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Tag: Brand Transformation

Emotion Makes Ambition Real, Even in Cybersecurity

Posted on by Emotive Brand

Every day, Emotive Brand works to amplify and make real the bold ambitions of visionary reinventors. Leaders with the courage and creativity to change businesses and brands, categories and culture—for good. So we were thrilled to partner with Silverfort, and rise to the challenge of transforming an industry on which all other industries now depend.

Thanks to Silverfort, cybersecurity will be safer, more thoroughly secure, and never the same. Lucky for us, their leadership team understood that when you challenge the status quo, you have to bring everyone along. That in revealing new possibilities, you must not only explain how they work but why they matter, especially in crowded B2B and tech spheres.

Innovation meets appreciation

At Emotive Brand, we believe that when you honor the people behind the tech—and build a brand that elevates their role—you can unlock something powerful: belief.

That’s exactly what happened when we teamed up with Silverfort. The team at Emotive felt it right away.

Silverfort isn’t just another cybersecurity company. They’re revolutionizing the space with a true breakthrough, called Runtime Access Protection (RAP), that centers identity as the lynchpin of cybersecurity. It’s an absolute paradigm shift. But like so many transformative technologies, the hardest part isn’t necessarily the innovation. It’s helping people understand and believe in it.

Identity security has long been overlooked as the very backbone of cybersecurity. And the professionals who manage it? Often underappreciated, fighting quiet battles in the shadows of flashier security priorities. Silverfort saw that. And we did too.

Together, we built a brand that said: not anymore.

Expansive technology needs expansive strategy

We set out to do what brand strategy does best—take a complex, technical solution and turn it into a movement. A story. A promise. We shifted the narrative from what identity security has been (an afterthought) to what it can be: comprehensive, continuous, and finally worthy of the spotlight.

To get there, we infused the brand with emotional clarity. The resulting verbal identity reflects Silverfort’s intrepid spirit of discovery—how they found a way to completely reimagine identity security, delivering the technology identity security professionals deserve.

Pivoting away from fear-based category tropes about dark, looming threats, the voice and underlying brand strategy take care to validate and uplift these essential teams.

In tandem, we created a new visual identity that feels alive—ambient gradients, adaptive forms, and a striking aura of protection that surrounds any environment, any user, any system. It signals optimism, not fear. Momentum, not maintenance. Progress, not patchwork.

All told, our work with Silverfort encompassed a wide range of services and deliverables, from a corporate narrative to brand positioning to website design. But make no mistake—we weren’t checking boxes. Every element serves a bigger purpose.

Belief is the foundation

The heart of the Silverfort brand is belief—not just in their technology, but in people. The identity and security professionals who’ve kept enterprises afloat without recognition for too long. The ones who understand how deeply fragmented and fragile identity systems have become. The ones who finally see a solution that speaks their language and elevates their purpose.

Of course, Silverfort’s employees are the ultimate believers. Previously focused on the features and benefits of their technology, they now rally around deeper reasons to believe in the company and its future–serving the people battling on the frontlines against cyber attackers, and challenging the status quo to “find a way” to do the impossible.

No doubt, Silverfort has always been supremely innovative.

But today, when they show up in the world, they’re not just making the technical case—they’re making the emotional one, too. Their new brand validates and galvanizes, igniting the kind of connection that turns potential customers into believers and believers into champions.

Because belief is how transformation takes root.

And that’s the work we love most.

How Belief is Transforming the WNBA and the Culture

Posted on by Emotive Brand

Sometimes, brand and business strategy align with cultural change—moving us all forward and proving impossible wrong.

Look no further than the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association).

Back in 1996, 25 years after Title IX became law, the NBA launched the WNBA as interest in women’s basketball surged. That year, the Olympic women’s basketball team won gold, led by Lisa Leslie.

The growth of the sport for women was like a breathtaking fast break. A dynamic and unstoppable transition. The kind of moment that gets everyone up on their feet. Hyped.

“We got next” was the tagline, and it caught fire.

As a brand and business, the NBA saw a chance to expand not only the fan base but the game of basketball itself, leveraging existing assets.

Of course, a vision for a successful women’s sports league—or any business or movement—isn’t a ticket to success. You need wholehearted, gut-level, feel-it-in-your-bones belief. From athletes, employees, fans, investors, media, and sponsors.

Emotional Barriers to Belief

At the heart of the WNBA is a deeply held belief in the power and importance of women as full human beings capable of greatness in all forms.

The league wasn’t just selling a product–and they had the talent for that. They were selling progress–which requires shared belief. Headwinds persisted.

For one, media coverage lagged. Audiences were not hearing the players’ stories, maintaining an emotional distance as a huge barrier to fanhood.

After all, when you think of Michael Jordan, you don’t picture a list of stats, except maybe the number six, his national championship tally. No, you appreciate the totality of the legend, shaped by personality and history.

It may come to mind that Jordan didn’t make Varsity his sophomore year in high school. You might remember his iconic flu game in the 1997 finals, The Shrug, winning a championship on Father’s Day after his own father’s murder, his singular high-flying style of play, and so much more.

There have been legends, dynasties, icons, and game-changers in the WNBA who remained in shadow. Media outlets, investors, and sponsors didn’t have the level of belief to elevate them.

Case in point: You probably don’t know that the Houston Comets are one of only five domestic professional franchises to win four straight titles.

The lack of belief undermined the vast potential for growth now being unleashed.

It can take time to establish roots and grow, but a single seed of belief holds multitudes. Its spread turns daring vision into new reality.

A New WNBA Era Built by Believers

While the arrival of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese supercharged the ascent, the WNBA had already been rising. Without a foundation of belief already established, the 2024 season would not have broken records.

For example, it was partly the glory of Maya Moore, Minnesota Lynx star from 2011 to 2018, that inspired Clark and Reese to see and believe in their WNBA dreams.

In turn, Moore credits another of the WNBA’s all-time greats for putting her on the path to greatness, saying, “That’s where I got my passion for the game, watching the WNBA on TV. Cynthia Cooper, Raise the Roof, We Got Next, I was into all of it.”

A lack of belief perpetuates itself. But so does the presence of belief. It builds.

Business is booming. In 2024, Deloitte forecasted women’s sports would bring in $1.3 billion. They were wrong—short by over half a billion, with the WNBA as a huge contributor.

The media is catching on. Last year, the WNBA signed a media rights deal for $2.2 billion over 11 years. At $200 million per year, that’s four times the value of the previous contract, with room to add more media partnerships. So that number will go up.

Sponsors are cashing in. For example, in 2023, New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, owner of numerous collegiate and WNBA records, became the first women’s basketball player with a unisex Nike signature collection. During the 2024-2025 regular season, the Nike Sabrina 2 was the second most worn sneaker by NBA players. That’s right–NBA players.

 

But here’s another stat. Around age 14, 40% of girls quit sports, with body dissatisfaction among the top cited reasons.

The WNBA serves as an antidote, showcasing fierceness and athletic ability in women of diverse sizes, ethnicities, and shapes. All of whom take up space unapologetically. On the court and off.

What happens when more girls believe in themselves enough to stick with basketball, or any pursuit they have a passion for? We’re finding out.

Next is now. Believe it.

 

Image: Caitlin Clark, playing for the Indiana Fever in 2024 (Photo credit: John Mac)

Culture Transformation: Give Your Employees a Reason to Believe

Posted on by Emotive Brand

The Unspoken Truth

Feel the weight of it. In conference rooms across the world, leaders unveil visions meant to inspire, yet faces remain blank, hearts unmoved. This isn’t just a momentary disconnect. It’s the emotional void where transformation goes to die.

When 30% of your people feel invisible and 65% feel their contributions evaporate into thin air, they’re not just unhappy—they’re unreachable. The most brilliant strategy means nothing to a soul that doesn’t believe.

Belief Matters When Stakes Are High

We stand at the edge of a new emotional landscape. The old certainties have dissolved into air. Promotions are fewer. Pay bumps are smaller. IPOs are on hold. The promise of financial upside isn’t doing what it used to.

And your employees are paying attention.

As Carolyn Moore, a Chief People Officer coach who works with high-growth leaders puts it:

“Employees need a reason to believe.
And if you don’t give them one, they’ll go.”

 

She’s right. Your best people don’t just want to feel appreciated. They want to feel their work is meaningful, that it’s leading somewhere, and that it’s worth staying for. Without that belief, they’ll start weighing other options, whether they’re actively job-hunting or not.

The Beautiful Barriers We Build

What gets in the way isn’t bad intent. It’s leadership focus in the wrong place:

  • Values with no follow-through. When values live on posters but not in practice, people stop trusting what you say.
  • Inconsistent leadership. Mixed messages from the top fracture belief and wear people down.
  • Cultural noise. Endless initiatives, shifting priorities, and overuse of the word “transformation” make it hard to know what really matters.
  • Emotional blind spots. Most organizations don’t know how their employees actually feel, and even fewer know what to do with that insight.

The Power of Emotional Clarity

Belief isn’t built through behavior metrics. It’s built through emotional clarity.

At Emotive Brand, we use an approach called Emotional Acceleration. It’s a way to move people from understanding what you’re trying to do to believing in it enough to act.

It starts with a simple question: How do people feel right now? Not what they are doing. Not what they are producing. What are they feeling?

Through an Emotional Audit, we identify the gap between the emotional experience people are having today and the one they need in order to connect, align, and commit.

From Belief to Belonging

When you create reasons to believe, something extraordinary happens. People who moved through days on autopilot suddenly awaken to possibility. Teams that operated from obligation begin to move with purpose.

Belief isn’t soft. It’s strategic.

If your employees don’t believe their work matters, they’ll stop investing in it. But when they do? They push further. They stay longer. They build better.

Belief is what turns a bold vision into a shared one. It’s what makes a culture feel like a place worth belonging to. And in today’s talent market, it may be your greatest competitive advantage.

The Courage to Feel

The most profound business transformation isn’t something you implement. It’s something you feel—together.

Will you have the courage to discover what your people truly believe? Will you dare to build your future on emotional truth?

So ask yourself: Do your people have a reason to believe?

Because if they don’t, you’ve got work to do.

Emotional Acceleration: The Fastest Path from Vision to Impact

Posted on by Emotive Brand

At Emotive Brand, we believe that to ignite transformation, visionary leaders need more than a process. You need a propulsion system. A strategic jet pack for navigating unprecedented complexity and disruption. We call it Emotional Acceleration.

As always, change starts with an idea that transcends accepted yet invisible limits. But more than ever, success depends on speed of activation. How fast can you align teams, shift behavior, and inspire action?

You can launch into endless proof points, but unless people can feel it—unless they not only see the path ahead but are deeply compelled to see where it leads—vision remains stuck in the realm of idea, not reality.

Ideas need believers.  This truth lives at the heart of Emotional Acceleration, our approach to transformation. It’s how we move clients rapidly through an evidence-based arc, from nascent vision to lasting impact. Here’s how it works:

 

Illustration of the arc of transformation from Vision to Belief to Momentum, to Impact.

 

Transformation starts with vision

Emotional Acceleration launches from a clear articulation of the power, potential, and meaning of the vision, balancing precision and inspiration.

What are the purpose, values, and beliefs that give rise to the vision? How will this vision shape the future, and for whom? Here, our clients’ boldest ambitions find their footing.

“Emotive’s strategic approach revamped our brand, aligning it seamlessly with our vision for CodeOps. Through collaborative efforts, they crafted our narrative and positioned us effectively in the market.”

—Lesley Rubin, VP Marketing, Crowdbotics

 

Shared belief makes vision real.

Audacious vision must become a shared mission that people can not only see and understand, but feel and own.

We gauge how teams, customers, communities, and stakeholders feel today, and determine the emotional shift needed to cultivate buy-in, alignment, and deeply held belief.

“I’ve been part of a lot of these projects and it’s usually a case of the CMO leading this. Sometimes, the CEO is excited about it, but then it sort of peters out. We have the CFO excited. We have the CTO excited. Everybody’s like, “This is awesome. We can’t wait for a new brand.”

—Dennis Fois, CEO, Bloomerang

 

Momentum builds as belief drives action.

On a solid foundation of shared belief, it’s time to move internal and external audiences to action, motivating new behaviors and choices.

Online or off, in big and small moments, we craft interactions that intentionally shift and reshape clients’ emotional impact on people, to forge connection and loyalty.

“It was an amazing partnership to accelerate us from a start-up to a growth-stage company much faster.”

—Eric Futoran, CEO, Embrace

 

Impact endures and expands.

This iterative, collaborative phase sustains and amplifies transformative outcomes, adapting as client goals evolve and the landscape changes.

We measure essential results, including business metrics and emotional impact, to identify needs for refinement and emerging opportunities.

“Emotive Brand got us right from the start. They were able to understand our technology, our vision for the future, the nuances of what makes us different, and delivered us a brand that launched us and moved us from stealth to exit.”

—Alex Henson, Head of Marketing, Moveworks

 

Emotional Acceleration is dynamic, not linear. It’s flexible, not one-size-fits-all. The path looks different, and unfolds via unique trajectories, for each organization.

Yet the principles of clarifying a bold, differentiated vision, building shared belief, generating momentum through meaningful experiences, and sustaining impact with thoughtful calibration? They apply to all industries, sectors, and objectives–because all rely on the efforts and emotional investment of human beings.

The Future Belongs to Those Who Make Us Feel

Posted on by Emotive Brand

As technological, political, and societal shifts accelerate at mind-scrambling speed, not all are lost. A new type of leader is rising to meet this unprecedented moment: Visionary reinventors.

While more traditional leaders are disoriented by growing complexity, visionary reinventors maintain clarity, direction, and unstoppable momentum.

They know that as AI ascends, uncertainty abounds, and culture morphs and even fractures, one thing remains constant–the strategic power of human emotion.

By defining, honing, and owning the emotional impact of the brands and organizations they lead, visionary reinventors forge meaningful and enduring connections with customers, investors, and employees.

This emotion-centered approach empowers a fiercely proactive posture. Visionary reinventors don’t wait for the world to be ready.

These modern leaders move people, markets, and industries above features and functionality to the higher ground of belief, a place of new perspective, where change is not feared–but desired, demanded, and inevitable.

They know that innovation alone does not and can not unleash true disruption. Visionary reinventors understand that today, more than ever, disruption unfolds from an emotional epicenter.

Passionate conviction ripples out, igniting the energy of a movement. What once felt like foundational truth is revealed as dogma, suddenly inadequate and unbearable, making way for new possibilities and deeper purpose.

After all, the elevation of human potential is what makes technology truly powerful. And in ever more saturated markets, how products make us feel is what drives their value.

Consider these two examples, each with a functional and emotional premise.

image-functional-and-emotional-premise-examples

Make no mistake–the emotional framing captures truth. It simply translates the functional premise into the human meaning, painting a picture not of a product but of a better future for people.

This is how visionary reinventors communicate. They don’t convince—they inspire belief. They don’t pull people along—they create a strong emotional current that moves people to alignment and action.

Ideas propelled by emotion have a magnetism and magnitude that can’t be neatly contained in any pitch deck. How they make people feel can’t be replicated by competitors. And once unleashed and embraced, they can’t be stopped.

Emotion’s catalytic role in transformative leadership lives at the core of Emotive Brand’s approach. Every day, we have the privilege of partnering with visionary reinventors to reimagine brands, create categories, and ignite change.

We’ve seen it firsthand. The future isn’t built by those who wait for the world to be ready—it’s built by those who make the world feel ready.

The Unstoppable Rise of Emotion: Why Leading with Feeling is the Rational Choice

Posted on by Emotive Brand

Wherever humans are present, emotion is a constant. 

It’s the silent force guiding decisions, the vital spark that translates ideas into action. We know it intuitively: the choices that matter most—whether you’re choosing a partner, purpose, or product—aren’t tabulated in spreadsheets. They’re made in hearts and minds.

So why in the world of business do we so often dismiss emotion?

At Emotive Brand, we’ve always believed that emotion isn’t just powerful—it’s essential. Feelings drive loyalty, ignite movements, and deliver measurable outcomes. Our new white paper, The Unstoppable Rise of Emotion, makes the case by showing how strategic use of emotion amplifies impact in ways logic alone never could.

This isn’t just a theory. Emotion has become a pillar of effective leadership, branding, and business strategy.

Why Emotion Is Now Imperative 

As generational and technological shifts redefine expectations, emotion is no longer optional—it’s the ultimate competitive advantage.

Decisions—personal and professional—are emotional at their core. And the data proves it. Reflecting a dramatic shift that began accelerating in the late 90’s, 70% of brand decisions are now driven by emotional factors, and emotionally connected customers deliver 306% higher lifetime value.

Emotion is the key to staking your claim, standing out in saturated markets, and forging real connections in an increasingly skeptical world. 

What You’ll Discover in the White Paper

The Unstoppable Rise of Emotion doesn’t just explain why emotion works. It’s your guide to transforming how you connect, lead, and grow. Download the paper to explore:

  • The Science of Emotion: Why our decisions are rooted in feeling—and what that means for business.
  • The Barriers to Emotion: Cultural biases and structural blind spots that keep organizations from fully embracing emotion as strategy.
  • The Framework for Change: How to rethink impact and embed the power of emotion throughout your brand, culture, and leadership.

The way forward isn’t a feel-good tagline or even a generous injection of emotion into a campaign. Success requires that you lead with feeling—everywhere, all the time.

For Leaders Who See that More Is Possible

The future belongs to those who can connect—not just inform with rational benefits, but resonate through shared humanity. It belongs to leaders who understand that emotion is the driving force behind the most transformative decisions we make.

For leaders who want to build legacies that include but also transcend brands, The Unstoppable Rise of Emotion is your blueprint.

Download the white paper today and reimagine the role of emotion to amplify your impact, deepen relationships, and earn enduring loyalty.

Feel the Shift: The Rational Strategy for Emotional Transformation

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Humans are hard-wired to resist change. You can’t achieve transformation simply by enforcing new systems or strategies. You have to move people—employees, customers, and leaders—toward something greater. Something they can feel and believe in.

That’s why Emotive Brand embraces emotion as an ultra-potent tool for driving change and growth at every level. And this isn’t a hunch. The data is clear: emotionally resonant brands deliver 306% greater customer lifetime value.

Emotion is more than just a fleeting feeling. It’s a life force. It’s the spark that drives decision-making and forges loyalty. It’s how employees evolve into passionate advocates, how customers become lifelong champions, and how ideas turn into movements that redefine industries.

Yet, for many leaders, emotion remains ethereal—untethered and unquantifiable–due to a lack of the emotion-based metrics that, finally, more and more companies are using to reshape and reimagine performance. It’s all too easy to fall back into the comfort of the status quo: familiar tools of logic, data, and process.

By pulling these familiar levers, you may sustain performance in the short term, but you’ll rarely–if ever–ignite transformation.

By contrast, when you add emotion to the change management process:

  • Decisions resonate and inspire alignment.
  • Cultures thrive, not just function.
  • Brands forge deeper, longer-lasting connections.

We work with Visionary Reinventors—leaders who understand that emotion has the power to inspire action, build belief, and catalyze growth. Whether it’s redefining categories, aligning culture to accelerate ambition, or creating brands that matter, our mission is to amplify their impact by harnessing emotion.

True transformation is the outcome of bridging reason and passion, human and brand, in ways that resonate so deeply that people are moved to action.

If you’re ready to transform, we welcome you to read our guide, The Unstoppable Rise of Emotion, and discover how to leverage emotion as your most rational—and powerful—strategy.  Download it today.

What is a Brand Promise and Why You Need One

Posted on by Emotive Brand

There’s a lot of talk about the concept of a brand promise. But, what is it? Why does my business need one? How would it make my business stronger? How does it relate to my brand strategy? Here we explore the answers to these pressing questions.  And perhaps more important, what kind of a brand promise does your business need in today’s world to have an impact?

A brand is a promise delivered.

A contemporary brand promise articulates an idea that goes beyond the rational benefits that worked in the past, and extols a higher-order emotional reward. A brand promise is not a slogan or advertising headline. It is not, by definition, a public statement (though it can be as long as your brand truly lives up to it). Finally, it is not a “unique selling proposition”. Indeed, its uniqueness and differentiating power comes not from what it says, but how it transforms the way your organization creates strong and meaningful connections with people.

Continue reading “What is a Brand Promise and Why You Need One”

How to Prepare for Successful Business Transformations

Posted on by Joanna Schull

There’s a well-worn saying in business that the only certainty is change, and these past few years have proven that to be true by exponential levels. Entire industries have found themselves faced with the need to plan and transform their businesses in the face of tremendous unknowns including COVID-19, rising inflation, and a troubled economy. Now, as we enter September of 2022, with the world still in flux, what does it mean to look ahead, and begin planning for the future?

Business transformation matters now more than ever and agility and forward-thinking scenario planning have never been more important.

Building a Roadmap for the Future in Times of Uncertainty

Taking steps to significantly shift—or transform—a company’s business can be either proactive or reactive. Ideally, it’s the former, but external events, whether created by competitors, shifts in customer needs, governmental regulations, or global events can cause the latter to be true. At a high level, the process for either is the same. Here’s the overview:

  • Begin with fact-based strategic planning, competitive research, and situational analysis to create the essential foundation of data about the status quo.
  • Next, based on this foundation of data, leaders need to identify and analyze potential future states for the business.
  • Based on this analysis, leadership aligns with the agreed future state and begins the work of determining the specific changes and sequencing that will be required.
  • Evaluate the brand and business—are they aligned with each other, or do they need to be recalibrated to make sure that the brand is supporting the new business direction?
  • Finally, it’s essential to keep employees informed as the process unfolds, not only so they are kept in the loop, but also as a source of feedback and information.

Let’s go into more detail on each step:

Set the Foundation

Successful transformations—or sometimes, evolutions—need to start with a clear-eyed understanding of both the current state of the business, as well as upcoming external forces that will have an impact. It’s good to approach this phase of the process with a structured set of internal and external research aimed at uncovering the business’s strengths and weaknesses, competitive threats, and unmet customer needs. In addition, it’s important to have a good understanding of known external impacts that can be anticipated—things such as regulatory changes and general business trends and market predictions.

Identify Your North Star

Armed with this foundational set of information, it’s now time for a business’s leadership team to identify potential paths forward. Oftentimes, these will exist along a continuum, starting with slight shifts to the existing business, then growing in ambition to encompass more ambitious pivots and expansions. Each potential direction is then analyzed to understand its implications: How will it impact revenue? Do we have the right talent to execute the direction? How will it change our customer base and competitive set? How does it impact our product roadmap? How will analysts and investors react? After assessing the options, the leadership team needs to discuss, align, and set a direction.

Create An Execution Plan

The next step is the planning phase: What changes need to be made in order to begin making the desired shifts? In what sequence do they need to occur? What are the potential ripple effects of those changes? It’s important to do this work in a cross-functional manner, giving all parts of the organization insights into the changes occurring. This helps to eliminate overlapping efforts and activities that could compete with or contradict each other, in addition to providing an integrated roadmap that ensures everyone knows how the change efforts fit together and combine to achieve the end result.

Align Your Brand

When making a shift, it’s essential to make sure that your brand is supporting and reinforcing your new business strategy. This starts with making sure that your brand positioning supports your chosen direction followed by your messaging and external expression of your brand: digital touchpoints (web, social, etc.), sales support materials, PR, AR, IR, and all external-facing communications. Don’t neglect the visual expression of your brand. Many companies, especially former startups entering their next phase of maturity, find that they have outgrown their previous look and feel and need to evolve into a more ‘mature’ level of design sensibility.

Bring People Along on the Journey

The most successful transformations are inclusive, and while it is important that leaders lead the process, it is equally important to involve perspectives and participation from across the organization. This includes involving different divisions, geographies, functions, and levels within the company as part of the planning process in order to get their input as plans are developed. This not only ensures that critical details aren’t overlooked but also builds engagement and buy-in to the process.

A Shared Understanding Speeds Execution

Ultimately, change is about disciplined execution and dedication to doing the work required to make change stick across multiple parts of the organization and ensuring that the people of the organization understand what the change is, how the business is going to adapt, and why it matters because organizations with a shared understanding about the reasons behind change are more likely to move forward with certainty, even in uncertain times.

Take a deep dive into our most recent B2B transformations: Coast, Snow Software, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

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

Talking Transformation: Brand, Business, and Culture

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

An Interview with Katie Tamony

We sat down with Katie Tamony, Chief Communications and Culture Officer at Alluma, a technology non-profit dedicated to making sure those eligible for benefits and services don’t fall through the cracks. Katie talks to us about leading transformation projects: her role, why these kinds of projects excite her, and what’s critical in executing a transformation successfully.

This isn’t the first transformation project you’ve been a part of. Why does this kind of work appeal to you?

Building something new out of what has been has always excited me. That’s why I’m particularly interested in organizations that have an established track record, but, because of market forces or business demands, haven’t been able to sustain their success. They stop growing. Transformational work is a unique opportunity to think differently, question the sacred cows, and re-see the insights you took for granted. I just love discovering the hidden potential in people and in organizations.

You’ve led many rebrands. What role does brand play when a company is making a significant shift?

I see brand as the decision-making filter for the organization. It guides who you want to hire, what you offer customers, how you express yourself, how you make business decisions about what to invest in…it touches everything. It’s a roadmap; it’s guardrails. Brand ensures the organization is moving in the right direction. And I’ve found that when done right, brand can create a wonderful shared understanding within an organization of who you are and why you matter.

How did you work with leadership to create and maintain alignment throughout the transformation?

Any transformation is a journey, it’s a process. Setting goals and objectives at the beginning ensures that the leadership team is aligned around what success looks like from the start. But in my experience at Alluma and in leading past transformation at SFMOMA, Sunset Magazine, and Monrovia Plants, it’s beneficial to not just keep the brand journey within the executive team. For instance, at Alluma, we invited mid-level managers and other subject-matter experts to weigh in and help evaluate market insights when we were at a pivotal point in the process with Emotive Brand. Inviting other people outside of the executive leadership to sit around the table gave us true perspective on how ideas and insights were landing and what felt true to the people closest to the day-to-day work. Having them ideate the opportunities that would emerge if we went a certain direction was exciting and a real pressure test.

What about the board? Is there a role for them in projects like this?

As a non-profit, the role of the board is critical. They’re like a senior executive group, but at the same time they bring a lot of external perspective and deep knowledge for our sector that is indispensable. We got their buy-in on the goals and the process early on and involved them at key decision points. Choosing the final name for Alluma actually came down to decisions from the CEO and the Board.

These projects are long. How do you communicate to employees to keep them connected after the pivotal brand launch moment?

Yes, the launch is exciting. A new name. A new website. A new T-shirt. But then it’s kind of like after a wedding or any climatic event, people are thinking, “okay well, how does this change my day-to-day?” Then begins the most critical phase of the transformation; helping people figure out how they internalize the brand and start to use it to inform their own decision making, their everyday work. From how they show up to a meeting, how they sell, how they talk to our clients—all of these activities are influenced by the brand. It takes education, but I mostly think about using brand as an invitation to talk about things in a new way.

Did you see the culture ultimately change? 

Behavior change drives culture change, and behavior change is challenging. It takes time. And it starts small. So it’s critical that even small behavior changes are recognized and reinforced. You want to encourage people to look for opportunities to reinforce the brand until it just feels natural. I see culture change as the final and most lasting element of transformation. It requires brand education, business focus, and even organizational change management.

What challenges might others find along the way they should be mindful of?

Every organization is unique. Alluma was my first time leading a brand transformation at a technology company. I learned that I had to invest time in using more data and visible, specific examples to back up emotional insights to get our engineers and developers (rational thinkers) to see that this was a serious approach to branding. That was a challenge I underestimated. Figuring out a way to define brand and translate it into both rational and emotional terms is key to get diverse stakeholders on board.

How do you measure success from a brand perspective? Business? Culture?

We measured success by the objectives we set at the beginning of the project. We conducted a baseline survey with our employees measuring current brand attributes, and then we will assess quarterly to measure alignment with the strategy, understanding of the strategy, how much they believe in it. From a business perspective, we looked at awareness and interest from our target audience. To measure, we looked at website traffic, newsletter subscriptions, social media engagements. We also evaluated brand against our revenue goals and, because we have a long business development process, that measurement is still ongoing. As for culture, I see people organically bringing more visible curiosity and a wider approach to problem-solving to all engagements. It’s just evident that the culture of tenacious problem solving is coming to life.

What do you see as the key to a successful transformation?

For one, the process is important. People may discount the process, but the journey is everything. That doesn’t mean it needs to be super long or really expensive. It just has to be thoughtful. And, I’d say again, go beyond your executive team. These kinds of projects can break down silos and barriers within an organization in an incredible way.

Alluma and Emotive Brand partnered to rebrand SIS to Alluma, transforming the brand, business, and culture. Read the case study here.

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