it promises transparency.
- 94% of consumers say they would remain loyal to a brand that provides complete transparency.
- In a survey of 1,000 people, 90% remarked that they found personalization appealing.
- 80% admitted they’d be more likely to give their business to a company that offered them a personalized experience.
While some branding trends are abandoned as fast as they appear, leading with a social conscience is evergreen. Today, consumers want to believe that companies care about the same causes they do. According to the 2018 Edelman Earned Brand report, 64% of consumers worldwide are “belief-driven buyers.” Modern brands need to demonstrate that they put people before profit to increase trust and loyalty.
Any Reality but This One
In recent years, both AR and VR have become massively popular. In 2020, AR is expected to surpass VR in popularity, despite VR’s early lead. Already, many major companies are making use of AR. Ikea, for example, has an app that allows users to visualize what a piece of furniture would look like in their home before making a purchase. How can you leverage AR to remove doubt or create desire in your customer?
Do It Live
Digital Marketing World has predicted that by 2021, 13% of all internet traffic will consist of live video. And that is just one chunk of the whole video gamut. With almost every major social media platform now supporting live video streaming, it is only expected to soar in 2020. As it continues to rise in popularity, live video or podcasts is your chance to let new customers see your business in action or learn from your expertise live and direct.
More 2020 Trends
In the coming weeks, we will be taking a look at employer branding, culture, design, and many other trends. Keep your eyes here for the latest and greatest in all things 2020.
Emotive Brand is brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.
Accessible Design Must Be the Rule, Not the Exception
In the nascent days of computing, the highly sought after feature we now call “dark mode” was the standard. Cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors got their green-on-black look from the phosphor inside of the screens. While this technology was long-ago abandoned, dark themes have re-entered the zeitgeist as the latest “new innovation.”
“It’s thoughtfully designed to make every element on the screen easier on your eyes,” Apple claimed in its announcement of the feature for iOS 13. But here’s the thing: there’s no real evidence that’s true. For people with astigmatisms (approximately 50% of the population), dark mode is worse on the eyes.
As Gizmodo reported in 2014, citing research by the Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group, at University of British Columbia, white backgrounds act as a “crutch” for astigmatic eyes:
People with astigmatism find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the “deformed” lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye.
Follow the Leader Is a Losing Game
While there isn’t concrete evidence of the benefits of dark mode, at the end of the day, Apple is a tastemaker and hundreds of companies will now see this as a design imperative. The question then becomes: instead of playing follow the leader, how can brands leverage design to make themselves accessible to the most people possible?
“When we think about accessibility design, dark mode is a recent example of behavior change only coming as a result of following others, as opposed to being the one to take those risks,” says Senior Designer Jonathan Haggard. “Software and accessibility can influence brand in a great way, instead of being an afterthought.”
It starts with an acknowledgment that if you want to create something truly groundbreaking, there is no such thing as “a given.” It requires pausing to question those knee-jerk decisions you make without really thinking, like, “Oh, I’m building a website. First step: white page.” After all, when Tesla designed their car, they didn’t start with a gas engine.
It Ain’t Easy Being Pink
Take the Financial Times, for example. Instead of volleying back and forth between white or black modes as others have done for the last 35 years, they are unabashedly pink. As a design choice, it’s a risk. But it’s one that immediately differentiates them, increases the contrast, and may provide better readability over longer sessions, especially at night. They could have just stuck with white like everyone else, or followed-suit with Apple, but they have stuck to their guns.
Walk the Walk with Your Design
For another take on accessibility, consider Low-tech Magazine, a solar-powered, self-hosted website that has been designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing content online.
They opted for a back-to-basics web design, using a static site instead of a database-driven content management system. They apply default typefaces, dithered images, off-line reading options, and other tricks to lower energy use far below that of the average website. Because it uses so little energy, this website can be run on a mini-computer with the processing power of a mobile phone. In addition, the low resource requirements and open design help to keep the blog accessible for visitors with older computers and/or less reliable internet connections.
Countless brands tout the importance of accessibility and sustainability, but how many are actually walking the walk with their design choices?
Accesible Design Has Unexpected Positive Upsides
As we learned in our work with Alluma, a tech nonprofit whose solutions help people enroll in public benefits programs, designing for accessibility lends itself to unique executions. People tend to think about the word “disability” as a separate, static category, but it’s much more fluid than that. In taking the steps to make your website accessible, you will be helping everyone on the spectrum—from those with slight preferences to those with severe barriers.
“When you design for the ‘worst-case scenario,’ oftentimes people who are suffering in similar but less intense ways can benefit, too,” says Jonathan Haggard.
Accessible design will always save you time in the long run. It’s worth remembering that you and your customers are not fixed in space. Their preferences, abilities, and circumstances will change over time. Why not plan for those contingencies now?
Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.
Stop Worrying About Getting Attention and Start Paying Attention
The most valuable currency in the world is the fact you’re reading this right now. Your attention is like a scarce mineral and companies will blast mountains with dynamite for the tiniest trace element of it.
It’s safe to say we live in the attention economy. In exchange for everything being “free,” we have transitioned from being customers to the product. The phrase “time is money” has always rung true, but never before has it been so monetized or measured.
As a result, naturally, brands desperately want to know one thing above all else: how do we get attention? How do we differentiate, go viral, get the most number of eyes on us? While you can’t fault brands for thinking this way, it’s entirely the wrong approach. In fact, it only contributes to a negative feedback loop.
The truth is, if you think you deserve a piece of people’s valuable time, you need to stop worrying about getting attention and start paying attention. The answer is not jam-packing a podcast with as many ads as possible like an overstuffed doll. It is not those creepy targeted ads that follow you from page to page like a stalker. The answer is and always has been about paying close attention to what people want, need, desire, or lack—and solving those problems in ways that are quick, easy, delightful, or unexpected.
There are many ways to pay attention. Some brands take an inward look, examining the nuances of their industry to innovate within their space. Others look outward, examining the world around them and thoughtfully responding to what they observe. Either way, the following examples demonstrate that the best way to grow is keeping your gaze off the follower count and on the big picture.
Brands That Capture Attention by Looking Inward
Trader Joe’s is a $10 billion supermarket chain that’s biggest form of advertising is a thin newspaper that looks like something you might wrap fish with. Yet, they have built a devoted cult of fans through a unique line of constantly updated products, relentlessly friendly staff, and an unrivaled customer-service ethos. It positions itself as a “neighborhood grocery store” and as such, pays incredibly close attention to what people are interested in. You don’t come to Trader Joe’s to get everything on your list, you come to get your favorites and discover new obsessions. If they were aiming to get the most attention possible, they would carry trash bags, Ziploc bags, and fifteen kinds of toilet paper. Instead, they eschew trying to be everything to everyone and pick their spots carefully.
Spotify is a music streaming service, but like all companies in 2019, they really are a data company. They have an amazing track record of paying close attention to that data, drawing hyper-specific insights and doing incredible things with them. Spotify Wrapped curates all your favorite music into a year-end compilation with stats about your unique listening habits. Their billboards are famous for their humor and exactitude. For example, the “Listen Like You Used To” campaign contrasts the way today’s 40s-50s crowd enjoyed music back in their youth versus the comfortably bland realities of today. Research shows that people’s musical tastes as teenagers largely set their preferences into adulthood. Meaning, if you enjoyed that Spice Girls CD in 1996, you’re probably still going to find it’s a banger in 2019. Spotify listens to its customers so they can listen to what they love.
As a food and entertainment magazine, Bon Appetit has basically been doing the same thing since its first publication in 1956. They come up with recipes, offer recommendations, and write reviews. They haven’t changed their formula, but by paying attention to the exact format people want that content in, they have gone from a food magazine to a digital content empire. Their videos generated 1.3 billion views across all social media platforms last year, and with the addition of a new streaming video service, that number is only expected to grow. It’s not about reinventing the wheel, it’s about honing your craft and discovering the perfect conditions for that wheel to gain the most traction.
Brands That Capture Attention by Looking Outward
“The President stole your land,” declared Patagonia, in response to Trump’s reduction of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
“Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything,” said Nike, in response to the suspension of Colin Kaepernick and the larger issue of police brutality.
“Is this the best a man can get?” posed Gillette, in response to the #MeToo movement and toxic masculinity.
“If someone asked you to describe yourself, what would you say?” asked Dove, in response to negative self-talk and unattainable beauty standards.
These brands (and many others) are experts at tapping into the national conversation by paying attention to the things that keep us up at night. They take risks, not just because they have the guts, but because they know taking a stand on social issues pays off. According to the 2018 Edelman Earned Brand report, 64% of consumers worldwide are “belief-driven buyers.” That controversial Nike campaign? It just won an Emmy. From Everlane’s radical price transparency to Lush’s sustainability ethics, there are infinite ways for your brand to authentically enter a larger discourse.
What high-level questions can your brand start asking? Where can you genuinely put a stake in the ground? How can you use your product as a vehicle for meaningful change?
Thank You for Your Attention
We need to start treating attention as the precious resource that it is. Whether by looking inward or outward, the best brands are those that make us feel the time we invest is time well spent. Because the hard truth is: we’re never getting that time back.
Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.
Don’t Let Your Product Ruin Your Brand
It’s a tale as old as time. You can’t sell product without a brand; you can’t sell brand without a product. Product designers and brand designers are sometimes viewed as adversarial disciplines, but in truth, both sides are working toward the same goal with different tools. But what’s the right balance? And how can you get the best of both worlds? To begin, a bit of level-setting.
Product Designers
Product design is commonly defined as the approach to building a new product from start to finish. This encompasses market research, identifying problems, product development, designing informed solutions—and everything in between. It is a practice that values analytics, speed, efficiency, and multiple iterations, so it should come as no surprise that the role of product designers has exploded in the age of startups. Most of the time, product designers are working with an established toolkit and experimenting with how best to implement it.
Consider this clip from The Founder wherein they mockup a version of a McDonald’s kitchen on a tennis court. The way they are thinking about design is decidedly not about how it will make customers or employees feel when entering the restaurant, it is about what levers can be tweaked to create a burger in thirty seconds.
“While every project is different, there is a paint-by-numbers approach to the visuals that can happen in product design,” says Senior Designer Jonathan Haggard. “It tends to be very mathematical and results-driven to get to the design. Deciding a color works because it signifies a specific goal which can be tested. Technically, you can be a fantastic product designer and still have an unappealing aesthetic.”
As outlined by the UX Collective, the main tasks of a product designer are to:
– Define different scenarios and build interaction patterns
– Use tools that help them study user behavior (UX)
– Create interface prototypes (UI) and create the logic of the product with wireframes
– Pose and analyze different tests (A/B) to verify that this is the best product that can be offered
– Transfer the status and needs of the product to the Product Manager
Brand Designers
Creating a brand, on the other hand, is a completely different story. In the words of Seth Godin, a brand is “the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” Whereas brand may once have been confined to a logo, it now extends on-and-offline to encompass visual identity, photography, video, copywriting, events, experiences, and behaviors. The tall order of brand designing is constituting a system that can hold all of these different elements and form an identity that not only feels right for today, but is flexible enough to grow for tomorrow. By definition, brand designers will not have analytics for every decision and there is an element of risk in decision making.
Action vs. Reaction
To be clear, companies need stellar product and brand design. But in the age of analytics and big data, when it has never been easier to make every single decision a numbers game, we argue that companies have over-indexed on product design thinking. If you’re always reacting to analytics, it’s incredibly difficult to surprise, provoke, or differentiate yourself because you’re letting what’s there dictate what could be.
There is a video from 2006 that still gets passed around between designers. It asks the simple question: What if Microsoft designed the iPod?
“The fact is that great design is a mix of art and science, and in a world run by product, where is the art?” asks Creative Director Thomas Hutchings. “Results and testing are incredibly important, but they will lead you to familiarity. If you want to pave the way for new thinking, you need an element of risk—you have to resist the urge to test everything and be comfortable with the fact that ground-breaking stuff may be poorly received at first.”
“The tricky thing about product design is that it is all about patterns, without necessarily an investigation of whether those patterns are good or bad,” continues Jonathan Haggard. “If you make a change to the pattern, some product designers will ask, ‘Does Google or Apple do that?’ It’s a fair question, but that’s not how you break the mold. That is the mold.”
Stay Weird
In a perfect world, you adopt best practices without losing your appetite for risk. Because while business is, of course, a business, there will always be an unquantifiable element of art, of storytelling, of magic that brings it all together and elevates your rational strategies to a higher emotional plane. You can’t get there by brain alone. You need heart.
In his great article, “When Product Design and Brand Join Forces,” Rob Goldin says, “Often as product designers, we develop such a deep empathy for customer needs, fears, and desires, that it can become a natural extension of our thinking from product requirements to emotional brand attributes.”
And that’s the ticket right there. A willingness to blend the rational and the emotional, the analytical and the unknown to create something larger than the sum of its parts.
Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.
What Makes a Perfect Concept Statement?
Over the course of a branding project, there are thousands of micro-decisions to make along the way. As much as possible, agencies try to establish a common way of seeing and evaluating work to minimize decision fatigue. In our case, we create an Emotional Impact and a Brand Idea. We start by identifying four emotions we want to evoke in our target audiences, and then craft a big idea that brings these emotions to life across business, brand, and culture.
The thing is, as much as you try to establish frameworks and lenses and litmus tests, you can only ask a client to hold so much in their head at any given time. No matter how much groundwork you lay or how many recap emails you send, when you pitch a creative concept you are always essentially starting from scratch. You are always contending with someone’s aesthetic knee-jerk reaction. A gut feeling will always supersede a creative brief.
This is where the power of a perfectly crafted concept statement really shines. When deployed well, a concept statement is a distillation of strategy, a mini-narrative, and a sneak peek of an imagined future, all at the same time.
What Is a Concept Statement?
To put it simply, a concept statement is a small look at a big plan. They are short descriptions of products, services, or designs that help people visualize a particular vision of the future. In general, a basic concept statement provides a description of the business, defines the problem, identifies the target market, implies how the product or service will address this problem, and outlines the goals and objectives.
Above all else, a concept statement is a persuasive tool in decision making. If everything preceding this meeting has been stage-building, this is the last monologue before the audience reviews the play.
Brevity & the Iceberg Theory
Before he was a novelist, Hemingway worked as a reporter for The Kansas City Star, where he quickly learned that truth often lurks below the surface of a story. This insight would lead to his trademark minimalistic style, which academics have coined as Iceberg Theory or the Theory of Omission. “I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg,” writes Hemingway. “There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows.”
When writing a concept statement, there is an urge to be as descriptive as possible, explaining every detail and nuance of the design to the client. This is a mistake for two reasons. One, you simply don’t have enough room, as a concept statement should only be one paragraph. And two, there is no mystery, no intrigue, and no magic in an exhaustive explanation. Part of our job, as an agency, is to help our client imagine. Imagine how their brand can grow, evolve, move into new territories, disrupt old spaces, speak, build, and behave in unexpected ways. That means leaving enough room for them to fill in the blank. That means speaking to the potential of what the design could be, as opposed to what is directly on the page.
Show, Don’t Tell
The implied risk, of course, is that you leave something important out. For one thing, you have to trust your reader. They are always smarter and willing to take bigger risks than you think. And two, that’s where design can help. Through the use of motion, storyboards, and applications, design can help you “show, not tell.” When a pithy concept statement is paired with powerful design, you have everything you need to make the cognitive jump into the future.
Hemingway’s biographer Carlos Baker said that Hemingway learned how to “get the most from the least, how to prune language and avoid waste in motion, how to multiply intensities, and how to tell nothing but the truth in a way that allowed for telling more than the truth.” Essentially, that’s exactly what a concept statement strives to do:
– Tell the most compelling story in the fewest number of words
– Crystalize strategy down to its purest components
– Amplify emotion
– Address the big picture, stay out of the weeds
– Project an unexpected but implementable end-state
– Merchandize every concept statement with a name and a hook
– Create a whole that’s larger than the sum of its parts
There are a million ways to “sell an idea,” but the best concept statements shouldn’t feel like flowery salesmen trickery. They should feel like a natural distillation of a larger story you and the client are writing together.
Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.
Non-Business Books to Improve Your Brain and Brand
When I worked in a bookstore, I would often help young businesspeople find the books their bosses wanted them to read. This assignment was to help them expand their thinking, get a new perspective, and stand out from the crowd. But invariably, they would always ask for “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” or if they were in sales, “The Art of War.”
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with these titles! But in the words of Haruki Murakami, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
The following books are recommendations outside the business section that will, nonetheless, still greatly improve the way you think about language, design, communication, memory, the world around you, and your brand’s place in it.
Maggie Nelson, Bluets
“Suppose I were to begin by saying I had fallen in love with a color.”
In 240 numbered fragments, Bluets is a philosophical inquiry, a color study, a personal narrative, an ode to an unnamed lover, a history lesson, and a world filtered through the color blue. Expertly juggling such divergent voices as Wittgenstein, Sei Shonagon, William Gass, and Joan Mitchell, Bluets is a brilliant little book that will forever change your relationship to the color blue.
The takeaway: There is immense power in owning a single color. When building your visual identity, don’t fail to consider color psychology.
Mary Ruefle, Madness, Rack, and Honey
“Someone reading a book is a sign of order in the world.”
Over the course of 15 years, award-winning poet Mary Ruefle delivered a lecture every six months to a group of poetry graduate students. These lectures articulate the wisdom accrued through a life dedicated entirely to poetry, and this book is essentially a crash-course humanities degree.
The takeaway: The most successful thought leadership provides the best and deepest answers to your customers’ biggest questions. Think about structuring your thought leadership as an engaging lecture to deliver, either online or as part of a lecture series.
Peter Mendelsund, What We See When We Read
“Words are effective not because of what they carry in them, but for their latent potential to unlock the accumulated experience of the reader. Words ‘contain’ meanings, but, more important, words potentiate meaning.”
What We See When We Read is a gorgeously unique, fully illustrated exploration into the phenomenology of reading—how we visualize images from reading works of literature, from one of our very best book jacket designers, himself a passionate reader.
The takeaway: Narrative doesn’t have to be exhaustive—it just has to contain enough to spark curiosity in your target audience. Try writing your narrative in shorter and shorter iterations: 500 words, 100 words, 10 words, until you’ve crystalized your story down to its most potent elements.
Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
“If you want to live a memorable life, you have to be the kind of person who remembers to remember.”
In this super entertaining memoir, a science journalist enters the United States Memory Championship, a competition where “mental athletes” battle to see who can remember such things as an entire deck of cards or the names and faces of 117 strangers. It’s a fascinating inquiry into how we remember and organize information in our minds.
The takeaway: We remember information best when it is tied to loci. How are you housing your most complex information? Your content strategy should be like a well-designed house: a room for each piece of information, with clear pathways for users to navigate, all laddering up to something greater than the sum of its parts. This is how our brain operates, so why not operate your communications the same way?
Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams
“Empathy isn’t just listening, it’s asking the questions whose answers need to be listened to. Empathy requires inquiry as much as imagination. Empathy requires knowing you know nothing. Empathy means acknowledging a horizon of context that extends perpetually beyond what you can see.”
Beginning with her experience as a medical actor, paid to act out symptoms for medical students to diagnose, Leslie Jamison’s visceral and revealing essays ask essential questions about our basic understanding of others: How should we care about one another? How can we feel another’s pain, especially when pain can be assumed, distorted, or performed?
The takeaway: Empathy is your secret weapon. When you’re close to a business’ daily operations, it’s hard to see how your brand is perceived by the people you serve, both as customers and employees. To create a meaningful brand, you need practice in stepping out of your own perceptions. There’s an inherent deliberateness, thoughtfulness, and patience that comes with empathy. It’s a muscle we should all flex more often.
Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist
“The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.”
Austin Kleon gave a talk to students at a community college in upstate New York in 2011. For his lecture, he created a list of 10 things he wished he’d heard when he was starting out. Equal parts manifesto and how-to, Steal Like an Artist aims to introduce readers to the idea that all creative work is iterative, no idea is original, and all creators and their output are a sum of their inspirations and heroes.
The takeaway: Do a competitive audit of your field. What do you love? What do you wish you wrote, engineered, designed, built, sold? What can you steal? What can you improve?
What Books Are You Reading?
We’d love to hear what you’re reading and what’s inspiring you. Leave a comment below, or explore this list of further reading:
Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information
Josef Albers, Interaction of Color
Kenya Hara, White
Michael Bierut, Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design
Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage
Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Ray Fawkes, One Soul
Stephen King, On Writing
Alan Fletcher, The Art of Looking Sideways
William Kentridge, Six Drawing Lessons
Eleanor Davis, You & a Bike & a Road
Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.
What’s in a Name? An Interview With a Brand Naming Expert
Anthony Shore names things. For 25 years, he has wielded his linguistics and varied marketing background to introduce more than 200 product and company names to the world. Even if you don’t know him from this New York Times Magazine article, you’ve probably come across his work: Fitbit Ionic, Virgin Voyages, and Jaunt to name just a few.
From novel descriptors to taglines and slogans, Shore specializes in succinct, inspired brand expressions of six words or fewer. As one of the world’s foremost naming experts, we’re thrilled to partner with him. Today, we sit down with Shore to discuss describing the indescribable, the importance of strategy, and how to bring the client along the journey with you.
Tell us a bit about your background.
My obsession with words dates back to my recognition of words. That is to say, a very long time indeed. At university, I hopped around from major to major, following what was interesting to me until I discovered linguistics as a field. I’ve worked as a photomechanical typesetter, a software marketer, a product manager, and a copywriter.
Having a general marketing background is helpful because when it comes to naming, you always have to ask yourself, “How will this live in the real world?” A name is so much more than just a singular part of the identity—it influences every aspect of brand manifestation. How does it dovetail with strategy? How can it inform look and feel systems? You need that holistic perspective.
How does linguistics aid in naming?
Linguistics gives an analytical dimension and a degree of insights that wouldn’t happen without that understanding. Developing strategically on-target names requires deeply understanding both audiences and language. What are the target’s needs? What tonality will resonate most effectively? How shall we move the levers of language—semantics, morphology, and phonology—to move the target audience towards a desired perception or action?
History has shown that great names can come from anywhere. Many of the greatest brand names didn’t come from naming experts necessarily. But there’s a much better chance of success working with someone who has done this thousands of times before. After all, there are so many pitfalls! Naming is fraught, subjective, and vulnerable to human biases which preclude people from seeing clearly. That’s why it’s crucial to bring clients on the journey and build consensus along the way, using what you know about them to inspire and guide the creative process.
Ultimately, getting the name right is only half the battle, because a name is only as good as it is available. Every single day, the pool of available names shrinks. Understanding the trademark landscape, the gamut of name styles available, and their relative strengths increase the odds of success in finding a name that is both right and available.
Given that language is constantly evolving, how do you stay up to date?
Language change is definitely something of interest to me—but it’s not necessarily germane to name development, because I want names to be timeless and iconic. If you craft a name borne out of today’s slang, you are setting yourself up to fail. Young people are the petri dish of language. By the time you’ve discovered something, it’s already on the outs.
It is fascinating to chart broader trends. For instance, the lack of available dot coms has led to names with arbitrary consonants repeated or missing vowels, such as fiverr or flickr. In the early dot com boom, having witnessed the success of companies like Google and Yahoo!, there was a fetishization of the double “oo.” There will always be a temptation to emulate, but to emulate is to not be differentiated, and that violates a core tenet of branding.
Tell us a bit about your naming methodology.
It starts with a client briefing which informs the development of name objectives. There is a round of creative development, in which I and my team typically generate over a thousand names. We conduct a preliminary global trademark and domain screening for the top 150 ideas. There is a first-round presentation of 50 or more screened names, then we repeat the process again: generating another round of names and trademark screening, which culminates in a full legal screening by the client of their top selections. Sometimes I am crafting a new name for a startup, other times developing a lexicon that ultimately populates messaging. Most projects are completed in less than six weeks.
In short, I help frame companies. That’s what words do—they create a frame of reference, setting the stage for how your company is differentiated and how it should be perceived.
How do you help clients describe something that’s never been described before? Perfect Day, a cellular agriculture startup, creates real dairy proteins without cows. My role was to help them come up with a new generic for these proteins, which are actually created with a specially modified fungus. We landed on “flora-based” dairy protein, which is appealing, healthy, a little bit familiar, and scientifically accurate.
How often does the “right” name feel right immediately?
Name candidates do not jump off the page. They are rarely born right; names become right by virtue of how they are used. The important thing to remember is that names never live alone—after launch, they always appear in a real-world context.
Imagine walking into a pitch meeting for a workplace productivity app and suggesting “Slack.” You’d be laughed out of the room. But given the fact that it’s had great adoption, we’re able to suspend our disbelief. We withhold our human biases in retrospect. It’s not about things jumping off the page immediately.
If I’m doing my job, I’m showing you things that are new and different which can be scary. Homo sapiens do not readily embrace things that are totally new and novel because it’s prudent to be wary of things unfamiliar to us—and yet that’s exactly our mandate. It’s my job to imagine different tomorrows. So, instead of looking to find fault with name candidates, let’s talk about their implications and potential. Let’s identify what’s interesting.
What are some common misconceptions about naming?
It’s not true that you need name.com to be successful. Ninety-seven percent of internet users arrive at a site through a search engine. Only three percent are typing full URLs into a search bar. Which means SEO matters, good press matters, but having a perfect name.com doesn’t. I’ve seen companies forego an excellent name for a good but lesser name because they put undue importance on that.
Another myth is brevity. Don’t put too much weight on brevity. The cliché is that shorter is better, and there are advantages to short names. But in the end, it’s not about letter or syllable count. DuckDuckGo is interesting, natural, doesn’t go through any phonological contortions. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! or Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific are classic examples. Length is only one dimension. It’s also about sound, meaning, memorability, the ability to inspire great communications, and the capacity to trigger emotions just by reading it.
What’s a company you wished you named?
I revel in good names, regardless of who created them. An example that comes to mind right now is Google’s parent company, Alphabet. It’s such a perfect name for that company, what they do, and who they are. It’s remarkable that a name that great can emerge in this day and time in history, which only reinforces the belief that the best names are still out there.
Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.
As our resident naming expert, Anthony Shore is available for any of our upcoming projects. You can follow him on Twitter.
Introducing the Art of Symbols: How Ancient Symbols Inform Brand Design
After successfully completing the #100DayProject, Emotive Brand is thrilled to launch the Art of Symbols, a website exploring how ancient symbols inform contemporary brand design. Check it out!
The Art of Symbols
As previously discussed, the 100DayProject is a free art project started by Lindsay Thomson that takes place online. Every spring, thousands of people all around the world commit to 100 days of exploring their creativity.
“It’s a lot to commit to, 100 variations on a theme,” said Jonathan Haggard, Senior Designer. “Just like creating anything, the first 90 are the expected and routine, and it’s not until you feel like you’ve scraped the bottom of the barrel that the truly creative stuff comes out.”
The Power of Side Projects
At Emotive Brand, we’ve long believed that side-projects are not only important to keep us inspired and flex new creative muscles, but that it makes our client work much stronger.
“Side projects are critical for me,” continued Jonathan. “I like to keep my momentum going, so when I have a few hours in between client work, I can fill that with some creative exercise. This also pushes me outside of my comfort zone and allows me to learn about subject matter that I may be curious about, but haven’t had a reason to pursue.”
In terms of our next project, we will be exploring Emotive Branding—our methodology of digging deep into a brand’s products and services and finding emotional connections to the needs, beliefs, interests, and aspirations of its target audiences. It’s about aiming for a meaningful outcome from your commercial endeavors, and recognizing that when you touch people in meaningful ways, they pay you back.
Emotive Branding
When it comes to brand strategy, you may not always have all the answers—but chances are, you know exactly how you want your brand to make people feel. If you can hone in on that emotional impact: your employees work with greater purpose and get more satisfaction from their work, your customers become more loyal, and your supply and distribution chains become more responsive to your needs.
This isn’t about creating “emotional” advertising that gets people all misty-eyed about your widgets. Rather, it is about conveying meaning and evoking emotions that draw people closer to you—and sets you apart from your competition. When brands deliver in these ways, it is one of the most powerful ways to differentiate, grow revenue, hire top talent, and more easily deliver customer success stories.
“We are in the process of bringing new life to the 300+ emotions we use with all of our clients,” said Beth Abrahamson, Senior Designer. “Emotions are super intangible and super personal—one feeling can mean twenty different things to twenty different people. We hope that by honing in our interpretation of them, we can provide clients with an Emotive Branding language that is relatable, impactful, and artful.”
Whether you’re an artist, an agency, or just an avid fan of symbols and their histories, we hope you enjoy exploring the Art of Symbols. And as always, keep an eye on our Instagram to stay up to date with our creative projects.
Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.
Turn Your Instagram Into a Playground for Experimentation
Instagram is incredible. All in one app, you can feel jealous of other people’s lives, hungry for other people’s food, and intimidated by other people’s makeup routines. When it comes to brand strategy agencies and design studios, Instagram tends to be used for either sharing polished client work or photos of employee’s dogs (equally important).
But more and more, we’re seeing studios break out from the norm and utilize the platform as a playground for design experimentation. Turning the web into their own personal focus group, agencies are sharing weird sketches, creative side projects, and honing new skills.
The Art of Symbols
Recently, we completed the #100DayProject on our Instagram – an experiment in reimagining 100 symbols through illustration and motion design. Part creative marathon, part research assignment, it was a fantastic way to test-drive some new ideas. Outside the typical constraints of a client project, we could ideate and follow our curiosity wherever it led us.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Byq0UOFh8k7/
As Senior Designer Jonathan Haggard says, “I think there’s something about quick validation via Instagram. I’ll throw ideas up on Instagram that I’m not sure if I should keep pushing. If it gets a positive response, I’ll keep going. And if it doesn’t, I know that it might not be worth pursuing. I don’t have to work at something for months to finally unveil it in some grand gesture.”
Testing, Testing
DIA studio specializes in kinetic typography, and they utilize their Instagram as a veritable gymnasium for moving type. Alongside client work, they showcase tests, attempts, and chaotic exercises. Maybe there’s an assumption one should only post perfect works from your portfolio to appear “professional,” but bringing the client in on your thinking shows your brilliance in another way. From a strategic and artistic point of view, people love gaining insight into the process.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhuwyAcFpbQ/
As Design Director Robert Saywitz says, “Social media has completely changed how we think about design. Instagram is a positive tool for design firms to share their own work – and work that inspires them – with the world. The impact of that instant access, compared to say, ten or twenty years ago when you’d have to hunt through websites or printed design annuals to connect with work, is massive. It’s also a beacon for finding agencies you’d like to work for.”
Unexpected Collaborations
Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design consultancy, created a yearlong data drawing collaboration between partner Giorgia Lupi and information designer Stefanie Posavec. Each week, for a year, the designers sent each other a transatlantic postcard with analog, hand-drawn data describing what had happened during the week. Over the course of the self-initiated project, the pair became good friends, using data as their primary source of communication.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzizc1DBDve/
As Creative Strategist Chris Ames says, “I love the idea of treating Instagram as an imperfect, collaborative tool between creatives. There’s a sleekness and polish to the digital age that we should push back against. I want to see process shots, behind the scenes sketches, the joke ideas that never made it to the client.”
The World Is Your Mood Board
Spin Studio, a graphic design agency in London, treats their Instagram as a constant source of inspiration. From experiments in typography to their travelogue photography, they capture whatever intrigues them. Everything is potential fuel for better client work. So often, projects become hermetically sealed within the confines of a studio. If we’re making work that ultimately goes out into the world, shouldn’t we turn a critical eye to the world around us?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BysUIhAB6ZF/
As Designer Keyoni Scott says, “Mobility is really powerful. Being able to always be in touch with a studio’s work and the new inspiring things they are doing is amazing. So, I think it’s really important to do quick experiments and just put your work out for people to see. I think everyone sees things differently and can be inspired in different ways, so you can’t be afraid to just put your work out there.”
Keep It Weird
Chances are, your website already has a section for case studies. Instagram doesn’t have to be your portfolio. Instead, it can be a repository for your 3 a.m. ideas, your moonshot designs, and wonderful distractions. After all, finding new ways to flex our creative muscles will only make the client work stronger in the end.
Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.