Overlay
Let's talk
Emotive Brand
Get in touch: [email protected] 510-496-8888

Hello!

Tag: Brand

Marketing vs. Brand? Do You Know the Difference?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Marketing vs. Brand

People are sometimes confused about the difference between marketing vs. brand strategy. This is not surprising, because they are not mutually exclusive ideas. They are interdependent strategic activities that feed, inform, and drive each other. The important distinction to make is in the intent and desired outcome of each area.

Brand

Brand defines how people should ideally feel about your business and products. It strives to find how to optimize belief in what you do offer and what you stand for in the world. It is an abstract idea held in the hearts and minds of people who have a connection to your business, either as customers, partners, suppliers, or employees. One way to think about brand is as a “promise delivered”. As such, brand strategy is about defining that promise and explaining how it can come to life.

Marketing

Marketing is about identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements profitably. It defines the market to be served and the best routes to that market. It informs product development. It defines the price of the product and how and where it is to be promoted. As such, marketing strategy is an assembly of tactics that are very rational and tangible in nature, and highly measurable.

There is overlap between the two disciplines, because the best brand strategies are informed by strong marketing strategies, and the best marketing strategies are driven by strong brand strategies.

Another distinct difference between brand and marketing is their relative scope. Marketing is a highly focused activity that is principally outer-directed. Brand is a broad concept that conceivably touches everyone connected to the brand, both internally and externally. Indeed, the brand’s promise is realized when product development, manufacturing, finance, customer service, HR, and marketing are all being inspired and driven by the brand promise.

The best leaders appreciate both the differences and the synergies of brand and marketing. They recognize the outcome of their brand strategy as a promise the organization will strive to keep, that will help create a brand that is respected, admired, and valued. They see the outcome of their marketing strategy as a set of tools that will actively turn that promise into profits through interest, appeal, and differentiation.

When dealing with brand and marketing strategies, remember it’s not a case marketing vs. brand strategy, and its not “either/or”, but of “both/and”. One cannot work without the other. Each needs to be developed in a focused way, while being fully aware of, and respectful to, each other.

For additional information on our services, including both marketing and brand strategy, take a look at our solutions page.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency

Save

The Role and Impact of Brand Purpose

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Brand Purpose

I recently reread an older HBR blog post by Graham Kenny that details the difference between the increasingly popular idea of brand purpose and the traditional corporate drivers of vision, mission, and values.

His conclusion echoes our beliefs about the role and impact of a company purpose:

“If you’re crafting a purpose statement, my advice is this: To inspire your staff to do good work for you, find a way to express the organization’s impact on the lives of customers, clients, students, patients – whomever you’re trying to serve. Make them feel it.”

Mr. Kenny’s closing statement, “make them feel it”, goes to the heart of what it is to be meaningful as a company or brand. Meaningful ideas take the impact that you have on people beyond the cognitive level. Meaning goes much deeper by touching our universal, innate, and deeply-held aspiration to do good and worthy things in our lives.

Brand Purpose changes the way people think, feel, and act

The feelings that flow from meaningful connections are profound, yet they often operate below the surface of consciousness. As such, people may not be readily able to talk about these feelings, but there’s no question that meaning resonates within us all, and has the power to change the way we think, feel, and act.

A strong and compelling purpose helps employees better understand, work to, and feel personally accountable for the company’s vision, mission, and values. Think of purpose as the energy that will make those elements work more efficiently.

Purpose leads to significant business outcomes

Energizing your workplace through purpose has further benefits:

– Purpose-led leaders and managers work with greater passion and in a more aligned and coordinated fashion.

– Engaged and motivated employees work with greater levels of collaboration, self-initiative, and innovation.

– Customer relationships prosper from more energized and purposeful interactions with the brand and its people.

– Sales, marketing, and advertising becomes more effective as they align more to the many outcomes that flow from the brand as it actively pursues its purpose.

Why wait?

Why forego the beneficial energy that a purpose can bring to your company or brand? Why miss this opportunity to matter more to your employees? Why not use a purpose to elevate your brand above the competition by focusing on meaningful outcomes?

Purposeless is no longer an option for brands seeking to thrive and prevail.

For more information about how to transform your brand for the 21st century, please download our white paper.

Download White Paper

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy firm.

Meaningful Workplace: Master Plans Create Employee Alliance

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Creating employee alliance

Seventh in a series.

A Meaningful Workplace is built from the company’s master plan – a strategic platform used exclusively by senior management – that defines the three core elements of ambition (purpose), feelings (values), and behavior (building a culture).

This master plan drives all subsequent activities, which include:

  • Macro Plans – how the business itself will be evolved;
  • Group Plans – how groups of employees will be engaged;
  • Solo Plans – how individual employees will be personally engaged.

Building something great and enduring

Macro Planning puts the business’s structure, policies, and procedures through the filter of the master plan to identify opportunities to better align the work experience to the agreed ambition, feelings, and behavior.

Group Planning develops tailored interactions between the company and groups of its employees (e.g. by location, discipline, seniority, etc.) that engage employees in the principles and practices of the master plan (note: not the master plan itself).

Solo Planning creates the means by which individuals come to personally identify with and internalize the principles and practices of the master plan (note: not the master plan itself).

When senior management has a Master Plan, they not only achieve their traditional objectives, but also something of great and enduring value: a new, higher-order and meaningful alliance with their employees.

Did you miss the first six parts of this series? You might want to read:

This series is excerpted from a white paper titled The Meaningful Workplace that was first published at Emotive Brand.

Using Values to Build Engagement and a Meaningful Workplace

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Fifth in a series.

“People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

The goal of employee engagement is to drive employee attitudes, behavior, morality, and ethics in such a way as to improve their productivity, morale, satisfaction, and usefulness within the organization. However, many companies have struggled with converting their proclaimed values into compelling, work-changing experiences for their employees.

Often, the problems have been that the values are typically expressed with meaning-neutral (if not meaningless) corporate-speak, or that the values aren’t of a first-order nature. That is, they don’t touch on what truly constitutes the “good” for people inside and outside the organization.

Getting employees to live company values

As such, employees simply haven’t been able to internalize the values. If asked, they may be able to repeat the values verbatim, but their recitation will not be heartfelt. Furthermore, too often their conscious knowledge of the values does not lead to the desired changes in attitudes, behavior, morality, and ethics.

There is a way businesses can get employees to live the company’s values. Ironically, it is by never using the word “values.” Rather, it is by bringing people to the company’s values through feelings.

This is a new way of engaging employees in corporate values. It doesn’t ask employees to buy into potentially bland statements crafted in corporate-speak. Instead, it prompts employees to think about how they want themselves, and others, to be left feeling by the business.

To make this work, the business determines a set of higher-order feelings based on their ambition. These feelings are selected based on their ability to help propel employees in their pursuit of the ambition and their ability to serve as an employee-friendly way of deploying values through employee engagement initiatives.

Engagement built around feelings

The business then engages its employees around these feelings, using them to shape, change, improve, and make more consistent, the employee’s attitudes, behavior, morality, and ethics as it drives them forward toward the ambition.

For example, employees can be engaged in a process by which they explore how the business can better make them feel the selected feelings through changes and additions to the company policies and procedures.

At the same time, employees can affect change within by questioning how they, and the policies and procedures they control, can be changed or added to in order to make their superiors, peers, and reports more likely to feel the desired feelings.

By focusing on feelings rather than traditional value statements, a business instantly forges a fresh and new emotional connection with its employees. By using feelings as the platform by which it instills its values, businesses discover a better way to engage their employees and to get them to internalize both the business’ ambition (purpose) and its feelings (values).

Did you miss the first four parts of this series?

Read Being Meaningful: It’s the Key to Better Engaging Your Employees, Getting Employees to Respond Positively, Why Workplaces Aren’t Meaningful Now, and The Meaningful Workplace: It Takes New Ways of Thinking, and Acting.

This series is excerpted from a white paper titled The Meaningful Workplace that was first published at Emotive Brand.

Brand and Marketing? What’s the Difference?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Brand and Marketing?

Leaders are sometimes confused about the difference between brand and marketing. This is not surprising, because they are not mutually exclusive ideas. They are interdependent strategic activities that feed, inform, and drive each other. The important distinction to make is in the intent – and desired outcome – of each area.

Brand Strategy

Brand strategy defines how people should ideally feel about your business and products. It strives to find how to optimize belief in what you do offer, and what you stand for in the world. It is an abstract idea held in the hearts and minds of people who have a connection to your business, either as customers, partners, suppliers, or employees. One way to think about brand is as a “promise delivered”. As such, brand strategy is about defining that promise and explaining how it can come to life.

Marketing

Marketing is about identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements profitably. It defines the market to be served and the best routes to that market. It informs product development. It defines the price of the product and how and where it is to be promoted. As such, marketing strategy is an assembly of tactics that are very rational and tangible in nature, and highly measurable.

And the difference?

There is overlap between the two disciplines, because the best brand strategies are informed by strong marketing strategies, and the best marketing strategies are driven by strong brand strategies.

Another distinct difference between brand and marketing is their relative scope. Marketing is a highly focused activity that is principally outer-directed. Brand is a broad concept that conceivably touches everyone connected to the brand, both internally and externally. Indeed, the brand’s promise is realized when product development, manufacturing, finance, customer service, HR, and marketing are all being inspired and driven by the brand promise.

The best leaders appreciate both the differences and the synergies of brand and marketing. They recognize the outcome of their brand strategy as a promise the organization will strive to keep, that will help create a brand that is respected, admired, and valued. They see the outcome of their marketing strategy as a set of tools that will actively turn that promise into profits through interest, appeal, and differentiation.

When dealing with brand and marketing strategies, remember it’s not a case “either/or”, but of “both/and”. One cannot work without the other. Each needs to be developed in a focused way, while being fully aware of, and respectful to, each other.

For additional information emotive branding — our brand strategy methodology, please click below:

Download White Paper

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency

Meaningful Millennials: A New Age of Payment

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

Today we are launching a new weekly series entitled “Meaningful Millennials”, where we will interview millennials on a variety of different subjects.

At Emotive Brand, because of current client work and upcoming pitches, we have FinTech on the brain. So our first week’s focus is “Payments.”

Our question: What makes payment brands meaningful to and successful with millennials?

We surveyed twelve millennials and here’s what we learned.

FinTech brands can’t just be convenient. If your brand wants to be meaningful to and successful with millennials, you need to instill confidence and emote feelings of trust and security – all while making us feel social and connected.

Millennials want tech that makes them feel like they belong. FinTech brands need to build brand environments that inspire our confidence at every touch point, promoting and driving social flow.

What these millennials have to say.

person6

“I only use Venmo and Uber, if you consider that a payment method. I love Venmo because it makes life so much easier. I feel completely safe using it (unlike some people) and definitely think that’s where the future is headed. I imagine that in the future, wallets will only be used for IDs. Your phone will hold all your money. It’s already happening to some extent, but it’ll take time for full buying, similar to how no one has a house phone anymore.”

—Alex Morrison, Security Analyst, Goldman Sachs

 

person1

“I use Venmo and PayPal. I think that they are great because they make digital transactions really easy, and make me feel connected. The downside is that they also make it a lot easier to be financially irresponsible. Also there are security concerns, but I use them anyway.”

—Ingrid Chang, Jr. Interactive Designer, 72andSunny

 

person12

“I have used Venmo a couple of times, but I hate it. I am not exactly convinced that an app with as small a staff as Venmo has the capability to protect me from fraud or other forms of theft. Maybe I’m just an old man in a 23-year-old’s body.”

—Wajdi Mallat, Paralegal, Clifford Chance

 

person2

“I use Venmo to even out with friends and family, and the organization I work for uses Intuit (direct deposit to employees). I love the convenience of these electronic apps and that they are paperless. Sometimes I get nervous about security. I feel like my banking info is in more places than ideal nowadays, but worth the risk for the convenience and paperless-ness. Regarding the future, more and more, finance can be handled from one’s phone, from wherever one is in that moment. The bank where I have my checking account set up doesn’t even have a branch where I live (there’s an ATM, but that’s it). I haven’t actually visited a bank in person for a couple of years.”

—Chloe Jones, Development Coordinator, The Yard

 

person11

“I like using my credit card the most because it’s easy and I get rewards. Some places don’t take card so I have to write checks like for my rent, which is annoying, but it’s fine. I’m nervous to use anything hooked up to my phone that saves my card number. I used Venmo once and it does seem easy, but I still don’t trust it. I just don’t like anything online saving my card info.”

—Sarah H., Engineer, Boeing

 

person4

“I only use Venmo and I love it. It solves all of the awkwardness of owing people weird amounts of money or paying people back immediately. I don’t necessarily think there is a ton of value in the social aspect of Venmo, besides being able to find friends/contacts more quickly. It’s all about convenience though and totally changes the way people use money.”

—Kunal Patel, Technology Analyst, Accenture

 

person5

“I use Venmo and the Bank of America app for transfers. I don’t carry cash around ever, so I love Venmo. It’s an easy way to remind people to pay me and it’s so much easier to use when going out with a group. I like the Bank of America app for transfers for larger amounts, mainly splitting rent, groceries, etc. since it feels more secure and the people I make transfers too also have Bank of America. I like the app because I can make the transfer as soon as someone reminds me, instead of having to remember and do it on a desktop later.”

—Masha Popelyukhina, Account Coordinator, Gorilla 76

 

person9

“Other than cash or cards, I use Venmo very often. I can’t imagine life without Venmo anymore. Not only does it help split payments with friends more easily, but it also gets rid of the awkwardness of reminding people if they owe you money. It also means I don’t really need to carry much cash around anymore. I do have a PayPal account, but I don’t really find much use for it.”

—Neha Nair, Associate, SKDKnickerboker

 

person8

“I use Venmo frequently and have used PayPal maybe twice. I only have PayPal because I was selling a ticket on StubHub and I had to make an account if I wanted to get paid. I think Venmo is super convenient, but I only use it if I’m with a lot of people and I’m out of cash, or if it’s too complicated to split a bill. In my opinion, it has plenty of room to expand its user base, but with just an app I can’t see them making considerable headway into the customer to business, B2C or B2B spaces. If they try to, their service would be really similar to PayPal and I don’t think people would use it much. I think they’ve settled into a good niche and it serves best as an easy way for individuals to swap $$ quickly. That being said, I think in the future they’ll have a pretty similar impact, but a lot more people will have downloaded the app so you won’t even have to ask, “Do you have Venmo?” It will just be commonplace.”

—Brandon Zeiden, Financial Services, Z Gallerie

 

person3

“I mainly use Venmo, sometimes Apple Pay, and then PayPal for work. I think Venmo is the most revolutionary. It makes daily life so much easier. Although, I think it does is make money less tangible. I treat my Venmo cash completely different than my debit card or cash. It often feels like an arbitrary number. Venmo sucks at keeping track of payments.

For the startup I work for, we use PayPal to pay our contractors. For the app I’m building, we use PayPal to pay our developers, but Venmo for our designers. There are no fees for Venmo and that’s huge. The designers are younger and like this.

I think a lot of people associate PayPal with eBay purchases. It’s not something I think about using every day. I know a lot of people don’t even know that PayPal has a great wallet service that is probably better then Venmo.

I find mobile wallets really interesting and think there is huge potential for the future. Someone needs to build a way that can be used widely to pay for your bill at a restaurant from your phone, and have the ability to select items, and split the bill.”

—Logan Solomon, Partner, Jacked on Joe Innovation

 

person7

“I really only use Venmo. I prefer to use card or cash, but think it’s a helpful way to pay people back or vice versa. Everything in banking is becoming digitized and apps are becoming a quick, accessible, and easy way to manage your money.”

—Carolyn A., Student, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri

 

Here’s what we learned from these millennials.

1. Venmo is the most popular in-app payment solution with millennials.
2. Successful FinTech brand experiences make users feel social and connected.
3. Millennials feel skeptical about security, and want brands that guarantee safety and make their money feel secure.
4. The future of FinTech will be more digital, comprehensive, connected, and pervasive.

Next week, we will continue our “Meaningful Millennial” series, discussing what makes a meaningful workplace.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy firm.

Make Purposeful Brand Resolutions in 2016

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

The New Year is the perfect time to step back and create impassioned and attainable brand resolutions. What do you want to achieve in 2016? Look back on 2015 and reflect on your business. What were your greatest successes and biggest challenges? How can you live your brand promise in 2016? How can you build your brand to flourish?

Emotive Brand wants to add some inspiration and purpose to the start of your 2016. We’ve asked top business executives across varying industries to share one piece of advice about managing a brand and driving business. Our advice: read up.

1

“Managing your brand is a full-time job that starts with brand strategy and truly never ends. It takes dedication, time, and relentless focus to embed your brand into your company culture. Your brand should be used as a filter for all business decisions. Make sure everyone in your company understands your brand and lives it too. They should be your most enthusiastic promoters. Share the brand with them, and keep reinforcing its promise over and over and over again.”

Eve Maidenberg
Senior Director Integrated Marketing
FICO

4

“We’ve learned to never underestimate how potential customers make snap judgments about how a brand makes them feel. Don’t underestimate any touchpoint!”

Zane Vella
CEO
Watchwith
10

“Keep in mind that a brand can be product brand or an employer brand. Both are critical to the businesses success. Without employees wanting to work for your brand, you don’t have a product. Without a product, you don’t have a business.”

Brad Cook
Global Vice President Talent Acquisition
Informatica

7

“See possibilities over limits. Build a brand platform that loves flexibility, embraces change, and welcomes the unexpected.”

Rob Corwin
Creative Director
Cooley LLP

 

12a55be

“Brand is what those outside of our walls think, feel, and believe about our firm. You must not only communicate, but constantly demonstrate your brand promise. Your brand can be advanced at every single interaction with clients and potential clients.”

Steven M. Bell
Leader of Marketing and Business Development
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice

2

“Don’t confuse marketing with branding. Marketing is about attracting potential customers. Branding is about keeping them. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to enhance the brand experience and therefore the opinion a customer has about your brand. If you’re doing it right, you will move your brand from ‘like’ to ‘love’.”

Peter Gerber
Director Global Branding
Eaton Corporation

8

“Understand that your brand isn’t just what you message to your audience; it’s also what your audience messages to each other. Customers don’t always repeat a brand message as you’ve carefully crafted it. It’s just as important to make sure customers are thrilled with their experiences as it is to tell your brand story directly. They are the messengers of the brand and their stories resonate.”

Jessica Wan
Director of Marketing
Magoosh

9

“Build your brand around your core strength. For most businesses, there is a reason they have stayed in business: what is the one true thing that has existed through all the ups and downs?”

Joaquin Lippincott
President & Founder
Metal Toad

5

“My best advice is to get to the truth of who you are as a brand, and then own it, accentuate, and don’t deviate from it. There are so many pressures to be something to everyone, yet focus yields stronger results.”

Kendra Frisbie
Brand Builder; Communications Strategist & Creative Director
McGuire Furniture

6

“Brand drives business. Creating a brand that represents and emotes who you are and what you believe is the key to success and growth.”

Jeremy Fudge
Partner, Attorney at Law
BAL

CSR and Purpose-Driven Brands Go Hand in Hand

Posted on by Dann Wilkens

CSR and purpose go hand in hand.  We are always moved when companies make a profound effort to identify and then act on a social issue. Especially very large companies. We know how hard it can be. It’s not always obvious how to identify an issue that matters to your brand, and then do the hard work to identify the brand with solutions that matter to people.

Making a CSR part of the brand’s core purpose takes commitment from the top. It takes time and it takes money. But it can have a huge pay-off when handled with authentic, sincere, and meaningful programs that are appropriate for the markets in which Continue reading “CSR and Purpose-Driven Brands Go Hand in Hand”

Is Your Brand Holding Back Your Business?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

There’s a price to pay when your brand simply languishes.

It’s the cost of lost opportunities.

Are you missing the opportunity to change the way people feel about your brand, and hence, what they can do to make your brand more successful.

By people, we mean customers, employees, partners, investors, communities, influencers, and so on…. Indeed, we mean all the people who are vital to your brand’s succcess.

It’s their decisions and actions that determine your fate. Continue reading “Is Your Brand Holding Back Your Business?”

A Brand’s Purpose is Not a Tagline!

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

Once again drawing from our white paper, “Transforming your brand into an emotive brand“, we explore another of the key drivers of our thinking, “Purpose Beyond Profit”.

Here’s how we recap this idea in our paper:

As an emotive brand, your brand lives to a promise that embodies a purpose that goes well beyond profit. As such, you use your brand’s promise to establish and reinforce the higher-ground connection that customers and employees find emotionally meaningful. By thinking beyond profit, you reveal your commitment to connecting with people in truly significant ways.

Look beyond profit and thrive 

For decades, enterprises have had “mission” statements, “vision” statements, and  “values”. Check almost any corporate website and you’ll find these “drivers” of the business buried deep down and many clicks away from the surface.

Despite having taken on these important steps to say what their business is all about, there’s often a big difference between what they intend, and the effect they have. The fact is, these tools of business have rarely gained much traction outside of the C-suite.

A “purpose” is a more powerful and effective tool because it engages in a way that matters to a wide range of people across an organization. It is not dry, administrative, and full of corporate jargon. It doesn’t set a goal that feels irrelevant outside the C-suite. Rather it is an idea that touches upon a quest for meaning and purpose that  is universal in appeal, while at the same time relevant to the business.

Continue reading “A Brand’s Purpose is Not a Tagline!”