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White Paper: How to Talk with Your Employees in Turbulent Times

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Employees can easily become rattled and worried when things shift in shifts in down cycles.

As a result, CEOs looking to keep their people in focus and motivated, need a new way of reaching out to their employees.

In our White Paper, “How to Talk to Employees in Turbulent Times“, we offer CEOs practical tips on how to create a meaningful conversation in the workplace that reduces anxieties, instils hope and helps employees feel they are doing work that truly matters.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design consultancy.

The Power of Creating a Compelling “Brand Vibe”

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

We humans are very proud of our ability to think rationally. This cognitive power not only lets us understand and use facts, it also helps us build elaborate creations and fantasies.

We use our rational brains to conduct business. Cognition helps us sort stuff out, compare options, and rank priorities. Our rational, conscious brain is so “upfront” in our day-to-day work lives that we begin to believe it is our only way of thinking and acting at work.

Yet, as neuroscience is finding, it is now clear that this cognitive ability is not a stand-alone factor in how we perceive, sense, or act upon input. Indeed, we now see that emotions influence, if not drive, our thinking at every turn.

Emotions in play at work

We don’t readily admit it, but emotions – floating well below our consciousness – are in play all through the workplace. These emotions come to surface as feelings when people interact with one another, with people from the outside world, and with company news, policies, processes, and, of course, the gossip they hear around the water cooler.

These emotions are also very much at play in the marketplace as personal lives, news events, social media updates, and brand messages collide throughout the day. These emotions color how people feel whenever they interact with the outside world; including your brand. And, your brand strategy need to be focused around an emotive presence.

Is your ‘brand vibe’ in tune with people?

Given what we now know about how people make decisions, brands need to ask themselves a few questions:

  • To what degree are you proactively influencing the emotional “vibe” surrounding your brand, in both your workplace and the marketplace?
  • Could your brand behave in new ways that consciously address the unconscious manner in which people make decisions and take actions?
  • What would happen if your “brand vibe” started to resonate more profoundly with people?

People respond to meaningful vibes

I’m sure you’ll agree that you experience a nice “vibe” –  a significant, positive feeling – whenever you interact with, or think about, particular people (e.g. someone who inspires you), places (e.g. a romantic getaway), and things (e.g. your latest toy).

This is because you have recognized something within that person, place, or thing that triggers a connection to what you value, what you need, and/or what gives you pleasure. You may not be able to exactly say what causes your feelings, but you know you have them.

Now, think about your brand, and what feelings it is triggering; in other words, what is your “brand vibe”? Most important, is that “vibe” connected to something significant and meaningful to people? In other words, is your “brand vibe” one that rises above the fray, connects deeply into lives, and puts your brand into a class of its own?

“Brand vibes” hard at work

A distinct “brand vibe” not only lift the spirits of employees, it also creates an appealing way to stand apart in the crowded marketplace.

A clearly emotive “brand vibe” becomes a welcome feeling for everyone vital to your brand’s success, especially as they see how it helps them, the society, and/or the planet, in one way or another.

A strong “brand vibe” elevates your essential selling messages to a higher, more meaningful level; your stories take on a more compelling and inspiring aura, that makes more people get involved and engaged (and then, more likely to act).

How do you create a compelling ‘brand vibe’?

A powerful “brand vibe” is driven by a purpose – one that goes well beyond profit; it creates desirable and motivating feelings by capturing an ambition that taps directly into the needs, desires, interests and aspirations of the people you seek to influence.

When such a purpose is underscored by emotionally meaningful behavior of your brand, and its people, your “brand vibe” becomes stronger, more distinct and more powerful.

So, to have a meaningful “brand vibe”, brands need to go well beyond rethinking communications and key brand interactions (such as product launches, events, etc). Indeed, the entire organization behind the brand needs to evolve.

  • The C-suite needs to embrace, and live by, the new purpose.
  • Product teams need to refine user experiences.
  • The sales team needs to revise their pitch.
  • And, perhaps most important, HR needs to reorient the intent, attitudes and behaviors of the workforce.

A purpose beyond profit to inspire, an emotional space to exude, and an emotive behavior to bring it all to life. All there to generate a meaningful “brand vibe”. All key ingredients of emotive branding

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

San Francisco Branding Agency, Shares CEO Perspective on the Industry

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

San Francisco branding agency shares POV

As co-founder and CEO of Emotive Brand, a San Francisco branding agency, Bella is committed to the Agency promise of helping to transform brands and making the greatest impact possible through our work.

Bella works to maintain the highest standard of client services and delivers strategic solutions that meaningfully connect brands with people. We sat down with Bella to get the latest on what’s happening at Emotive Brand and her perspectives on brand strategy globally. In the following, she gives her insight on daily challenges, high-paced growth, and how to inspire and sustain meaningful business in the midst of it all.

Emotive Brand has created a new offering – Fast Forward – designed for high-growth startup clients that need to make strategic shifts to quickly address product, industry, competition, alignment, and other issues.

How does EB help companies move FAST?

Developing brand strategy can be a long and expensive engagement. People get frustrated with the amount of time it takes to reap the benefits. Our new Fast Forward offering is about delivering a quick win. It’s great for a company that needs lots of work, but can’t prioritize what is needed most or what will make the most impact fastest. Fast Forward allows us to engage in an intense, immersive phase of work. Together, we help our clients identify what their priorities should be in real-time and then create a deliverable during our working session with them. It’s like instant gratification. This agile approach also creates the opportunity to get to know each other and provides a real feel for our process and what working together on a larger project would look like. Clients see the value of what a more robust process would be because they’ve experienced the accelerated impact of a Fast Forward. This is often just what a team needs in order to gain internal alignment around the level of investment needed to continue to move forward.

As a branding agency, why are you always recruiting?

We’re in growth-mode right now at EB. We’re constantly looking for where the talent is as we expand our team. And talent is much more mobile than it ever was before. People aren’t looking for a job for life. They want rich experiences that they can fill up on and then move on to new ones. People want to be constantly learning. They don’t want to be doing the same thing again and again. I think that’s one of the benefits of working at an agency. The work is always changing. But there’s a trend in the Bay Area where a lot of creative talent is moving in-house and out of agencies. This means it’s more competitive than ever to find and grab those great people.

In terms of client services, how do you build and maintain meaningful client relationships?

At EB, we recognize that people buy from people. And clients, quite simply, want to deal with people – people who understand them and are empathetic to their problems, needs, and emotions. They want people who listen. At the end of the day, we are people and we strive to engage with people as people and not just clients or business partners. We understand what it means to juggle the challenges of a corporate environment, of reporting to a Board, of satisfying different stakeholders, and of managing office politics. We understand what it means to take risks and that it can seem scary. We know how hard it can be to stand behind something different. It’s not easy to be a client and we recognize that.

What are the latest and greatest EB successes in your mind?

As a brand strategy firm, we continue to lead the conversation about what it means to be a purpose-led company and how brand strategy can support that. When companies seek us out for that kind of work it feels good. The types of companies that we work for in the B2B, technology, and professional services recognize that being purpose-led can give them an edge. I’m proud that we continue to pioneer the thinking around purpose-led brands. And our clients keep coming back for more. We hold valuable, long-standing relationships and our work continues to grow.

In your opinion, what are the main challenges facing brand strategy today?

Time. Time is the biggest challenge. Everyone wants to move really quickly, but doing great work takes time. However, if you take too much time, things move on. The industry you’re in moves forward without you. It’s about finding a balance between moving too fast and being too slow. You can’t cut all the corners. As an agency, we have to find the balance of dedicating the right amount of time to our work and building flexibility into our process. We take the time where it is needed most and look to move quickly though areas that need less time. It is the same for our own brand. We are growing as an agency and it’s important that we continue to invest in our own brand and behaviors. We have to practice what we preach and that does take dedication, hard work, and practice.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

Stronger Brand Building: Why Emotions Matter

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Our brains encode emotional memories more forcibly than other data.

Looking for the keys to stronger brand building? Want people to remember your brand in deeper and more enduring ways? Wish they would act more deliberately on your brand’s behalf? According to brain science, emotion is the key.

I’ve long been preaching the idea that brands should generate a specific emotional aura as part of their every day brand experiences. I have urged them to evoke these selected positive emotions across the many interactions they have with people.

My thinking has been that by evoking emotions within the brand’s experiences, you are building the foundation for more positive and beneficial relationships with all the people that matter to your brand.

Furthermore, I’ve always sensed that emotion is the force behind our more enduring life memories. I’ve translated that thought in the branding context to mean that a strong, emotionally based connection will last longer. As such, these emotions are at hand during subsequent interactions with the brand – you might say “the pump is primed”.

Finally, I’ve long assumed that there is a compound effect, as subsequent interactions reinforce and increase the strength of the emotional connection.

The brain science that explains why emotion matters in brand building.

In his great book on empathy, Wired to Care, author Dev Patnaik explains how this connection works within our brains:

“The limbic system draws together many different elements of the brain to form an overall structure for handling emotional information…the amygdala is devoted to processing our emotions and those of other people. The hippocampus is essential in the formation of long-term memories. Together, the two regions serve to help us form long-term emotional connections with other people.

As it turns out, the more emotionally charged an event is, the more vivid it feels to our amygdala, which then helps our hippocampus to hold on to the event for the long term. That’s why our most emotional memories are also our most vivid ones. Our brains literally encode them more forcibly than they do with other data.”

How do you want your brand to feel to people?

There is a vast range of positive emotions that a brand can adopt as its own. For some brands, these can be very ambitious (e.g. fired-up) or very subdued (e.g. understood).

In our work, we’ve identified over 301 positive emotions. And for every brand we’ve consulted, there has always been a natural selection of four emotions that, when blended with the brand’s products, people, heritage, and ethos, have created something that is truly unique, clearly differentiates the brand, fosters meaningful brand building.

Which specific positive emotions would transform the way your brand reaches out to people, and the reasons that people happily respond back to your brand?

Download our white paper on Transforming Your Brand Into an Emotive Brand

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy firm.

Girl Scouts: Embracing a Purpose Bigger than Cookies

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

Girl Scouts

Girl Scouts have always been bigger than the cookies they sell. In fact, Girl Scouts of the USA is currently the world’s biggest organization dedicated to girls. Founded in 1912, a long list of prominent women today were Girl Scouts – Celine Dion, Venus Williams, Nancy Reagan, and even Michelle Obama (a big fan of the organization and its impact).

Slipping Membership

The organization currently has 1.8 million members, a drop from the 2.1 million members three years ago. And many are asking why the drop? Slipping membership can be explained in several ways. The organization may be losing girls to other activities – sports, arts, school work, or even, in today’s day and age, social media. A decline in parent-volunteering may also be a cause. Some families have voiced complaints about wanting more activities and outdoor experiences and less cookie selling. The organization has also been criticized for its lack of diversity. Two thirds of current members are Caucasian and there is low membership among minority populations.

It seems that at the heart of the slippage is the perception that Girl Scouts is simply old-fashioned – behind the times of what girls want today and what guardians want from the organizations who support those girls.

Shedding The “Campfire Image”

The organization responded to slipping membership and recently revamped its brand for the first time in decades. Because we’re interested in brands and how they are positioning themselves to succeed in today’s world, this rebrand caught our eye. Here’s why.

1. Focus on experiences

The recent rebrand is shifting focus away from the products and materials classically associated with Girl Scouts – think thin mints and badges – and towards the valuable experiences girls can gain from membership. That being said, the organization is by no means ending cookie sales (they bring in about $800 million in annual sales). But instead, repositioning the sales around the experiences and skills girls can gain – business experience, money management skills, knowledge about successful collaboration, and the overall confidence to tackle any project head on.

Similarly, the organization plans to move away from the long-standing tradition of badges. By introducing a new curriculum, called Journeys, they aim to create a learning environment tailored to help girls build a foundation for success down the road.

Girl Scouts is presenting themselves as a more modern brand by focusing in on experiences, and we predict this to serve them well down the road. Powerful, personal, and meaningful brand experiences tailored to the people that brands and businesses are trying to reach, are the future.

2. Fostering diversity  

The organization was smart and dug a little deeper into who their audiences really were. What was the demographic of the girls and families who joined and supported Girl Scouts? And even further, where was brand awareness and reach weak? Like many businesses today, Girl Scouts realized they weren’t reaching some groups of people that had the potential to connect meaningfully with their purpose and what they had to offer girls – leadership skills and a foundation to go and get whatever they set their mind to, taking risks and innovating along the way.

A key group that was getting left out of the conversation were girls of immigrant families. These girls represented a population that had the potential to find great value in the new program meant to transform girls into confident, savvy leaders and connect them with other girls in their communities.

When the team in charge of the rebrand conducted focus groups, it was revealed that many immigrant parents weren’t aware of Girl Scouts in the first place. And those that were didn’t find it to be the right cultural fit. Many parents didn’t feel comfortable with the concept. Amelia de Dios Romero, the Multicultural Marketing Manager, notes: “Selling cookies, to them, meant going door-to-door to strangers and camping was sleeping in the woods with danger there.” Some parents even thought the organization might turn out to be more of a party influence. 

So Girl Scouts’ newly appointed brand manager (in fact, the organization’s first ever brand manager), Laurel Richie, went out to change this. With Richie in charge of building the brand the team envisions, Girl Scout leaders have started to meet one-on-one with mothers to explain how the program might help their children adapt and feel comfortable in their new home or community. By listening to other perspectives and opening up a new conversation, the organization is beginning to foster the kind of culture they want to build – diverse, aware, welcoming, and connected. And as a result, embracing diversity and reaching a group of urban and minority girls who they have failed to reach in the past is more easily seen as an authentic, genuine goal of the organization.

3. Embracing a larger purpose

At the heart of this rebrand is the greater embrace of purpose. The GIRL initiative – standing for Go-Getters, Innovators, Risk Takers, and Leaders – exemplifies this purpose. Ms. Aceveo voices the larger aspiration: “letting girls know we are the premier leadership organization for them.” Strategically, all the changes that Girl Scouts has initiated so far have stemmed from their larger purpose of helping girls become leaders and connecting with each other. The new anthem, the new public service announcement featuring Girl Scouts playing different leadership roles (“I’m prepared…to lead like a Girl Scout”), their promise of partnering with more community-based organizations, the announcement of their Girl 2017 gathering, and their digital fundraising effort echo this purpose.

Like any rebrand, there’s always a risk. Gender roles have shifted so much since 1912, when the organization was founded. And many worried that the rebrand might be too progressive. Others worried it might not be progressive enough. Strategically, the organization rebranded itself in a way that created a brand open to flexibility. Leading with purpose created this ability to shift and create new programs that still ring true to the heart of the new brand.

Focus on Brand

In many ways, the shifts of the rebrand were subtle, especially design-wise. The new logo added bangs to the profile, attempting to give more life to the girls and making the girls appear more contemporary within the playful, familiar shape. The switch to lowercase aimed to make the organization seem more approachable and welcoming. A recent review of the rebrand noted “this project is a great example of what can be called a revitalization, breathing new life into something a lot of people are familiar with.”

But in other ways, the organization made some major shifts – towards experiences, diversity, and a greater purpose. And above all else, Girl Scouts appears to have embraced the power of building a strong, clear, meaningful brand. They signaled this shift when they hired their first-ever brand manager last year. We, at Emotive Brand, will stay tuned for what’s to come with the Girl Scout brand, and it’s more than cookies.

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

Our Favorite California Design Icons: Surround and Inspire

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

Oakland, Our Home

This week, after the most tragic and horrific fire in Oakland – our home – has ever seen, we’ve been thinking a lot about our love for the spots, spaces, and places that surround us. This past weekend’s fire took the lives of some of Oakland’s most creative talent. People who, just like us, were inspired every day by the buildings, museums, and breathtaking views that surround us.

California Design Icons

Everyone who lives in California knows that Californians love California. And everyone who lives in the Bay Area knows that Bay Area people really love the Bay Area. And we do.

As an Oakland-based brand strategy and design agency, we are constantly in awe of the area that we work and live in. We gather inspiration from our surroundings and draw energy from the open, magical state and city that surrounds us. And we believe that design, in every form, should be celebrated.

More and more, people outside of California are being influenced by California design. The term “California design” itself is becoming more and more valued across the world. A recent NYT article said it perfectly: “California as a brand is now a crucial selling point for product makers when it comes to technology, automobiles, and architecture.”

U.C. Davis professor of design, Simon Sadler, notes the “intangible sense of ‘magic and possibility’ within California architecture.” He says that California is different. It’s not about monuments, it’s about “nodes.”

A Few of Our Favorite California Design Icons

The NYT piece got us thinking about places and spaces within California that we celebrate as design icons. Most people think of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Coast Highway, but we wanted to mention some places outside of commonly mentioned SF icons that don’t always get the love they deserve.

1. Lake Merritt

We think of Lake Merritt as one of the most unique urban spaces in the U.S. It’s designed for people to come together – walk, picnic, gaze… It’s a neighborhood spot and a community space. The lake brings people together, and many designers are inspired by that.

2. Secret Stairs

Scattered throughout Berkeley and Oakland, hidden stairs weave into the hills. There’s a beautiful geography to these stairs. They create lines that connect our city together. The stairs echo the sense of mystery and possibility that Simon Sadler speaks of.

3. Grand Lake Theater

Grand Lake Theater is one of the most iconic spots in Oakland. It’s a landmark that beckons back to the Renaissance – with art deco interior artwork and neoclassical columns. It’s nostalgic and beautiful and holds a history of cinema that many theaters simply do not have anymore. The sign mounted outside is the largest rotary contact sign west of the Mississippi, which explains part of the reason why so many graphic posters of Oakland feature this theater.

4. Fox Theater

The mystical Fox Theater (featured image) is one of the most beautiful music venues in the Bay Area. It’s a symbol of downtown Oakland and an iconic design at that.

5. Mt. Tam

Curving up Mt. Tamalpais, a.k.a. Mt. Tam, and landing above the clouds almost seems like a dream. The light is always different and the fog rolls in and out in a tumbling dance. Even on the rare clear night, seeing a panoramic view of the entire Bay Area and those twinkling city lights makes our jaws drop.

6. Reyes Seashore

The bluffs, the fresh ocean air, the curving hikes in. When we want to hit refresh and gather a new perspective, we head just across the bridge to Pt. Reyes.

7. Lloyd Wright Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic and geometrical style is perfectly aligned with California’s culture and environment, and is an inspiration for many designers and architects looking to follow his organic aesthetic.

8. Mountain View Cemetery

Mountain View Cemetery was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted with the mission of creating a space that would communicate a harmony between humankind and the natural world. Striking this balance is an aspiration for many designers today.

9. Cranes of The Port of Oakland

From our office, we see the cranes towering over Oakland. They feel iconic to us – an image of industrial Oakland. So much so that the cranes acted as the inspiration for the design of our holiday card this year. Rumor has it the cranes even inspired the AT-AT Walkers in Star Wars.

10. Graffiti Art

More and more art is showing up in the streets of Oakland and Berkeley. San Francisco’s mission district is no longer the only place to find powerful art with strong messages about social justice, politics, and gentrification. The bold emotional impact that many of the murals and other pieces hold stop us mid-walk.

11. Hidden Labyrinth

Concealed within the Oakland Hills, multiple hidden labyrinths lay where an old volcano existed over 10 million years ago. The iconic spot reminds us of a time long ago, and the spiral shape of the labyrinth continues to spin in our minds on the hike down and can serve as a place for meditative reflection.

What are your favorite California design icons? Comment below. We are always open to more inspiration.

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

 

 

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.

Purpose-led Business Leaders Gain Competitive Advantage

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Long ago we fell in love with this Fast Company article about purpose-led business leaders who are changing the way business works by embracing purpose. Here we recap its main points, and add additional perspective.

Generation Flux is a group defined less by age than by attitude.

According to the article’s author, Robert Safian, Generation Flux “refers to the group of people best positioned to thrive in today’s era of high-velocity change.”

Safian continues, “Fluxers are defined not by their chronological age but by their willingness and ability to adapt. These are the people who are defining where business and culture are moving. And purpose is at the heart of their actions. Don’t confuse this with social service. For these folks, a mission is the essential strategic tool that allows them to filter the modern barrage of stimuli, to motivate and engage those around them, and to find new and innovative ways to solve the world’s problems. Their experiences show the critical advantages of building mission into your career and your business. Businesses that find and then live by their mission often discover that it becomes their greatest competitive advantage.”

Purpose is the key to future business success

Many of today’s top leaders are thriving through their purpose-led business and brand strategies. They use purpose to better navigate the fast moving and changing world. Purpose has become a strong tool of differentiation, which is in itself the key to growth, loyalty, and long-term value. A purpose beyond profit raises the stakes both intellectually and emotionally, and gives employees, customers, prospects, and recruits meaningful reasons to think, feel, and act in new ways with respect to your brand.

Who are these Generation Flux leaders?

Purpose-led business leaders are emerging at many of the world’s largest companies, across a vast array of business segments. According to Safian, people like Steve Ells of Chipotle and Tim Cook of Apple represent, “a rising breed of business leaders who are animated not just by money but by the pursuit of a larger societal purpose. Their motivation may be personal, emotional, and, yes, moral; and yet their idealism is rewarded in the marketplace. In a world that is evolving faster than ever, companies such as Apple and Chipotle–and Google and PepsiCo, and even fashion brands like Eileen Fisher–rely on mission to unlock product differentiation, talent acquisition and retention, and even investor loyalty. The more they focus on something beyond money, the more money they make.”

Is this just about making people happier at work, and giving a “feel-good” factor to your marketing/advertising?

Many people confuse the main outcome of being purpose-led. It is not simply to make people feel happy (though there’s no problem if one of the sensations they have along the way is happiness). Purpose is a much deeper idea, one that drills down to satisfying core human needs. People seek meaning in their lives. According to Safian, “Jennifer Aaker at Stanford University has taken this idea even further. She challenges the very notion that a pursuit of happiness is what drives us most. Her work suggests that people’s satisfaction with life is higher, and of greater duration, when meaning–rather than happiness–is their primary motivation.”

How do leaders develop and execute a purpose-led strategy?

According to Safian, Generation Flux leaders follow an inside-out strategy.

“Purpose is at the essence of why firms exist,” says Hirotaka Takeuchi, a management professor at Harvard Business School. “There is nothing mushy about it–it is pure strategy. Purpose is very idealistic, but at the same time very practical.”

Inside-out is a new way of thinking about business and brand strategies. Generation Flux leaders embrace the discomfort that new thinking generates, and use the resulting energy to forge a new and more powerful approach.

According to Takeuchi, at a company built on an inside-out strategy,

“the beliefs and ideals of management become the core. Why does the firm exist?” The research Takeuchi has done with Ikujiro Nonaka at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo shows that the key differentiator between enterprises is how they envision their futures. “A very bland mission doesn’t resonate,” he explains. A dynamic, long-term plan requires a mission that’s clear, focused, and invaluable: “Look at what Walt Disney wanted: ‘to create timeless, universal family entertainment,'” Takeuchi continues. “If you have those five words, there’s no doubt in the mind of employees or anyone else what you’re about.”

Should you join Generation Flux?

As noted above, Generation Flux is about looking at the world ahead and deciding that yesterday’s approaches and tools won’t be enough. The leaders of the new powerhouses of our economy embrace brand strategy embedded with meaning and purpose as the “North Star” of their organizations. They rally all their people around this idea, make every decision based on fulfilling this ideal, and through all this, fundamentally change their brand’s ability to compete and thrive.

Can you see how purpose helps address key business issues? Can you see how your leadership would reach new levels of effectiveness? Can you see how a new energy would be there to help your organization propel itself through an uncertain future?

If so, welcome to Generation Flux. Go and be purposeful!

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

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The Value of a Sales-Led Positioning For High-Tech Companies

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

A Sales Perspective

Tracy Lloyd, founding partner and Chief Strategy Officer of Emotive Brand, shares how her sales background informs her work today, and offers insights on the true value of bringing sales to the strategy table.

Tell us about your sales background.

I have an interesting background that has led me to the agency world, and on to brand strategy. Initially, I got my start in non-profit fundraising and development. A start-up CEO bought an expensive table from me to attend a gala event I was hosting. Throughout the sales process of getting that deal done, he said to me that I was in the wrong job, and thought I should be in sales … at his company. And so I did. And from there, I sold technology for many years—some emerging technologies, other enterprise solutions—in the states and living as an expat overseas.

How does your background shape your approach?

Everyone brings their past experiences and jobs with them. My background happens to be in sales. And I bring that knowledge into our approach at Emotive Brand.

Because I know how to sell and understand what it takes to be successful in sales, I focus a lot of my time there. It helps me back into brand strategy. With a sales mindset, I can reach a full understanding of how to position and sell technology to the enterprise. In fact, I’ve realized I can’t really brand something until I know how to sell it. I need to grasp what’s working and what’s not from the perspective of the sales team.

Since the sales team is closest to customers, they have a strong understanding of what customers need to buy. They are naturally driven to be successful. And they want everything at their disposal to be successful. They are the people I want to spend time with so I can witness first-hand what is going on. Understanding what will help them helps fuel our own team and our work. It is also a good reality check for me to balance what I hear from other parts of the organization directly for myself, and to witness the realities of what it is like for the sales team who is out on the front line.

Other people might come from different angles, but I think that this particular angle is something that is distinct to the way we work at Emotive Brand. I think it differentiates the way we approach strategy.

So sales teams are involved in your brand strategy process?

Yes. I like to involve them in a few, key places in our process. Early on, I like to go on sales calls and listen in whenever possible. It helps me get grounded in what’s going on. I listen to their pitch – how they address objections and how they position the technology. I pay attention to tone of voice. I look for signs that indicate that the customer understands. I want to know the exact point at which a no transforms to a yes, and then pinpoint why.

Later on, I like to involve sales when we begin work on prioritizing target audiences and then again when we are developing the value proposition(s) and messaging. At the end of the day, so many aspects of brand strategy have value by being vetted by sales – positioning, messaging, defining categories, and go-to-market strategies. I gather huge insights from the sales team – insights, I might not be able to get anywhere else. It’s my job to ladder back these findings and connect all the dots, and from there build the most impactful strategy possible.

It is obvious to work with the marketing team when developing a brand strategy. It’s not as obvious to work with the sales organization. But, for us, it works. Bringing sales to the table creates alignment, and breeds a better, stronger, smarter end product.

What kind of clients are your skills in sales of particular value to?

We work with a lot of high-growth startups that are going to market with products and services that are new, and often times inconceivable to most people today. They’ve built and engineered products that are ahead of the marketplace. This requires hard work from the brand in order to cut through the clutter. Our clients need help clearly articulating their true value to customers. Often times the market needs help understanding the brand’s value proposition and our clients need these tools to help their marketing and sales teams execute successfully. They need to quickly penetrate the market and sometimes even create a new market when one doesn’t exist. We have done our very best work for companies who have complex B2B technology, are beginning to sell into the enterprise, and who need to create new value for old thinking.

Where does brand strategy come in to play?

Brand strategy is about solving business problems. It’s as simple as that. All of our clients come to us with a business problem and we create a strategy to solve it. Most often the problems we are solving are about growth, differentiation, and creating a strong value proposition. Our clients almost always have a solid understanding of the features and benefits their product offers, but leading with that is not working. They may not know it at the time, but this is where the brand needs to step in and help them better tell their story.

For us, it always starts with defining why a brand matters at the highest level. We make it easier for a target audience to understand a technology and its role. From there, it’s all about creating the corporate narrative. Nailing the category, the positioning, and creating a strong value proposition and messaging to appeal to your top buying personas.

Brand strategy answers integral questions like: Why does your product matter? Why does it matter now? How is it different and better than what competitors are doing now? Sales teams need to understand the answers to these questions in order to be successful.

Knowing how to sell makes it easier for me to think about the end user buying our clients technology and how to best support a sales team with the tools they need to go to battle and more easily articulate this new way of doing business. We arm them with the tools that more easily helps them do what they do well — close deals.

Are there any challenges involved in bringing sales to the table?

Taking sales people out of the field is hard. So it’s important that we use them strategically and not waste their time. We don’t need everyone in sales involved in the process, but we make sure to include enough people so the strategy can benefit from their front-line experiences. They are very good at helping us gauge reality.

What’s the bottom-line payoff of bringing sales thinking to brand strategy?

There is so much exciting stuff going on in technology right now. For our clients’ customers, it’s hard to keep up to date and understand who’s going to bring the right value to their business. Brand strategy can help position a business to thrive – creating the right tools to go to market, and helping customers more clearly understand why a business matters and how it’s different. Using my sales background is a way for us to get to the heart of why the brand truly matters so we can create the right brand strategy.

This understanding helps create a value framework, situate the brand and its people for success, and ready a business to scale. Our work is about creating a brand that truly connects with people rationally and emotionally. A strategy doesn’t have real value unless it actually helps a brand reach the people who matter most to its business in meaningful ways. Bringing a sales mindset to the strategic table makes for a more impactful strategy. That’s the bottom line. 

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy agency.

 

How Do You Create a New Brand Category?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

All Signs Point to a New Brand Category

Traditional wisdom suggests that creating a new brand category is a massive undertaking. In our recent post on category change, we wrote about when it’s time to consider creating a new category. In that post we were clear: undergoing a category change is not something for the faint of heart. If you’re leading the effort, you’ll need thick skin, an iron will, and if you don’t have deep pockets, you’ll need to be extra resourceful.

Creating a new brand category requires big ideas that literally think outside the box — that’s the whole point. You’ll also need a team of decision makers who are comfortable with risk and ready to execute at a fast pace.

Resources, especially money, are another factor. Creating a new category does require an investment that may be exceed your business-as-usual marketing budget. And with that, comes more risk. It’s inevitable that some new categories flop or are slow to show return on investment.

Moving Forward

Regardless, category change still may be the best move for your brand and business. But, it doesn’t have to be a painful and scarily expensive process.

On the contrary, with a plan in place, tenacity, loads of creativity, and a clear vision, creating a new brand category is completely within reach. If there’s been a shift in your corporate strategy, product offering or the market, or if your category is having its own crisis, it could be time to break out. Creating and branding your own category is a proven way to drive your business forward.

Creating a category is a multi-step process that involves defining the category, naming it, and developing a roll-out strategy. Look to the following steps to define your new brand category:

Defining a New Brand Category

1. Research and analyze:

Have a deep understanding of the category dynamics in the current market. What direction is the market going? What’s the threshold for change amongst your target audience? Track the dynamics of existing category labels to determine when a window of opportunity will open up for a new category and give your company the best shot at succeeding. Use data to understand how customers are categorizing emerging brands to fine-tune your new category development.

2. Establish a budget:

Before getting too far down the road, make sure there’s a budget in place for the work you’re about to take on. Defining a new category also requires marketing the new category which can be a drain on resources. However, it certainly doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, being able to make the most of a modest budget means you know how to be resourceful, creative, and think about things differently. Once you have a budget in place, the strategy of developing the category becomes easier to determine.

3. Choose a category:

You need to strategically develop a category for Evaluate your business strategy, the competitive set, your own product roadmap, and where your industry is heading. Remember, people need a framework. Your brand needs to fit into the framework of a brand category that people understand and relate to in order to really ‘get’ your brand. To build groundswell around a new category, you’ve got to give people a frame of reference. Until your brand is established as the dominant leader of the category, most people will be reluctant to try something new. It’s human nature to play it safe. The more innovative and disruptive your offering is, the more it needs a frame that people can relate to.

4. Prove your brand is different:

When creating a new brand category, you need to engage your community in a consistent and meaningful way. It’s critical to demonstrate to the people important to your brand why your category matters, and how it offers something better than the existing category. Use the strongest parts of your brand to go beyond basic features and benefits. Prove your brand is poised to be the category leader because its purpose and promise are head and shoulders above the competition (and, there’s always competition). Your proof points will justify the new category and position your brand as the de facto leader, ready to take the stage.

After building the strategy for your new brand category, the hard work can begin: creating the right category name. We’ll identify the key factors to consider when ideating and securing a category name in our upcoming post.

This is the 2nd in a series. Check out When to Create a New Brand Category, Naming a New Brand Category, and Launching a New Brand Category.

Download our White Paper on Brand Category Creation.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.