Imri Larsen, Author at Emotive Brand

Branding for Internal Alignment

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Imri Larsen

Much has been written about the power of brand and its role in successful businesses. Brands can help a business build relevance and loyalty, but the process of brand building has value in and of itself. One of the most overlooked advantages of the process is how it can create internal alignment along the way.

Uncovering Difficult Truths

Whether we are creating a new brand or refreshing an existing one, our first step is to gain a deep understanding of its dynamics among both internal and external audiences. We examine the various perspectives that exist within an organization through stakeholder interviews. We then talk to customers, read analysts’ reports, and dive deep into the reality of the product experience. Based on the learnings from this process, we land on a diagnosis.

This research often uncovers previously unknown and difficult truths that need to be faced about a business’s brand. Most of the time, the learnings will give voice to issues that everyone knows but no one has found a way to properly address. Recognizing this misalignment is where the real work begins.

Reconciling Differences

A crucial part of creating a powerful brand comes from clearly articulating what your company does, how it provides value, and why it should matter (to customers or the world)… Sounds like it should be a pretty simple task, right? If it is easy for you, consider yourself lucky. For the rest of us, the branding process highlights different, opposing perspectives.

As organizations grow and mature, it is natural for groups to become laser-focused on their own unique view of the company. Recently we were working with an international company that creates software for project management and visual collaboration. As we talked with the cofounders, head of marketing, and other key stakeholders, we noticed something wasn’t matching up. We quickly realized that there wasn’t a clear mission statement that employees could point to when asked about their purpose as an organization.

Before moving forward with articulating their positioning in the market, we worked with the CEO to express the company’s mission in a way that would help unify efforts across departments. Despite everyone’s best efforts to do their job and build success for the company, teams were getting caught in our own echo chambers. Sometimes it can be helpful to get an outside perspective.

A well-known case study of a brand with internal misalignment is Uber. In 2016, the ride-hailing company launched a new visual identity that left many users scratching their heads. The new design system had different app icons depending upon whether you were a driver or a passenger. Every city had its own system of colors, patterns, and photographic style. For those of us who were watching from the sidelines, it looked like they were saying nothing by trying to be everything.

In 2017, Uber’s dirty laundry was exposed for all to see. The company was accused of misleading regulators and taking advantage of customers with surge pricing. At the heart of the problem was a culture where mismanagement and competing interests threatened the future of the company. After purging leadership and thoroughly improving their culture, the company signaled its change by introducing the clean, simple, and transit-informed visual system they continue to use to this day.

Alignment Fosters Empathy

Once you are able to identify the different views that contribute to the misalignment, the first result is increased empathy. Maybe executive leadership didn’t understand how the broader organization was resistant to their vision for the future. Maybe product teams felt uncomfortable with claims being promised in-market. Whatever the case may be, this newfound understanding creates an environment where teams can start creating a better path forward together. Empathy proves to be the most effective way to communicate and foster change.

Once teams are on the same page, work like brand positioning, messaging, visual identity, and other programs can come to full fruition. More importantly, aligned teams create a singularly-focused brand that gets expressed consistently on the outside. And the more consistent the brand is externally, the more powerful it becomes.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.

Photo Credit: https://icons8.com

The Fusion of Strategy and Design

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Imri Larsen

The Best Branding Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts

Since its founding in the 1950s, branding has largely been divided into two distinct disciplines: strategy and design. Strategy’s traditional role is to research, understand the competitive landscape, distill the meaning, and establish the market opportunity into a well-formed creative brief. At this point, designers typically take the brief and visually communicate against the strategic objectives.

The handoff from strategy to design is not without its pitfalls. Oftentimes, key information gets lost. Strategists can work in intellectual isolation, sometimes forgetting how ideas can manifest and communicate non-verbally. Designers, on the other hand, have the challenge of breathing life into work they did not have a hand in creating. That’s a lot of potential to leave on the table.

Good Ideas Come from Anywhere

Strategy needs to be able to uncover ideas that clearly communicate the value of a brand in a way that can connect with audiences. Too much academic isolation can leave strategies flat, empty, and impractical (looking at you, Peloton). On the flip side, brand design void of strategy risks being received as an artistic expression without any clear purpose (remember the Tropicana redesign?).

In today’s complicated and fragmented world, audiences are more informed and aware than ever. Only brands with compelling creative and strategically-sound value propositions are able to cut through the clutter and connect with customers. In other words, only the best ideas can win.

In Steven Johnson’s “Where Good Ideas Come From,” the author argues that “the trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table.” When it comes to branding, this means that design and strategy need to be working in tandem throughout the entire project.

The Approach in Practice

When design and strategy work hand-in-hand, strategists get to experiment immediately with new and different ways of communication earlier than they usually would. Oftentimes, discussion leads to powerful metaphors and concepts that can inspire design. Designers get first-hand experience with the raw data that is used to shape strategy.

More interestingly, there is space for those who sit somewhere between worlds. At Emotive Brand, we call these players Creative Strategists. During our recent work for Gantry, creative strategy played an important role in guiding the process.

“Very early on, in a collaborative meeting with strategists and designers, we came up with the concept that the emotional foundation of real estate should be just as strong as the physical one,” said Creative Strategist, Chris Ames. “This wasn’t really copy, it wasn’t exactly a brand idea, but it was a common language we all agreed on: emotional support as scaffolding. And while there were a million other vital strategic pieces and meetings, this common thread helped us stay in-sync in a language we all understood. It’s about the ability to structure thinking logically for non-writers and visualize big ideas for non-designers. That’s the magic.”

What’s the result of this integrated approach? Designs are deeply rooted in strategy. Strategy has vetted ideas for clarity and actionability along the way. Before the creative brief is even written, powerful ideas are being generated and the work moves forward seamlessly. This makes for better work that can be done in less time.

The Challenge of an Integrated Approach

Agencies and consultancies large and small have talked at length about the importance of fusing these disciplines, but few are able to deliver a truly collaborative approach. Self-constructed silos and the egos of leaders often become stumbling blocks. The heart of the matter is that working in this truly collaborative way can be uncomfortable, but the results are worth the effort.

Truthfully, getting strategy and design to work well together is hard for human reasons. It takes a lot of humility to check your proficiency and talent at the door to contribute to projects where you aren’t always the expert. When teams can exhaustively explore ideas and don’t allow themselves to be precious with ownership, then the best ideas will flourish.