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Author: Paige Lansing Valle

Positioning Testing: Is It Worth It? 

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Now that data-driven decision making has become the norm in marketing, it’s shocking when a brand misses the mark so badly. As the Twitter-sphere implodes, everyone is wondering ‘What happened? Why didn’t they test with customers?’ Most brands do rely on some form of testing before launching an advertising campaign…and the ones that don’t pay the price.

But what about brand strategy? Is testing necessary before deploying a brand positioning? The answer isn’t one that data-driven organizations like to hear: it depends.

For some brand teams, it’s absolutely necessary to pause and gather external feedback before transitioning from positioning strategy to creative. With others, it’s better to wait until campaign creative is developed to engage in customer testing.

Before evaluating the pros and cons of testing, it’s important to consider what testing will and will not achieve so that you’re making an informed decision about whether or not to allocate budget and resources to the endeavor.

Clarifying the Role of Positioning Testing

Positioning is not copy. Positioning is not an externally-facing language. So, testing should not be about wordsmithing and linguistics. It should be about validating a concept. Ensuring it rings true and motivates your target audience.

Positioning isn’t everything about your brand. Positioning is a concise statement that expresses the most differentiated and relevant aspect of what your brand stands for and why it matters. It isn’t designed to encompass every brand attribute, value or differentiator. Testing needs to be evaluated through the lens of what the positioning is, not what it isn’t.

Quality over quantity. Although quantitative research is often thought of as the gold standard for measuring customer sentiment, positioning testing is more informative with qualitative research: in-depth, high-quality conversations. But some organizations are looking for hard numbers and qualitative data may not be valued.

Testing Benefits

For organizations that are data-driven, testing may be a necessary hurdle to create leadership buy-in around a new brand positioning. Testing can be particularly helpful if it’s used to gather validation data points that will move a leadership group or board forward.

It’s also a great opportunity to connect with existing customers and show that you value their input. Because existing customers are already sold on your brand, testing will help identify whether the new positioning comes across as authentic and believable compared with the brand they already know and love. Customers are also likely to be aware of competitive options and will be a good sounding board to ensure the positioning is differentiated.

And, while they won’t be asked to examine specific language, most people can’t help themselves. Although you should take feedback on semantics with a grain of salt, you will gain insights on the type of language they are attracted to or repelled by, which you can then consider when it’s time to translate the positioning into external copy.

Testing Risks

The biggest concern with testing is that gathering impartial feedback (and not just validation) can become expensive and time-consuming depending on the scale of the research. Sourcing participants who aren’t existing customers may require incentives and an external research partner for recruitment. But, if you just stick with existing customers, you’re likely speaking to your brand evangelists who are inherently biased. Sticking with existing customers means you’ll miss out on learning whether the positioning sets your brand up for growth.

Finally, positioning is conceptual and it’s hard to get definitive results. It’s no guarantee that your customers are conceptual thinkers. Most people respond with neutral feedback, which doesn’t really help you understand if you’ve got a winner or not.

There’s no wrong answer

While it may strain your timeline and budget, deployed under the right circumstances, testing can make your positioning stronger or more credible. As you progress along the brand strategy journey and into creative development and eventually execution, there are many opportunities for testing. Ensuring that you allocate the resources at the right points should be a collaborative process with your strategic partners from day one of your engagement.

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

Employer Branding Trends for 2020

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Today, we’re continuing our deep dive into the most important trends affecting your business, brand, and culture heading into 2020. Following our look at content strategy, let’s examine employer brands.

Remember when the common sentiment toward millennials was laden with disgust? Who were those entitled young people and their outrageous demands for flexibility, remote working, and—gasp—having a greater purpose in work than making money? It wasn’t that long ago, but oh how the tides have changed.

Now, as we all know, those “millennial” demands have not just become normalized, but meeting them has become the de facto minimum requirement for employers if they’re going to attract and retain top talent, of any generation. But just as the demographics of employees—and their shared needs and desires—shift every year, the trends of effective employer brands shift as well.

As a refresher: an employer brand is the articulation of what makes your company a great place to work. Your employer brand is integral to every touchpoint an employee or prospect might interact with, from the website to social media to the interior design of your office and internal communications. Because the potential touchpoints are vast, consistency is key to ensure optimal impact on your audience: the people most critical to making your business a success. Staying on top of employer brand trends means keeping in touch with what employees are looking for, and thereby ensuring your employer brand is relevant.

Here are the top trends to look out for in 2020.

1. Authenticity

Publicly displayed company values are key indicators for employees looking to align their personal values with how the business is run. But values are meaningless unless you can back them up. Take ‘family-friendly.’ Paid parental leave is nice, but if new parent employees are expected to be available 24/7, traveling all the time, or have rigid expectations placed on when they need to be in the office once parental leave is over, the ‘family-friendly’ value comes across as completely disingenuous. And thanks to sites like Glassdoor and Indeed, it’s pretty easy to find the truth.

2. Growth

As ‘digital transformation’ has become common parlance, employees understand that job security depends on acquiring new skills regardless of where you are in your career. And this doesn’t necessarily mean sending employees to expensive conferences or bringing in a world-renowned speaker. Offering employees exposure to senior leaders or inviting them (even as a fly on the wall) to big meetings is just as important for growth as more formal activities. Using the employer brand to communicate these types of opportunities demonstrate to your employees that you are invested in their development, which in turn makes them feel invested in your company.

3. Personalization

“To attract and retain talent, we’re seeing organizations creating a consumer-grade experience at work which reflects their attractive, authentic employer brand,” says Forbes columnist Rebecca Skilbeck. Personalization, i.e. acknowledgment that I am an individual, not a number, goes hand in hand with hustle. It’s an implicit contract: I work hard for you, you give me praise to keep me motivated. Being treated as an individual, whether through customizable career pages à la Nike or Starbucks, or 1-1 praise indicates a company values your talent and contribution, your experience and perspective. And by acknowledging that through personalization efforts, it creates a virtuous cycle in which employees are more motivated to continue performing.

4. Brand Association

An employer brand’s effectiveness goes hand in hand with the external brand. So if the brand itself lacks public awareness, sells a meaningless product, or worse, is involved in shady behavior, that reputation is going to impact how employees and prospects feel about the company.  A recent LinkedIn study has proven that more than 75% of job seekers research a company’s reputation before applying. People care about the brand they are working for because it reflects on their personal brand—which has become more important than ever in ensuring long-term career growth. Assessing your brand reputation and taking control of the narrative is imperative if you’re going to attract and retain top talent.

Keep your eyes here for the latest and greatest in all things 2020.

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

Why Business Leaders Must Address the Big Picture

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Business Leaders, Caught in the Small Picture

It’s easy for business leaders to get caught up in the details of everyday business, assuming the role of micromanager, not leader. And because leaders may not be focusing on big-picture questions surrounding the vision, mission, and value of their business and brand, many leaders end up feeling stuck—trying to figure out how to implement strategies without any real framework to guide these decisions. As a result, employees and middle managers can often suffer.

Too often, big-picture questions are dismissed as important, but not necessarily urgent for business. But gaining a clear vision is the most important thing you can do to propel your business forward—with everyone aligned behind and empowered to make that vision a reality.

The Big Picture Demands Time

In the end, many business leaders ignore the big picture simply because they feel they lack the time. Repositioning, realigning, and rebranding all take time and resources. And building a big-picture mentality requires really looking forward.

Because many leaders are taking on too many priorities (many of which exist on a micro-level), it’s difficult for them to feel as though they have the resources needed to address big questions. And instead, they focus on aspects of the business that might, when it comes down to it, not really be their job.

In fact, business leaders may be so connected to the brand—a brand they’ve built, owned, and currently hold a lot of stake in—that they struggle to let go of their reigns and empower others to create change.

Leadership needs to focus on seeing the big picture before anything else.

These are the key macro questions that we believe need to be answered:

  • Why does your organization exist (what’s your purpose, vision)?
  • What does it deliver (what value do you offer)?
  • Why does what you deliver hold meaning in people’s minds and hearts?
  • And how will it bring its promise to life (how do you behave)?

In order for leaders to find the answers that will empower others to do their job, they need to:

1. Create Guardrails

Defining what you are not—what you do not strive for, what you do not deliver, and how you do not behave—helps gain clarity around who you are and why you matter. Creating guardrails forces leaders to think through consequences of positioning and the various trade-offs of a strategic decision. This kind of clarity can inform your brand and business moving forward—informing how you speak, how you look, where you’re headed, and how to make each decision down the road.

2. Think Strategically, Not Tactically

Big-picture thinking means strategic thinking. Brand strategy and business strategy are all about seeing the whole picture. Considering things in a silo never creates an impactful strategy. And often, leaders get hung up on tactical details that stall powerful, strategic thinking. Although it’s important to occasionally check validity by considering your thinking on a micro level—how actually would you implement this?—it’s important to think big.

3. Listen to Everyone

Often, seeing the whole picture requires widening your perspective. It’s not just about what the C-suite has to say. Everyone should have a voice. Listening is key here. Alignment demands good listening. Give everyone within your company the chance to have a voice and even consider involving an outside perspective that might help put it all into context, identify gaps, and change the conversation.

4. Focus on the Future

In the end, every leader is responsible for driving their business into the future. And there must always be something worth moving toward. A clear vision increases employee productivity and commitment. And being clear about what that future could hold has the power to fuel innovation and empower the people most important to making your vision a reality. It’s easy to feel caught up in the present, stuck in today, and unable to think toward tomorrow. But being a leader is all about the ability to look forward. Then you go back and rally the troops who will make that possible.

If you want your business to succeed, you must focus on the big picture. And a clear and acted-upon purpose that comes to life through consistent behavior is a requirement for brands today. So, take the time and dedicate the resources to taking a macro approach to your brand and business. Be a leader, not a micromanager. Think big and reap the benefits.

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

What Is Brand Generosity Anyway?

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Why so generous?

Brand generosity is in. As consumers become increasingly connected to social media and exposed to marketing ploys and tricks, suspicions rise about the authenticity of brands. Many consumers are looking for a genuine social commitment from the brands they engage with. As a result, building a bond with the people that matter to your business is more important now than ever before. People are looking for brands that give more than what’s expected. They want to feel good about the brands they are buying into, and how those brands are giving back to the world at large.

What is brand generosity?

Brand generosity is a new phrase in brand land most recently linked to Target’s current marketing strategy. Using advanced data, Target figured out that consumers have an itch to listen to music while watching the Grammys, so they launched a live ad featuring Imagine Dragons during the show. The ad didn’t advertise products; it only gave viewers the music they wanted. Target coined this tactic as “brand generosity” in the sense that it provided a targeted audience with “free” content.

Even though Target is calling this brand generosity, we believe brand generosity should mean more. It’s shouldn’t be a substitute phrase or a disguised name for branded advertisements, marketing tactics, or content marketing. Indirect content marketing isn’t enough to call a brand generous.

What brands do it well?

We took a look at the qualities of successful brand generosity programs to better understand how they drive meaningful and successful business:

  1. Purpose-Led, Promise-Driven

Generosity that stems from purpose is inherently genuine. TOMS, for example, has pledged to make a positive impact on the world with a “one for one” promise. And yet, the promise extends beyond giving one shoe to someone in need for every shoe a consumer buys. It sings true in how the company invests, what partnerships the brand makes, where they give, and what they give. Because the TOMS purpose goes beyond specific products and far beyond profit, the brand has had ­– and will have – the ability to extend their giving beyond shoes: the gift of sight, water, safe birth, and kindness are also part of their brand generosity. By working towards a larger aspiration, there is always more giving to be done. If giving can grow, business can grow, too.

  1. Rewards Social Engagement

Since social sharing has become such an integral part of successful businesses today, brands that demonstrate generosity towards consumers via social media are thriving. For example, Lancôme allows customers to earn points when they share products on networks like Facebook and Instagram. This kind of giving creates more than a sense of reciprocity. It builds loyalty and fosters brand ambassadors who feel rewarded and valued. Showing gratitude goes a long way with these loyal and important consumers.

  1. Creates a Social Halo

When people buy from brands that are perceived as generous, they themselves often are perceived as generous. This is what many psychologists refer to as the halo effect. And the halo of giving is greatly valued and respected in today’s world. For instance, when consumers choose to buy a branded (RED) iPod Nano over all the other colors, they make the choice to help (RED) #endAIDS. Although consumers pay the same price for the product, they get the product and the social halo. They are not only Apple users, but also generous, good-hearted Apple users who have taken part in the fight against AIDS. Their purchase displays their commitment to not only “BE (RED),” but recognizes their personal and important contribution to the cause. 

  1. Builds a Giving Community

(RED) is quick to point out that an AIDs-free generation is not achievable if they work alone. It takes everyone: governments, health organizations, partner companies, and consumers. Other generous brands agree. By buying into brand generosity, consumers are not just consumers. They join the movement, and become part of the rally behind the cause. Generous brands like Yellow Leaf Hammocks, Kind Bars, Better World Books, Warby Parker, and Ethos Water all strive to build a community that works together towards their goals. By explaining what impact each individual can have, the community grows stronger, and the power of giving is brought to life. When people feel good about their personal generosity, they will feel good about your brand.

The Financial Benefits of Generosity

Generous brands benefit financially. In the end, giving back positively impacts your business. Why? Because as many brands and entrepreneurs have discovered, giving back to your community is incredibly rewarding both personally and financially.

Having a giving mindset creates positive PR and increases commitment amongst employees. It gets them rallied behind your cause. It also strengthens consumers’ emotional connection to your brand’s purpose. Because your brand is aligned behind a larger aspiration, your brand becomes a part of a larger community that cares about that same cause. With this strong community come more partnerships, support, and meaningful connections.

Consider the ways your brand can give back in an authentic way. Whether it’s aligning your brand with a charity that resonates with your purpose or setting aside time in the workplace to give back to your local community, fostering generosity within your business will help it thrive. Authentically generous brands are flourishing brands.

Emotive Brand is a San Franciso branding agency.

Naming a New Brand Category is Harder Than it Looks

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Failed category labels are laughable. Before there were snowboards, there was snurfers. PDA phones preempted smartphones. Charga-plates rolled out before credit cards took their place. It seems obvious now why each current category name is so much stronger than its predecessor. But missing the mark with category naming is a mistake that’s easy to make.

In our last post about how to define a new category, we left off with what is most commonly considered the fun part of strategy: naming. If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve identified that your existing category isn’t serving your brand’s needs. You’re ready to make a shift and have accepted the risk of creating a new category. And, you’ve appropriated the time and budget necessary to do so.

What’s in a name?

Category names make it easy for people to familiarize themselves with products and brands. They help people make choices and create loyalty. They set expectations about why brands belong. When a category name resonates, it paves the way for brands to develop meaningful connections with people.

When developing a new category, it’s tempting to come up with a catchy, quirky, or unique category name. Everyone wants to differentiate and make a mark. It can seem, understandably, that developing a category name that grabs attention will help your brand stand out too. But that’s not the case. Names that aren’t recognizable create confusion and uncertainty for customers. When the category name isn’t immediately clear, the brands and products it represents become muddied in those waters.

As we described in a previous post, people need context to grab onto something new. The framework your category creates sets the stage for your innovative product to become the category leader. But that also depends on the name being something that people understand without explanation. What the heck is a snurfer? No one knew. But snowboard is easy. Anyone who surfs or skates immediately gets it. And, it was no coincidence that when Burton coined “snowboard” they were going after surfers and skaters as a target audience.

Simplicity is Key

When it’s time to create your new category name, choose one that’s simple and recognizable. There are a few ways to go about it:

  • Two Known Words: Credit Card, Data Center, Sports Drink
  • Compound Name: Automobile, Bicycle, Laptop
  • Derive a New Word from an Existing Word: Browser, E-commerce

The timing of a category launch should influence which direction the name should go. If your product is truly innovative — with nothing on the market that compares — the category name should be a riff off an existing product. In this case, using two known words or joining them into one would be ideal. But if your brand is joining a group of products that are currently on the market, the category should confirm and validate behavior (people were already browsing the internet so coining ‘browser’ made sense).

When there isn’t a dominant category name, different labels make it difficult for any brand to gain traction. Most people stay within a comfort zone and too many options lead people to ignore the category all together. A name represents the ‘rules of membership’ — the specific characteristics that the products within the category must have in order to belong to the category. Once a name achieves dominance, people know what to expect and the brands within its umbrella follow suit. In our next post on defining a category, we’ll share tips on how to get buy-in on your new category name with important users, innovators, and industry commentators to help ensure a successful roll-out.

This is the 3rd in a series. Check out When to Create a New Brand Category, How to Create a New Brand Category, and what goes into Launching a New Brand Category.

Download our White Paper on Brand Category Creation.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy firm.

Nostalgic Brands are Capturing Hearts and Minds

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

A Nostalgic Age

As technologies continue to innovate and find new modes of connection, businesses need to move faster than the speed of light. But while moving forward is key to business success, many brands are looking backwards…and with success. Nostalgia is, no doubt, in. Bath & Body Works just announced the reintroduction of the old scents of the ’90s. The Sacramento Kings have embraced nostalgia with a new logo. Urban Outfitter’s is full of Polaroids, records, and retro cassette players. TV networks are bringing back ’90s favorites like Boy Meets World and Full House, which remind viewers of an age when scheduling a TV date with your neighbor was the norm. #TBT (throw back Thursday) continues to be one of the most trending and repetitively used hashtags on Instagram and Twitter. Even Facebook reminds us of what we were doing 10 years ago, today.

The Financial Review’s conversation around this current “Age of Nostalgia” explains it as a backlash against the fast-paced technology and the economic and political uncertainty that has left people feeling anxious about the future. The millennial generation, in particular, is longing for the familiar: the products and brands that remind them of growing up and that elicit feelings of safety, comfort, and happiness. There’s a yearning to bring back the “good old days”. The success of these brand campaigns demonstrates the power of nostalgia: this strong and sentimental longing for the past. People are literally buying into the past.

But if a brand is rooted in nostalgia, how is it positioned to evolve? Successful brands need to use nostalgic triggers to help them progress, while capturing and re-capturing the hearts of their audience. And here’s how:

Short-Term Campaigns

Nostalgia shouldn’t be a long-term strategy. Oftentimes, the most successful brand campaigns are short-lived – little reminders of a brand’s beginning and how far it has come. They make people remember why they fell in love with the brand in the first place and how that love has evolved. These campaigns conjure up happy memories that keep people loyal and connected to the brand.

Crowd-Pleasers

Nostalgic campaigns don’t have to reach the masses. Many nostalgic brand campaigns have been most successful by targeting the millennial generation. Much of the power of nostalgic campaigns lies in how tailored their meanings are for a specific audience. Everyone has different memories associated with the brand from the past, and these independent and meaningful experiences are what make nostalgia hold such impact. Millennials are often the most connected, owning the most devices and demanding speed in every form of media. So these feelings of a slower, simpler times are often felt more acutely within this audience. At the same time, the success of a nostalgic campaign has the most potential within the millennial generation thanks to their connectivity to social media. If anything is going to go viral, millennials need to be part of it.

Rely on Established Brand Equity

In the end, most brands can’t rely on nostalgia alone. Nostalgia is a complex emotion that has to fit into the way the brand already wants to make people feel. Nostalgic triggers should add to the brand’s emotional impact, but not necessarily replace it. The most successful nostalgic campaigns are done by brands that already have established brand equity. It’s not possible to hearken to the past if that past isn’t well known, recognized, and remembered with fondness. Brands that look to the past need something of value to look back on.

Emotional Storytelling

At Emotive Brand, we know that emotive brands thrive. No matter your audience, people want to buy into brands that make them feel something. Nostalgia is a very powerful emotion, some would argue, one of the most powerful of emotions. It is also a complex emotion. Adding feelings of nostalgia into your brand story can make it more powerful, personal, and meaningful to the people who truly matter to your brand’s success. These brand champions are the ones that make your story their own. Nostalgic campaigns are often successful because they hold such strong emotional impact. They make people remember the past with joy, delight in old memories, and remind them of the “old days,” and these positive feelings are quickly associated with and connected to your brand.

The most successful nostalgic campaigns use the past to make people feel joy at remembering those times and simultaneously excited and ready to invest in the future of the brand. They take their audiences on a journey with them, and people delight in the brand as a result. A brand’s nostalgic triggers helps it connect in meaningful, momentous, and memorable ways to the people who matter to their business: past, present, and future.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

 

Brand Behavior Matters for Transforming your Business

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

To Transform Your Brand, Transform Your Brand Behavior

In the end, brand behavior is what drives results. No matter how smart and inspired your brand strategy may be, it’s just strategy. And oftentimes, it’s just not enough. In fact, we’ve seen many brand strategies fall short because they failed to move beyond brand identity and communications, and didn’t provide the guidelines, tools, and processes needed to actually bring the brand’s defining attributes to life through meaningful behavior and action.

Brand behavior is all about how your brand reaches out to people and how they respond back to you. In reality, people never experience brand strategies. Instead, they experience brand moments. These brand moments are what bring the strategy alive. So if you want to transform your brand and reap the benefits of this transformation, you have to focus on these brand moments. By honing in on how your brand behaves at every touchpoint, brand behavior is what will ultimately take your brand strategy further than the “brand deck.” The goal of brand behavior is two-fold: make customers more satisfied and loyal, while creating an aligned, ambitious, and meaningful workplace that behaves in line with your brand.

Workplace Behavior

Because behavior is learned and often mimicked, people from childhood onwards depend on elders, role models, and/or authority figures to show them the “right” way to behave. And patterns of behavior operate the same way within a workplace. They trickle down. This means workplace behavior is self-propagating, infectious, and often indicative of the culture of an organization. In fact, if your brand isn’t living up to its potential, the cause may very well be workplace behavior does not pay off why your brand matters. When you add meaning to workplace behavior, you add meaning to the brand.

No Small Task

Modifying behavior internally is key to shifting your brand externally. But aligning behavior to reflect your brand is never easy. Old, rooted, and integrated patterns of behavior become second nature and breaking out of these patterns can’t be done overnight. It’s easy to get stuck in a cycle of off-strategy behaviors, especially in the midst of a business shift. Because change is more easily said than done, it requires true courage and hard work.

Shortcuts never work. Leaders can’t just ask employees to change behaviors that they aren’t modeling themselves. And just a few “behavior champions” won’t be enough to transform your businesses. Everyone plays a role in transforming a brand (no matter how large or established the business). If behaviors don’t fit – even on an individual basis – your business will be slowed down.

When done right, workplace behavior can be transformative for you business, shifting the way people think, feel, and act with respect to your brand – and making your brand matter more.

  1. Address shifts head-on. The importance of workplace behavior can easily be brushed under the rug, misunderstood, or lost in translation. Shifts must be communicated, outlined, and demonstrated clearly from the onset. At larger companies this is especially important. It’s easy for someone who has been working for your business for 40 years to have a different understanding of the shift then your new hire. Take the time to be clear. Good communication goes a long way.
  2. Model behavior from the top down. Leaders lead by example. Demonstrating how behaviors connect to what your brand is all about is much more compelling than just telling people how to act. By behaving thoughtfully, you will discover why these behavior shifts really matter, what the challenges are, and how to overcome them as a community. This understanding will foster more successful teamwork, productivity, and help everyone move forward
  3. Show empathy, respect, and trust. Empathetic businesses are smart businesses. Try to see your business through your employees’ eyes. Through this shift in perspective, it’s easier to identify the behavior shifts that are necessary to make the brand promise relevant and powerful to everyone. Show respect for everyone’s role. Strategic shifts change how people approach and do their jobs, and these transitions can prove difficult for many. Empower your employees to make the necessary behavior adjustments.
  4. Make people feel like they matter. Recognize and reward meaningful behavior. When people feel like what they do and how they do it really does matter, they are more likely to embody the new behavior because they see first-hand how it makes a difference. The best way to get employees to behave in line with your brand is by demonstrating their individual value to the business – showing each individual how the brand can help them grow both professional and personally.
  5. Build a roadmap. In larger companies, employees often feel out of touch with where the company is headed. What’s it going to be like in 5 years? What are the goals? How can each individual help? Building a roadmap is a great way to make people part of the shift towards success. Show employees where the business could go if everyone gets on board and behaves meaningfully each and every day.

Meaningful workplace behavior will positively affect the way your brand is perceived both inside and outside the business. When people see those behind the brand behaving in a way that truly reflects who you are, what you do, and why you matter, they feel more connected and appreciative of what the brand stands for. Workplace behavior can help your brand matter more to everyone.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy firm. 

What Media Means to Brands in the Digital Age

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Blurred Lines in Media

If anything is for sure, the role of media is in constant flux. Consider what it meant to people before the entrance of social media, or even pre-Internet. In so many ways, user-generated content and social platforms have altered the meaning of media as we know it. And because of the endless messages, mediums, and messengers, it means different things to different people – as well as different things to different brands today.

The lines between content and advertising are unclear. And media no longer has to be professionally produced to go viral. News outlets are only a small slice of what now composes the vast landscape of today.

Hard to Keep Up

The landscape isn’t only shifting every moment, it’s becoming more and more complex. This intricate landscape makes it harder and harder for leaders to make smart, strategic, relevant decisions about media. So knowing how, when, and where to use it is no simple task. It’s easy to feel like by the time you’ve somewhat pinned down what media means within the complex digital space of today, it’s already evolved way beyond your initial definition.

Aspirational and Forward Thinking

The strategy needs to be aspirational and forward thinking – pushing the brand into the future, and helping to build a brand that is prepared for the shifting landscape. For example, brands that noticed people using and generating more and more video were on the cutting edge of video media, and are finding success today. But forward-thinking doesn’t always mean new. It’s always about being able to look to the future and predict people’s needs and desires. For instance, now more Americans than ever are listening to audio podcasts and digital radio on their phones (because it’s easy and quick). Brands who anticipated this did their research and quickly identified people’s need for quick, digestible media. Appropriate research and constantly drawing new insights about your target audiences are key here.

Agile and Adaptive

This means that your brand strategy must also be agile. As new platforms enter at rapid speed, your brand must be able to adapt and shift with ease. Fast and focused decision-making is essential. ‘Adaptive marketing’ has become a buzzword in media for a reason. Behaving with flexibility, yet always staying true to your long-term vision and promise, is vital for brands today who want to stand out in a competitive media space. Many brands that are focusing on media are using media influencers as a way to adapt to shifts. These key people can help drive brands and their audiences towards new platforms and channels. By embedding brand ambassadors on media platforms (especially social), many brands find they can shift more easily and organically.

Stand Out with Creative

More and more, standing out becomes a challenge and also a necessity for brands today. Media offers an opportunity to help brands stand out, but only if they utilize their assets in a strategic way. We believe creative assets can hold a lot of value for a media strategy for this reason. Through creative, a brand can not only say something different, but look different too. Mixing creative assets can strengthen a content strategy or any other form of media today. Focused, clear creative assets that work in line with your brand promise can also help a brand create consistency across platforms and messages.

Media Strategy Positioned for Success

In an increasingly digital age, we’ve seen many new media trends emerge in the past years – a greater focus on social media, spontaneous media, conversational content, and video. As a whole, media has become more and more dynamic. It’s much more of a conversation. It’s faster paced and constantly responding to people’s needs and desires. As a result, brands with an agile strategy and a deep understanding of the people they are trying to reach are finding success in the current media landscape. Use your brand strategy to guide your media strategy and position your business for success.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy and design agency.

Female CEOs We Admire and Why

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

The Gender Gap

It’s no secret that gender disparities and inequalities still exist. And gender inequality in the workplace today goes beyond the pay gap. The wage gap has narrowed to less than 5%, but this isn’t enough. 59% of women still feel like they have fewer opportunities because of their gender. 88% of women say they feel as though they are addressed differently than male colleagues. And only 4.2% of CEOs in America’s fortune 500 are women. And as a company with two female CEOs, we are acutely aware of this and believe in closing this gap.

We thought it a fit time to celebrate some of our favorite fellow female CEOs.

1. Kamakshi Sivraramakrishnan, CEO of Drawbridge – For Being a Disruptor

Sivaramakrishnan didn’t build one of the fastest-growing women-led companies on the Inc. 5000 (6th overall on the list) because she was afraid to shake things up. She recognized that there was a large opportunity for her to innovate and disrupt, and that she could do it faster if she left Google and started her own organization.

The number of women leading AdTech is dismal, and Sivaramakrishnan is fully aware of this. She notes leading as a female in this industry requires her to “focus on what I have to say, rather than how I look or how I say it.”

At Emotive Brand, we believe driving growth as Sivaramakrishnan has done at Drawbridge hinges on an organization’s ability to disrupt and drive growth. We recently predicted that 2017 will be all about disruption and admire Drawbridge’s CEO for recognizing the power of disruption early on. Kamakshi and Drawbridge are also a client of Emotive Brand.

2. Maria Eital, CEO of the Nike Foundation – For Demonstrating Social Responsibility

As a female CEO, Eital has dedicated the Nike Foundation’s mission to gender equality. All her initiatives are focused on creating a better life and education for girls age 10-19 who live in the developing world. From encouraging a full education for girls in Zambia, to helping young girls avoid early marriage in Ethiopia, or building rural learning centers in Bangladesh, Eital has turned the Nike Foundation around. The Foundation demonstrates a strong commitment to creating change and helping girls play an active role in their future. And this dedication to bettering the lives of girls around the world is admired by us at Emotive Brand.

3. Miki Agrawal, CEO of Thinx – For Challenging the Status Quo

Thinx, led by changemaker, Miki Agrawal, is a prime example of a brand that is unafraid of challenging the status quo and inspiring a new conversation. By approaching what was a taboo industry from a new angle, Agrawal has built a brand that has re-written the expectations of the industry – empowering women, making periods powerful, and addressing the societal issues that surround menstruation globally. No more flowers and sunshine. Not only has she won over millennials, she has become an international icon for feminism and socially-conscious business today as well as one of our favorite female leaders of the year.

4. Jennifer Rasiah, CEO of Givesurance – For Leading with Purpose

For us, Jennifer Rasiah, is the epitome of a purpose-led leader. With 15 years of experience in the insurance industry under her belt, she decided she needed to make a change – a meaningful change. Identifying an opportunity to leverage her deep knowledge of the industry and her innate desire to give back, she created Givesurance and changed the insurance industry as we knew it.

Instead of spending 50% of commission on acquiring and retaining customers through agents, Givesurance leverages the company’s established partnerships with charities to pass along donations to non-profits. Essentially, Givesurance users can help the world at no additional cost to them. By supporting a diverse and constantly expanding range of causes from global development non-profits to local food and clothing banks, Givesurance produces a personalized sense of giving for both individuals and businesses.

When we interviewed Rasiah, she noted that as a purpose-led leader, she “can’t stop until she’s made the difference she needs to.” And this commitment is something worth commending.

5. Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, CEO of theSkimm – For Keeping Us Informed

Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin are a female duo worth looking up. They noticed how indigestible and overwhelming news and the infinite news sources at our fingertips can be – especially for busy people today. This drove them to create the theSkimm, a daily email blast that delivers news in a punchy, easily digestible way, giving millennials (their target market) everything they need to know.

For us at Emotive Brand, we know first-hand how important it is to be connected and informed about what’s happening in the larger world is. It matters to our business and how we create strategy as well as how we behave as individuals in the world as a whole. We’re thankful that Danielle and Carly created a way for us to go about our busy lives and still have time to stay informed.

We hope that celebrating these female CEOs and the many other women who are closing the gender gap one step at a time will inspire others to take lead with purpose, be bold, and make a splash in the world today.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency.

Why Investing in Brand Enables Growth for Professional Services

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Professional service companies, categorized as mid-market, might be looking towards 2017 with a bit of trepidation. According to the National Center for the Middle Market 3Q 2016 Indicator, business growth has been identified as a top challenge for these firms. And mid-market or not, business growth is a real challenge for every sector of professional services in today’s hyper-competitive economy.

The Role of Brand in Professional Services

Even when personal brands are strong, as they often are for professional services, an overarching brand is necessary. Your brand is your firm’s most valuable asset. It sets the tone for the behavior of your employees and, most importantly, shapes how customers perceive your business. Consequently, your brand has a strong, direct impact on business growth.

And although it may seem obvious to invest in your brand to drive business growth, creating a solid case for doing so can be a real challenge. If the business is doing well, or even just good enough, people may perceive that any change will confuse customers or diminish the equity your business has established. It’s the common “why fix something that’s not broken?” thinking.

However, if a firm fails to continue to evolve its brand, it risks becoming outdated and irrelevant. The speed of change in today’s market is constant. And professional service businesses need a brand that is perceived as current if they want to attract top clients.

The other common misperception about the value of investing in your brand is that branding is a cost center rather than revenue driver. In fact, a 2015 Economist study indicated that 68% of business owners view marketing as a cost center. And that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Invest in Your Brand for Clear Returns

Here are 5 reasons why investing in your brand will positively impact your bottom line now as well as down the line:

1. Differentiation

With so many businesses offering similar services at comparable price points, firms start to blend together and have a hard time standing out from the crowd. Well-defined brands that tell a unique narrative and look different from competitors are able to draw attention. A tagline and a logo simply isn’t enough, though. In order to truly make an impact, you need to consider every brand experience and touchpoint.

2. Price

A strong brand commands a premium price. It allows you to justify your worth and create demand. Investing in professional services is a risk and, as a result, can be an emotionally charged decision. Customers will be willing to pay more for your service if they believe the risk is low.

3. Business Development

A steady stream of leads is vital to survival for professional services. Expanding the number of prospects improves the chances of conversion. A strong brand creates awareness across channels and keeps customers knocking at your door – helping you close deals and build confidence inside and outside the organization.

4. Alignment

In order to grow, professional service firm need to be aligned around the brand promise and story in order to create brand ambassadors with employees. The people inside your business are your strongest asset.

5. Endurance

Tough times are inevitable. But a brand with an established emotional connection with its customers and prospects is prepared to weather the storm. In the unfortunate event that your business suffers from reputational damage, a strong brand can help carry the business to the other side with its head held high. And as your industry goes through a period of flux, an investment in your brand now will increase the potential to grow today and into the future, leaving your competitors fall behind.

Thriving companies understand the power of their brands both internally and externally. And as pressure mounts on marketers to deliver growth and prove their ROI, investment in your brand is critical to the success of your firm. Invest in your brand to position your firm for growth.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy and design agency.