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Tag: Branding

Brand Is the Best Foundation for Growth

Posted on by Chris Ames

Emotive Brand Experts #6: Kelly Morgan

Continuing our Emotive Brand Experts series, we’re interviewing past and present Emotive Brand clients to discover what they do better than anybody else — and how that expertise can be used to embolden your brand today.

Kelly Morgan is Head of Marketing at Lyra, a startup that’s transforming behavioral healthcare. We’ve been working with Kelly to rebrand Lyra, and they just launched their new brand last week. In addition, they’ve secured their next series of funding! Kelly spoke with us to discuss key learnings from the rebranding process.

What was the catalyst for the rebrand?

When I joined the company, I was overseeing designers, communication teams, and marketing assets. It became very challenging to do all that without real brand guidelines. Of course, we had some things, but not the mature and robust set of design tools you need when you go to market. We were inventing everything from scratch. We had a core that we loved, but the look itself wasn’t that modern and it didn’t reflect what Lyra is all about.

When you think about what we’re trying to do, we’re bringing technology to a space that is somewhat tech-averse and not that sophisticated in terms of modern convenience and simplicity. We felt as though our look didn’t accurately reflect that we’re a high-tech and a visual company. As I dug in further with other stakeholders and the management team, it became clear that there was a real appetitive for this. Not just a new visual identity, but for equipping our team with the right tools – messaging, positioning, a unified elevator pitch, and a cohesive way to describe what we do as a business.

What were some early successes in the process?

I found myself a great executive sponsor. We developed a solid business case not only for “Why?” but for “Why now?” We’re a relatively young company, and before we start investing, it’s great to have a solid foundation to build on. These things are easier when you’re smaller. It’s not as disruptive or confusing to the market. The overall timing was a big part of making that case. Having an executive sponsor can help garner alignment internally when people are having a hard time seeing the bigger picture. Change is hard. It’s difficult to imagine how it’s all going to come together when you’re only seeing pieces at a time. It’s challenging to understand the impact of those decisions when you’re so comfortable with something you already have.

What would you describe as the biggest challenge of a rebrand?

I think it comes down to educating your team on what brand really is. You hear those hallway conversations of, “Oh, new logo, new colors,” but it’s so much more than that. This is something that’s going to align with your business strategy and make it easier for you to sell, to communicate, to stand out – brand is everything. That misunderstanding can manifest itself in different ways throughout the course of the project.  It could mean that someone is not investing enough time in reviewing something until it’s already live on a website. A rebrand involves soft skills — feelings, emotions, perceptions. Everyone has a different function in the organization and so it’s sometimes hard for people to see why the brand will matter to their piece of the business. A rebrand also has a fair amount of feelings and emotions, something that not everyone easily connects to in how they approach work. It took me a while to understand how important it was to get everyone aligned, but more so, how much time I needed to dedicate to education, understanding different perspectives, and gaining consensus. It could mean someone not investing enough time in reviewing something until it’s already live on a website.

A personal challenge for us was that we don’t have a team of in-house designers or Creative Directors. Representing Lyra in the rebrand discussions, I found my own limitations and wished that we had someone who had a visual design background. That’s where the value of bringing in an outside agency comes in. Contractors and freelancers can get you pretty far, but an agency has the talent and insight you’re missing. Plus, they can see the life of the brand over time and evolve and implement everything seamlessly.

To make things even more interesting, you are also in the process of changing offices during this rebrand. How is that going?

It’s true! We’re moving in June and building out a new workspace tailored to our employees. I think it will make a great impression and help employees feel even more tied to our mission and our values. To carry the brand to the employee experience, we will have vinyl decals of our mission statement, powerful testimonials from people whom we’ve helped, and wall art that showcases our creative marketing campaigns, monitors displaying business analytics and KPIs.

You only just launched your new look last week, but have you noticed any behavior change as a result?

It is early, but next week is the HLTH Future of Healthcare conference in Las Vegas, which will be the first real test of our brand. Needless to say, we’re super excited. Our new brand makes us look more polished and mature, but still has that fun, vibrant startup feeling. It brings us much more confidence in delivering our elevator pitch, as well as unifying the marketing and sales teams together around the same story.

What key advice would you give to other companies about to embark on a rebrand?

Well, the first real challenge is, “How do you evaluate an agency?” The best advice I got was that I needed to directly meet the people I would be working with. That sounds obvious, but many agencies have a great portfolio – impressive customer list and endless examples of nice looking things – but often that’s the sales team or some top-level Creative Director. You need to understand the difference between who is selling you and who you are going to be working with. You must meet the project managers, the copywriters, the people who are going to bring this thing to life for you.

The second challenge is rallying your own internal team, and that’s the part that often goes to the wayside. In that whole project planning phase, you need to carve out time to get internal feedback, but also to keep enthusiasm up throughout the entire process. We had an internal kickoff with a catered lunch, which served as a great opportunity to explain what brand really means to the company. I wanted everyone to understand what it was, why it mattered, and how they are a part of it.

This isn’t just a logo. When you’re at a cocktail party, when you send an email out, it’s all an expression of the brand. This isn’t just a marketing thing, this is about behavior. Of course, the first question anyone will ask will be about swag, but those little delighters are important, too! It takes a lot of effort and energy to do a rebrand, and the success of the whole thing can come down to enthusiasm. There is bound to be friction and bumps along the way. If management sees that their employees are excited, they will hold up their end of the bargain.

What’s next?

Having completed the brand project, the exciting thing now is how poised we are to refocus on our growth strategy. We’re in such a good position to move forward. Not only did we launch a new brand, but we launched it on a new website, on a new platform, with all sorts of robust marketing tools built in. We’re ready for whatever comes next.

To view the Lyra case study, click here.

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

Category Creators: Creating a New Brand Category to Drive Growth

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Category As A Frame Of Reference

A brand’s frame of reference is the foundation of its positioning. It will determine the points of parity the brand has to meet in order to be considered a legitimate player, and highlight opportunities to differentiate. As such, 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. As UC Berkeley Professor George Lakoff explains, a frame of reference is absolutely essential, get it wrong and your difference may be ignored: “Framing provides a mental structure that shapes the way we see the world. If a strongly held frame doesn’t fit the facts, the facts will be ignored.”

It’s human nature to want to fit things into a category. The more innovative and disruptive your offering is, the more it needs a frame that people can relate to. If your brand can’t easily be defined, people often push it to the margins and leave it there. This is because its complexity is easier to ignore than to figure out.

People hold on tightly to their established understandings of what a category is and what it offers. Choosing the right category is about defining, or framing, what people are buying in such a way that your value shines through. The goal is to identify the best category that will help your customers “get” your value and make it relevant to them, while putting your competitors at a disadvantage.

When Your Brand Category Isn’t Serving Your Brand

If you are looking to grow your business, make sure the brand category you align with is still the right one for the brand. For some brands, the category they originally aligned with stops serving their needs. If you meet any of the following criteria, it might be time to break out of your current category and become a new breed of category creators developing new markets with innovative technology and products.

  • You are altering your strategic direction and your business model is shifting.
  • Your product or offering is misunderstood by prospects and partners.
  • You have created a significant innovation or proprietary advantage.
  • Competition is stifling your ability to grow.
  • Your current category prevents your key differences from standing out as ‘must haves.’
  • Your category is in crisis or has fallen out of favor.
  • You are ready to extend your brand beyond current customer segments.

It’s Time to Create a New Brand Category

Creating a new brand category might be the best way to position your brand for success. But, creating a new category is incredibly hard. For most companies, it’s hard enough to explain what your product does and how it’s different from your competitors. And the task of explaining and defending a new product category can be too much for many companies to take on.

However, the rewards of creating a new category are great. High0companies that created their own category accounted for 74% of incremental market capitalization growth from 2009 to 2011. Category creators experience much faster growth and receive much higher valuations from investors than companies bringing only incremental innovations to market.

Category creators must be fearless and confident in their ability to lead the category, build momentum quickly, and maintain a reputation as the category leader over time.  Before creating a new category, consider whether your business has the resources and time available. Don’t just define a new category for your brand, but brand the category itself. In the end, creating a new category can be transformational for your brand and business if you do it well. Look for the best practices for defining a new category and what mistakes to avoid in our upcoming post.

Category Creators

This is the 1st in a series. Check to How to Create a New Brand Category, Naming a New Brand Category, and Launching a New Brand Category by downloading our White Paper on Brand Category Creation.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy firm working with high-growth technology companies.

Emotive Brand Co-Founder on Evolving a Business and the Challenge of Change

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

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A little over nine years ago, Bella Banbury and I started Emotive Brand on a bit of a whim. Now, almost 10 years later, we have 20 people in our company. We’re recognized as a top agency in the strategy and branding world. CEOs of companies seek us out to achieve transformative shifts in their business. People hire us because they’ve been reading our content for years. Agencies around the world cite our content as smart and forward thinking. We didn’t expect all of this. We just started our agency and that was that.

The cobbler’s children DO have shoes

As we reach our double-digits, we’re turning the tables. It’s time for us to do some reflection and strategy work of our own. So we’re putting ourselves through the very methodology we use with our clients and we’re eager to see what shakes out. Our agency has become the client.

The first feeling I had was, “Holy shit. This is tough!” It’s hard to face the realities of change and the future. It’s hard to decide what you want, where you want to be, and how you will get there. I have more empathy for our clients right now than I ever have.

Along this journey, I’ll be sharing some thoughts with you. We’ll no doubt glean new insights about ourselves, but also learn things that we want our clients to know, too. Here’s where I’m at 2 months in.

Change is hard

Until someone asks you to question some fundamental things about your business, you don’t know what ‘hard’ really means. I get it now. The rational brain wants to analyze. Look at the numbers. Understand the trends. For me, this is the easy part. The numbers don’t lie and it’s important to take the time to really understand what they are saying. So I naturally thought this was the end. I was ready to start making the change.

But even when the facts tell a very clear story, your emotions can stand in the way of change. Yes, I am talking about fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It’s easy to focus on the rational needs for change. I didn’t realize the major role emotions play in any change process. It’s human nature. If I felt this way, our clients for sure must feel the same way.

We talk a lot about empathy at Emotive Brand. This process we are undergoing is opening my eyes to what it takes to have the courage to initiate changes in your business. I see now that we also need to help our clients get through the emotional hurdles to change. We need to give them the time and the emotional support they need to evolve their business and themselves.

Being agile is not as easy as it appears

Our clients’ timelines are shrinking. They need their projects completed faster than seems reasonable. So we’ve adapted. We’ve created a methodology that is agile. We work in sprints. We’ve realized we can develop strategy and branding at a pace we never thought possible – and still deliver smart work. But, what is always interesting, is that when we hear our clients say “fast”, intentions don’t always equal reality. Working quickly isn’t just a challenge for us, it’s really difficult for our clients too. They struggle to meet their own high-pressured deadlines. In the end, it’s difficult for some of them to keep pace with our agency and our ability to move quickly.

So it was pretty funny when, during our first sprint on our own internal project, we ourselves got in the way of delivering on our own “agile” project. The second lesson learned: moving fast is hard. More than twice, we put our own strategy project on hold to focus on our clients’ strategy projects. It begs the question: “How do we help our clients do their job, meet their own business deadlines, and move their strategy project forward?”

We’ve created a process to help our clients understand the time they need to devote to work with us, from meetings and workshops, to rounds of review and circulating deliverables internally for approval. When we develop a project plan, we always ask our clients about major events in their world that may impact our work together. We know we can enable clients to move at the speed they want. It just takes time – devoted time. Wish we had taken our own advice on this one. Without a solid project plan in place, almost everything can stop it in its tracks.

Building alignment is personal

We know firsthand change is hard. And moving fast is not always easy. But how do we manage these speed bumps and, at the same time, align a leadership team around the difficult shifts that transformation requires? Iteration. Putting the cycles in. We’ll go backward and forward as much as is needed to build consensus. We work to ensure everyone feels that their voices were heard to reach agreement and, ultimately, alignment.

How? We’ve developed frameworks that surface up gaps in alignment and facilitate discussions to hammer things out. This allows us to appeal to individual personalities and ensure people are truly honest with their feelings and opinions. We’ve excelled at doing this with our clients. In fact, we’ve built our reputation and agency on this activity.

But, again, it was much harder to do for ourselves. While tools and frameworks help facilitate available options and reinforce smart strategy, they don’t take into account the human side. People process things differently and at different speeds. They require different ways to evaluate options and opportunities. Sometimes their role in the organization can create blind spots. And people in different roles can easily view things through a siloed lens.

Only when we acknowledge these lenses and map personal roles back up the organization’s overall needs can we facilitate the group and reach full alignment. Without the alignment of a leadership team, there’s nothing. No moving forward. No change. And no successful transformation.

Strategy and branding moving forward

As we look to evolve our own agency, I’ll keep you updated on our progress. I’ll share what I learn and how that affects the experience, tools, and processes we use in the future with our clients. What we do for our clients is hard work. But now we know firsthand what the struggles our clients endure feel like. And I’m trying to use this experience to do better, be better, and deliver better on behalf of our clients.

Stay tuned.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco strategy and branding agency.

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On Design, Branding, and Where the “Brand Magic” Happens: Interview with Emotive Brand Creative Director

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

Interview with Jane Brown, Creative Director

Jane joins Emotive Brand with over 20 years of experience developing corporate and brand identities ranging from global corporations to startups – bringing both agency and client-side, as well as print and digital media expertise to the table. Jane has built a reputation around delivering high-level thinking and design systems that enable new brands to compete in crowded marketplaces and venerable brands to deepen their relevance.

In this interview, Jane shares her point of view on branding challenges, client-agency relationships, collaboration, and what gives brands that extra “magic.”

What drew you to Emotive Brand?

There are a lot of different understandings of the term “brand.” I’ve been following the agency for a long time and I think the way Emotive Brand defines brand is so smart – and completely aligned with my thinking.

Emotive Brand gets it. Brand isn’t just about customers, it’s also about employees. It’s built from the inside out. It isn’t just about a logo, it’s about the people who work within the company. That’s where it all starts – getting to the heart of what the company stands for and why it matters.

I admire the attention Emotive Brand puts on process. The agency has created a very smooth, buttoned-up, articulate, and clear methodology. And they’ve worked hard to build a culture of collaboration with the client where this methodology works.

What excites you most about your role here?

To assist EB’s understanding of our brand and our place of differentiation. I’m excited to build upon what’s already been created.

What inspires me the most about my job is the utilization of design to explain transformative ideas. My goal is always to leverage this power, and I’m excited to do that with Emotive Brand.

What do you bring to the table that is unique?

I bring an understanding that can fill the gap between agency and client. I can pivot. I understand the pain points and cultures on both sides, and I know how to negotiate the two so that Emotive Brand, as an agency, delivers what is going to make our clients most successful.

Speaking of your in-house experience, how does that inform your agency-side work today?

In a lot of ways, in-house and agency-side are often contradictory worlds. There’s a lot of pressure that internal teams face daily to get work done – now. On an in-house team you’re valued for your collaboration, cooperation, positive attitude, and ability to get things done.

In contrast, in the agency world, we tend to be valued more for our skills and aesthetic. Agencies create the highest aesthetic standard.

There’s a sweet spot. I’m known for delivering delight to clients, and everything I do is always implementable. My in-house experience has taught me that you have to create tools that clients can actually use.

So what do you believe successful design systems should enable for clients?

Transformation – for the employees and the business. The brand must support and align with business goals.

For employees – to live that brand. For customers – to truly understand who the brand is. And that the brand can live up to the standards we’ve defined at every brand interaction.

Visually and verbally, the brand must ring true. It must be authentic. Authenticity is super important to me when measuring success.

What are the biggest challenges you see brands facing today?

The web created a lot of possibilities, but also, a lot of challenges. I see the danger when you look at the heap of templates available online. As a result of this mass availability, everything is starting to look and behave the same. Developing a unique and proprietary brand is a lot more challenging now and more important.

Is that where the value of bringing in an external agency comes in?

As an outside agency you are paid to be critical. It’s easier to diagnose and solve problems because you aren’t living them every day – internal teams can be too close to potential issues.

What does collaboration mean to you?

Shift from me to we-centric. Collaboration means we are all on the same team. You just want to create the best work – together. And on the agency side, this is all about creating the best solutions for the client. It has to be what’s right for the client.

What do you believe defines great, meaningful brands today? Where does the “magic” happen?

How does the brand make you feel? The magic has always been there. Emotive Brand was founded on the idea that feeling is transformative for brands. And I’m right there with them.

When teams pivot from logic to feeling and begin to reimagine and visualize what is possible, that is where the magic happens and where I get super excited.

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

Why Hire a Brand Strategy Agency?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Your business is an intricate machine that leverages people and processes to generate profits. Until now, your way of doing this has been satisfactory to both you and your shareholders. But obviously there is something in the wind telling you that some changes are needed. This has you thinking about how to best deal with this situation, and to determine what partners, if any, you need to make these necessary changes.

Continue reading “Why Hire a Brand Strategy Agency?”

Emotive Branding: Becoming a Global Movement? A Fellow Agency Share Its Thoughts

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

Kindred Agencies Building More Meaningful Brands

At Emotive Brand, we work to build meaningful brands that can change the trajectory of a business. Purpose and feelings sit at the heart of what makes our approach different.

The awesome thing about sharing our unique methodology of emotive branding with the world is discovering like-minded people and agencies. Throughout our 8+ years, we’ve connected with agencies from across the world. From Amsterdam to South Africa, there are others who believe what we believe about brands – emotive brands drive business.

Recently, a kindred-spirit agency of ours, the Brand Station from South Africa, made their way into our own studio. We have been digitally connected with Brand Station for years, but hadn’t yet met them in person. If there was only one thing we gathered from meeting in person, it’s that the world (yes, the whole world) is ready for emotive branding. If there was ever a time for purpose and meaning, it’s now.

Read our interview with the Brand Station to find out why.

So what brings you to Oakland? It’s not a short trip here from where you call home.

We love Cape Town. It’s home. But we needed to step out of our own playground and gather some new inspiration. Hit refresh a bit. We’ve been traveling all over – across the ocean, across the states, down the coast. We hit LA next. But for right now, we’re just soaking in this Bay Area magic. And we couldn’t be happier to finally be in the Emotive Brand studio – it’s taken too long. We are thrilled. Traveling and meeting new people really fuels our creativity and passion. We are going to go back home feeling inspired and refreshed.

How did you get connected to Emotive Brand? Why did you stay connected?

In 2012, our agency friends in Amsterdam told us we had to get connected. That our three agencies were all doing similar things in different parts of the world. We all cared about building meaningful, purpose-led brands. So we had a Skype session and we started an Emotive Transformers group online. We became knowledge partners. We became friends.

Knowledge partners? Like you would exchange ideas, learnings, and challenges with each other?

Exactly. Exchanging ideas would strengthen our thought process. Thinking about emotive branding became a kind of school of thought. And together, by discussing our challenges and wins, we could strengthen our methodologies and processes and ultimately innovate together. Whenever we did talk, I would think, this should be done more frequently. We could ask questions like “all of us follow a pretty linear process – but maybe there is another way?” Things like that that unlock new possibilities.

What are some of the relevant challenges your agency is facing lately?

Our ultimate challenge – what faces most agencies today – is what do our clients really need? How can we be more client-centered? How can we fulfill our clients’ immediate needs? In fact, lately, we’ve thought about devolving into five different companies that all have the same core – meaning and purpose. One company could be a campaign studio, another a design studio…Basically it’s a solution for creating clarity and making it easier for people to approach us and understand that we can actually solve their problems. A lot of the time in branding, you are offering the same thing – brand strategy – but you have to put a different name on it so people get it.

Another challenge we’ve been thinking about lately is that a brand strategy that’s left in a deck or a brand book has little to no meaning. Activating the strategy – that’s what matters. We’ve been focusing on activation lately. How does the brand live that strategy? How do people live the brand every day?

At Emotive Brand, we have our own way of defining emotive branding. How would you define it? What does it mean to you and your clients?

To us, emotive branding is a framework. It’s an authentic way of thinking and looking at things. We actually never put emotion into something. We just help infuse the emotion that’s already there – maybe it’s hidden – into the brand so that people can get behind its purpose. We assess brands, redefining and rediscovering what they can offer to the world and in what ways. Our favorite brands to work with are purpose-driven already. Our job is to make sure that purpose comes to life in everything that they do and say.

What are some major shifts you’ve seen in branding since you founded the Brand Station?

Branding used to be super design driven. Most branding agencies were founded by people who came from design agencies – like Emotive Brand. Strategy was kind of in the slip stream for us. Now, we’re strategy-driven and strategy-focused. Our first clients were brave to do the insights and research parts of our process. Now, that’s always where we start. We’ve also moved design in-house which wasn’t always the case. This helps integrate the two and make sure that all our design is directly tied to strategy.

We’ve talked a lot about things that Emotive Brand and the Brand Station have in common. What’s different? I assume branding in South Africa means something slightly different?

Can you think of a South African brand you know of the top of your head? Probably not. That’s our problem – we don’t have any national brands that we can all be proud to call South African. Because of our history, brands have to have a deeper meaning in South Africa. People are always changing and often fickle. That’s part of the reason why we set out on this journey – we wanted to help create the South African brand. The Nike of South Africa. For us, it’s all about building brands that we feel our country can proudly rally behind. That vision fuels us forward. Most of our favorite clients are brands that want to start some kind of movement. But a lot are too humble to start it on their own.

As business and life partners you must think highly of collaboration?

We both believe strong collaboration can propel a business forward. And yes – a good partnership always inspires. Just like Bella and Tracy, we both have our strengths and our interests. And we complement each other. We are always there for one another – in life and in business. Plus, we always take time to have a little fun.

Do you think more people are getting on board with purpose and meaning?

Yes, definitely. Now, every agency is claiming that they are purpose-led. This is exciting because, like Emotive Brand, we were at the forefront of this moment. But it’s also a challenge. In the end, I think agencies who are focused on authenticity and meaning are going to come out on top. People are demanding more authenticity and more meaning for a reason. With all the empty marketing out there, being purpose-led has to ring true at every touchpoint. And I know Emotive Brand feels the same way.

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

Reducing Stigma Through Branding: A Moral Dilemma

Posted on by Chris Ames

Anti-Stigma Campaigns Need Authenticity

Inauthenticity is the Achilles heel of purposeful brands. More than ever, people gravitate toward companies that radiate transparency and accountability. We laud brands that shift our perception to break down stigmas. However, if these sensitive topics are clumsily handled, the backlash is harsh and swift. Failing to sell a luxury item is one thing. But misrepresenting a sensitive topic for financial gain? That’s another.

Nowadays, it seems hardly a week goes by without a public apology in response to a tone-deaf branding effort. So, how does a brand discover if it’s equipped to tackle an anti-stigma campaign?

Most people have trouble holding two ideas in their head at the same time, especially if the ideas are contradictory. It’s even harder for brands. Anytime a company puts an object out into the world – a branding campaign, an ad, a tweet – two ideas are presented:

1) The story of the object
2) The story of the brand

When it comes to the tricky world of branding for hot-button issues like awareness, social justice, or reducing stigma, audiences must reconcile these two stories.

What’s Your Brand Promise?

We’ve said it before, but at its best, a brand is a promise delivered. It informs people what they can come to expect from your products and services. Furthermore, it differentiates your offering from your competitors. A brand promise doesn’t materialize out of thin air. You should derive this from the intersection of who you are, who you aspire to be, and who people perceive you as.

Above all, does it make sense for you to be telling this story? Are your ideals and outcomes aligned with this cause? Or are you hoping to draft off the zeitgeist?

Storytelling Helps Reduce Cognitive Dissonance

Take the example of Pepsi versus Heineken. We have two beverages attempting to tackle big issues like systemic racism, transgender rights, and climate change.

In what could only be described as cultural drafting, Pepsi sprinkled in Black Lives Matter imagery into their ad with no real rhyme or reason. Unexplainably, it ends with a supermodel giving a police officer a soda.

In contrast, Heineken took something true about their product – people discuss complicated matters over beer – and transformed a bottle into an opportunity to dispel stigma through conversation.

The Specific Is Universal

Recently, we helped a global technology company address mental health in the workplace. There was no cognitive dissonance in their mission, so the question became: how do we approach such a large issue?

In the tech world, language shifts toward the hyperbolic. Given that approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experience mental health issues each year, it would have been easy for us to lean towards big, universal messaging.

The only problem is, stigma isn’t always that overt. Often, it exists because a shadowy old idea has been allowed to live unchallenged in someone’s mind. As a result, a strong stigma strategy focuses less on the stigma itself and more on creating familiarity through education and the common stories of other people via empathy and compassion.

So, we created a way for employees to connect with each other, share their personal journeys, and access mental health resources. By zooming in on the authentic stories of individuals, we could address a larger narrative without coming off as preachy or dogmatic.

Reducing Stigma Is Not a One-Off Campaign

Lastly, nothing builds public trust like a proven track record. It’s easy to support a trending cause. But reducing stigma is not a one-off campaign, it’s a long-term commitment – and we can help you keep that promise.

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

Brand Naming: Bodega Startup Sparks Major Backlash. Here’s Why.

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

Bodega is not your new bodega.

The online world is angry with Silicon Valley startup Bodega, which has chosen a brand name that equates itself with the beloved New York corner store. The brand articulates its value as “everyday essentials, instantly.” It offers large vending machines / minibars / mini-shops  – whatever best fits the environment – all contained within a box. The brand calls the boxes Bodegas.

Bodegas use the latest technology to create cashless, card-less experiences. Gym-goers can buy new headphones when they forget them. College students can purchase last-minute detergent when they realize they are out. Dads and moms can reload their diaper stash without pushing the stroller outside their apartment complex. The brand claims machine learning will be able to customize each Bodega’s offerings to each unique community’s needs.

Co-founder Paul McDonald explained his vision in an interview with Fast Company, and it doesn’t sound good for brick and mortar bodegas.

“Eventually, centralized shopping locations won’t be necessary, because there will be 100,000 Bodegas spread out, with one always 100 feet away from you.”

The Twitter world did not respond well:

Here’s what we took from all the negative response.

1. The wrong name can tank your business in a matter of minutes.

Bodega is Spanish for “storeroom” or “wine cellar.” In the US, most bodegas originated with immigrants. According to Carlos Sanabria, author of The Bodega: A Cornerstone of Puerto Rican Barrios, the New York bodega is still associated with the first generation of Puerto Rican entrepreneurs who came to New York City after World War II. Now, Puerto Ricans are part of a diverse array of people who run and own bodegas and bodega has become synonymous with your local corner store.

So the word bodega carries a lot of cultural meaning that the startup somehow missed. Many are calling the company’s brand choice misappropriation, cultural insensitivity, a celebration of gentrification, or just plain ignorance. The company’s logo choice – a cat, part of the celebrated cultural fabric of bodegas – further drives this anger home. Borrowing a name and a cat, Bodega is trying to put the very bodegas they drew inspiration from out of business. And that’s just branding with bad intentions.

Following the negative outpouring, McDonald apologized and said that he actually “admired” bodegas and took back his earlier statement about his vision to replace them. He admitted that their research showing that no one would be offended by the name must have been asking the wrong questions to the wrong people. That he wanted to make sure their name reflected the brand’s values in the days moving forward. The problem is he’s waffling. Why should anyone trust him or his startup now?

2. All research is not created equal.

According to McDonald, Bodega did surveys in the Latin American community and found that 97% of people did not have negative connotations around the name. McDonald said: “It’s a simple name and I think it works.” Only later did he admit something must have gone wrong.

We wonder if they asked New Yorkers who actually live near bodegas. Or the Latin American families who own them. We wonder if they ventured out of Silicon Valley to conduct their research or gave any context around the purpose of the company itself. Smarter research may have helped them avoid this backlash from the start.

3. Understand your audience’s values and lifestyles.

New Yorkers don’t only go to bodegas for the convenience or the local customization – the startup’s only selling points – they go for the relationships. So simply replacing a bodega with a big, tech-enabled box is never going to be enough for bodega-goers. They go for the feeling of belonging to a neighborhood. For the people who say hello to you and know your order by heart. They go for the ritual. The history. For the nostalgia of the pre-Instacart, Door Dash days. They go because they can feel good about where their milk money is going. Because those late-night, early-morning visits when everything else is closed feel like their own little secrets. That explains the Twitter outpouring and the long list of answers to The New York Times’s inquiry, “Tell Us Why You Love Your Bodega.”

No box can offer any of these emotional values, needs, desires, or connections – and Bodega didn’t even realize they exist.

4. Empathy is everything.

Brands today have to be empathetic. Understanding people and what is important to them is key to connecting meaningfully – and often the difference between cultivating brand lovers and going up in flames.

Bodega created a brand with no feeling, no heart, no positive emotional impact, and an overall lack of empathy. The buzz will inevitably die down, but if you remember anything about Bodega, remember that when building a brand, emotions do matter.

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

*Image from Melissa Gorman.

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The Role of Digital Behavior in Brand Building

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

The Role of Digital Behavior

The ways people experience a brand’s digital behavior have deepened and become more complex as the digital landscape expands. As a result, there are seemingly infinite brand touch points that can strengthen a brand.

On the flip side, businesses have to be careful to behave in a way that doesn’t fragment or dilute their brand, but instead helps to build a more powerful, impactful, and engaging experience that rings true across all platforms – digital and non-digital alike.

Behaving in Line with Your Brand

Because the digital landscape is shifting at the speed of light, it’s especially easy for brands to fall behind in terms of digital behavior. New digital platforms are constantly appearing, and it’s a challenge to know what platforms your brand should live on and how it should behave.

To stay relevant, stand out, compete, and survive in today’s world, brands need to be able to thrive digitally. It’s a requirement.

The Best Digital Behavior is Strategically Informed

Your brand strategy should deliver assets that can help guide and strengthen your brand’s digital behavior. Here’s what to consider:

1. Look and feel

A recognizable and emotionally impactful look and feel that resonates across all platforms helps build awareness, recognition, and eventually, heightened loyalty and engagement.  Make sure your strategy has the guidelines it needs to bring your visual identity to life across platforms. This means that the look and feel of your brand has to be both clear and distinct, yet dynamic and flexible.

Brands that aren’t designed for the future simply cannot compete in an evolving digital landscape. When your brand behavior lives under an unmistakable and future-forward look and feel, people make connections easier, your brand gains traction across touch points, and it can adapt to shifts while maintaining brand equity.

2. Emotional impact

The emotional impact of your brand is one of its strongest, most reliable assets. The digital landscape and its platforms will always be changing and shifting, but emotions will always ring true. Brands should emote their core emotions on every digital platform. Digital behavior has to have emotional impact for it to do its job for your brand.

3. Trust infrastructure

With the complexity of the digital landscape comes the challenge of overcoming digital distrust. It’s easy to lose your brand’s humanity online. It’s also easy for people to feel like their privacy has been violated or that marketers aren’t valuing their time. A digital strategy should add to a brand’s meaning, not take away from it. And building trust is key. Fostering digital engagement, showing empathy, and working with transparency and authenticity are all critical to unlocking the full power of trust.

4. An authentic brand promise

Bring your brand promise to life through digital behavior that breathes that promise across every platform. And remember your promise when deciding if platforms are in line with your brand. It’s a good test to see if the promise of the platform and the promise of your brand are aligned. Digital platforms, when used correctly, can help reinstate your promise through every interaction and create deeper meaning in the hearts and minds of your key audiences.   

5. Cross-channel planning

Since forward-thinking brands always have their eye on what’s next in digital, it’s necessary to create a strategic plan for how to use each of your channels to reach customers and how to behave cohesively on those channels. Budget accordingly and always allocate resources for unexpected channels to emerge. Create a strategic plan that fosters internal alignment and clarity, yet leaves room for your brand behavior to develop and compete if the situation shifts.

6. Brand interaction

A brand is not a two-dimensional thing, it is a living, breathing, engaging, and interacting entity. Make sure you have a strategy for how your brand interacts digitally. How does it speak? Who does it engage with? How does it interact with these people? How does it interact with other brands? What kinds of interactions does it foster? Successful digital brand behavior requires that your brand can dynamically interact and integrate into your audiences’ lives seamlessly.

7. Competitive analysis

By identifying your competitors and seeing how you line up, your business can map where your brand needs to go. And digital brand behavior can help you get there. See how other competitive brands are behaving and see how you can compete, stand out, and stay ahead of the digital curve.

8. Constant brand reassessments

Staying relevant hinges on keeping your digital behavior strategy up to date. Learn from customer behavior. Frequently reassess your brand and whether it’s behaving in a way that moves your business forward, making changes as necessary.  This means moving fast and being smart about every small and big decision.

In today’s digital world, successful brand behavior hinges on brands being able to adapt and adjust quickly while staying true to what makes them different and meaningful. This rings true with digital behavior. Use the strategic tools in your brand’s toolbox to bring your brand to its full potential. Brand behavior is what brings strategy to life. And brands need to be able to live digitally in order to survive, grow, compete, and position themselves for the future. Approach your digital behavior strategically and ready your brand for success.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy agency.

 

Checking In: One Month of Strategic Writing at Emotive Brand

Posted on by Chris Ames

Chris Ames has now officially been with Emotive Brand for one month – who knew he’d make it this long?– and as a new writer in the branding world, we wanted to see what he’s learned thus far. In this post, Chris talks about the importance of strategic writing and shares some advice that he’d give to other young creatives looking to break through in marketing and branding.

What has been your biggest surprise so far?

The sheer amount of strategy, planning, and forethought that takes place before even a single external word is written has been impressive and humbling. As a writer, I tend to create a giant block of content and slowly chip away until it’s refined, but it’s fascinating to see the inverse process: creating target audiences, customer journeys, language guidelines, mood boards, manifestos, rallying cries, narratives…and then beginning to write.

Until I worked here, I never realized the importance and power of internal documents for brands. Most of the work I’ve created so far is inward-facing. And though the initial audience might be small, it has the potential to act as a microphone for how brands not only articulate themselves in the marketplace but how employees communicate with each other on a personal level.

Any challenges?

I think an early decision writers must make with clients is choosing what your biggest strength is going to be: voice or versatility. When you hire me, is it because you want your copy to sound like me, or because I can sound like whatever you need? Especially when you’re working with tech companies or startups that have a jargon-heavy lexicon, it can be a game of linguistic tug-of-war. In a perfect world, you can meet the tone of the client and still retain that undercurrent of charm. Knowing when to mute your own voice is a good life skill in general, and I’m sure I still have a long way to go.

How does this writing differ from your previous job at a creative studio?

At my previous job, it was a volume game: how much content can I possibly create for you in the shortest amount of time? I worked very much in a silo, and the only real editor was the deadline. Here, everything is much more deliberate, collaborative, and there is an economy of words. Instead of chasing word counts, it’s more like: can you create one perfect, muscular sentence that’s strong enough to carry an entire campaign? Which, at first, seems easier. But it’s totally that Mark Twain– “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”– kind of thing. Simple is hard. Short takes a long time.

What advice would you give to young creatives entering the field of branding and marketing?

Reading books, especially written by people from a different background or perspective than your own, makes you a more empathetic person, and empathy is probably the strongest tool to wield in the workplace. Yes, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another will make you a better brander, but it will also just make you a better human being.

I’d also add, don’t waste your time in toxic work environments. There are tons of businesses looking for young creatives to drive into the ground because they don’t know any better. You might think that because you don’t have a ton of experience, you need to put yourself through hell as a rite of passage. The truth is your fresh eyes are actually a huge advantage. The whole reason brands hire outside agencies in the first place is because they’re seeking an outside perspective. Find an agency that’s excited about your new ideas and willing to embrace a fresh perspective, instead of looking to punish you for not having 10 years of experience under your belt.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency.