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Tag: Branding

Why It’s Frickin’ Hard for Organizations to Brand Themselves

Posted on by Carol Emert

The need for a branding agency is hard to determine sometimes.

Many of Emotive Brand’s clients come to us after failed attempts to develop their own brand strategy. Just last week, a client sent us some themes they’d identified in an internal brand survey, along with a frustrated note: “We’ve gotten this far. We’re stuck. Can you help?”

Why is it so hard for organizations to brand themselves from the inside? Aren’t the people who live and breathe a brand every day the most obvious choice to articulate it?

That’s a logical conclusion, and clients who have tried often feel frustrated that they couldn’t move the ball. Invariably they are smart, knowledgeable and passionate about their organization. So why do their efforts fall short?

We think there are three reasons:

1. Proximity

Insider status seems like the ideal place from which to observe a brand – and that’s true. Insiders are crucial keepers of their organization’s values and meaning. It’s important that their knowledge and passion inform their brand strategy. But the fact is that inside is too close in this case. A certain distance is needed to see the big picture.

If I’m standing against a wall, I see bricks. If I back up, I can see the entire building and if I take a helicopter, I can see its context – the creek that’s about to overflow, the neighbor whose buildings are getting closer and closer to its property line, the customers who love it and the ones who are looking for the building, but can’t find it.

Branding requires an aerial view to understand not only what the brand is about, but its competitive landscape and its audience. To understand a brand and a business, context is mandatory, and that generally means an unbiased third party – with a helicopter.

2. Influence

Related to proximity are two powerful influences: corporate culture and company insiders.

In any organization, certain truths are simply in the air, binding the organization together in a common viewpoint. But those unspoken truths are hard to see from the inside and even harder to evaluate objectively. And they’re almost impossible to buck, even if they are getting in an organization’s way.

An even greater influence are the viewpoints and beliefs of the CEO, founder and other leaders. By definition these people have strong ideas about what their company is about – and they are critical for informing a brand strategy. But only an outsider is well-positioned to evaluate these ideas objectively and perhaps rethink them, or even recommend setting them aside.

3. Insight

The marketers who undertake branding projects for their organizations are highly skilled in communications and management. But probably they don’t spend every waking moment honing their insight muscle.

Every great brand idea has insight at its core, but very few people know how to unearth or articulate insights. That’s where our client mentioned above got stuck – they had assembled the pieces, but couldn’t put them together into an idea that was simple and true and inspiring.

Invariably, the branding attempts we see from our clients are completely logical and accurate, but they fail to go beyond the obvious. The effort gets stuck at 1 + 1 = 2, whereas a great, insightful brand strategy will get you to 3.

Admittedly, a branding agency’s recommendation that you hire a branding agency is more than a little suspect.

But here’s a secret: Even Emotive Brand had a tough time articulating our own brand when we re-evaluated it a few years ago for a website refresh. In the end, we pulled it off – we are a branding firm, after all! – but we certainly feel for anyone who has gone through the exercise and had it fall short of their hopes.

Emotive Brand is a branding agency

Negotiating the Competitive Social Media Landscape of 2017

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

A Changing Social Media Landscape

In November of 2007, brands and businesses were given the opportunity to have an official Facebook presence. The same day, Pages for companies launched and 100,000 companies joined the social conversation. Established brand names, new businesses, local companies – they all felt ready and fired-up about social media and the magical aura that surrounded its impact for businesses at the time.

As we enter 2017, social media – for many – feels like it has lost a bit of its magic. What were once feelings of excitement that surrounded the influx of platforms, mediums, businesses, brands, and users has now transformed to feelings of frustration and disillusion.

Why So Frustrated?

It’s no doubt that an overcrowded landscape is making it harder and harder for brands and businesses desperately trying to reach, connect, and engage with the right people at the right times – and in meaningful, memorable, and relevant ways.

2016 was called “The Reachpocalypse” for a reason. Before 2012, 16% of Page followers were set up to see a brand’s update. Now, Facebook has cut the reach of organic posts to about 2%. Instagram’s introduction of ads in 2015 (three years after Facebook’s purchase), also made it easy for organic posts to drop to the bottom of users’ feeds.

For users, it’s easy to feel lost in the multiple feeds of information – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, SnapChat, Medium… Skepticism has risen about privacy issues online, and many people have expressed annoyance about targeted ads, never ending emails, messages, and reminders that seem to pop up on every platform until you hit that buy button. 2016 has also raised some important concerns about the role social media plays in the political spheres, heightening the expectations people have of some of the top tech and media companies of today to assume a more aware role.

Social Media in 2017

In short, it’s been a rough year for social media. And on the surface, it might seem like the impact of social has become insignificant. However, quite the opposite. Interestingly, as companies’ ability to reach audiences organically has plunged, the power of social media in swaying purchase decisions has surged. A recent McKinsey study found that about a quarter of purchase decisions are influenced by a primary social recommendation – not insignificant by any account.

And although navigating the social media landscape has become more and more of a challenge, businesses and brands that want to survive in the competitive landscape today need to be social.

1. Pay to Play

For 80% of companies in 2017, paid advertising has become a basis of their social strategy. And although paying might be a sure way to reach more people, it’s not a sure-fire solution. First off, money doesn’t grow on trees. And although brands can pay as little as $5 for a Facebook ad, actually sustaining that ad throughout the year is a large and often unrealistic investment for many businesses today.

And a paid ad that isn’t targeted in the right way to the right people isn’t going to get the job done. Being smart and strategic and working in line with a strong brand is key here as much as anywhere. Using paid and organic advertising and finding the right balance takes planning, research, and some experimentation. It’s about figuring out specifically who you are trying to reach, the best way to reach that audience, and in what ways.

What many brands and businesses aren’t taking advantage of is the data behind social. Running a low-budget ad may not help you reach a large audience, but it can reveal a lot about who that audience is. Who’s clicking? Who’s engaging? In what ways? Not only posting, but looking at how that post fares and is important to thriving within shifting times.

And luckily, because a balance of organic and paid ads isn’t going to break the bank – there’s room to experiment, test, and research within it. For instance, social might be a great way to try out two new taglines and judge responses, or see what kind of pictures your audiences best engage with. Being able to absorb the kind of engagements that are happening digitally and adapt accordingly is the only way you can position your brand to play in a competitive, and often deathly landscape.

2. Leveraging Employee Loyalty

What the reachpocalypse of 2016 has taught us, if anything, is the real impact of employee engagement. As business Pages might have a harder and harder time reaching the people that they want to reach, employees that engage socially become more and more valuable to a brand. Employee advocacy holds a lot of weight. And when information is shared from an employee, many brands find it is more engaged with, more seen, more shared, and often times, more trusted.

Employees have an easier time coming across as human, personal, and honest. And authentically sharing employees reflects well on a brand. So in order to get employees on board, make sharing simple. Giving people the tools they need and letting them personalize posts to their liking can help. So can appointing a point person to help when people need it.

However, at the end of the day, employees’ social engagement hinges on strong employee loyalty. You can make things simple and easy, but what matters most is that employees feel excited and proud of the brand they work for, and want to share it. When this is true, positive feelings surrounding the brand come to life across social platforms.

3. Greater Challenge Demands Greater Innovation

Just because social media may be more of a challenge today than it was five years ago, doesn’t mean businesses should go running for the hills. We’ve talked before about how brands need to be digital brands today in order to survive. And social is a large part of the digital landscape today.

That means brands and businesses have to be strategic. The challenge social media presents to marketers today demands even greater innovation and creativity. It requires teamwork and strong collaboration. Brands and businesses have to think outside the box and utilize their resources, and their people in new and unique ways. Rely on your brand to help guide strategic decisions on social platforms – remembering how you want to make people feel, who you want to reach, and why you matter to those audiences.

New platforms can enter any moment. And the best ways of using already established platforms is always changing. For instance, when Instagram introduced stories, the whole game changed. Being flexible, adaptable, and able to move fast is also key. Staying ahead of the curve, being willing to experiment, and always striving to create new innovative solutions is the only way to tackle the challenge the social landscape presents today.

Stay social and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more insights, thoughts, and advice.

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

Six Secrets of Thriving Brands

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

This is the second post in our “Brand Strategy 101” series. Last time, we discussed why a brand is so difficult to define. While a brand might mean different things to different people and different businesses, at Emotive Brand, we think of brand as a driver of business. When a brand connects with the people who matter to your business, the business is positioned to thrive.

But, for a brand to connect with people, some important factors come into play. We have identified six of the most powerful attributes that thriving brands and businesses have in common:  

1. Meaning

Every moment a brand has to interact and engage with people is an opportunity to create an emotional impact. Through these moments, a brand can build deep and lasting meaning. Meaningful brands make promises and keep them. And we believe meaningful brands start with purpose.

2. Purpose-led

Brands that focus on building a deeper, more emotionally meaningful connection with their key audiences thrive in today’s world. When people see that a brand stands for a higher purpose, they pay attention. Purpose-led brands mean more to people because they work for something greater than themselves.

3. Empathy

Empathetic brands have a deep and complex understanding of the people they want to reach, touch, and engage with. Brands that connect in an emotional way – understanding the needs and desires of people – make those people feel like the brand was made just for them.

4. Consistent 

Consistency is what makes brands recognizable and seamlessly integrated into people’s lives. Every detail counts. When a brand is consistent, audiences connect more quickly with it and it becomes differentiated from competitors. Brands that aren’t consistent can’t create the maximum impact. Inconsistency leads to dilution of meaning and as a result, decreased loyalty and engagement. Consistent does not mean static. The most impactful brands are flexible and dynamic, yet still remain consistent, coherent, and powerful.

5. Authentic

When a brand rings true to itself, we believe people can not only tell the difference, they can feel it. And in an increasingly staged and media-saturated world, people are seeking this kind of authenticity in every facet of their lives. So brands that are open and trustworthy attract customers who will stand behind the brand’s purpose. Authentic brands deliver on what they promise. They interact with customers with transparency and integrity – committing to purpose, behaving genuinely, leading with heart, and inviting people in.

6. Emotive 

Brands that are thriving today connect not only rationally, but emotionally – reaching a deeper level in people’s minds and hearts. When brands are emotionally infused, employees work with greater purpose and get more satisfaction from their work. Customers become more loyal, spend more money, and are more likely to recommend the brand to peers. These emotionally charged brands convey meaning and evoke emotions that draw the people who matter to their business closer to them – setting them apart from their competition.

Stay tuned for our next installment in Brand Strategy 101.

Win by Going Beyond Features and Benefits

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Convincing minds by capturing hearts: the new brand-building approach

What comes first? The rational decision to take the next step on the path to purchase, or the emotional trigger that gets them started on that path?

Aren’t we humans cool?

We pride ourselves on our cognitive skills, our ability to weigh pros and cons, and our decision-making power. After all, these factors separate us from other life forms.

Continue reading “Win by Going Beyond Features and Benefits”

How Is Coaching Like Brand Strategy?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Coaching and Brand Strategy: Parallels in Action

We are an active bunch at Emotive Brand. Because our team is filled with athletes, it seems only natural to draw a parallel between the impact of coaching and brand strategy. Bella Banbury, co-founder and CEO at Emotive Brand, is a Triathlete. Bella is the first to say that her growth in the sport is thanks not only to dedicated hours spent on her bike, on the trails, and swimming in the San Francisco Bay, but thanks to the support of her coaches.

Coaching keeps her on track, focused, injury free, and the fittest, fastest, and strongest she can be. It gives her the support to reach new goals and push her limits each and every day. And she can’t help but see the connections between her competition out there and her work at Emotive Brand. By sitting down with Bella, we’ve outlined five ways brand strategy is like coaching and what we can learn from this analogy.

Here are our insights:

1. Not every athlete is the same.

Different athletes have different characteristics and strengths, just like the brands and businesses we work with. Some need to move fast, while others prefer distance over speed. Some are new to the sport – like our startup clients – learning the ropes, gaining basic skills, and looking to grow. Others are experienced but may have plateaued and need to fine tune their skills in order to reach new heights. Some need help breaking out of outdated brand behaviors that are holding them back. Many are trying to adapt to new skills, and need guidance incorporating what they’ve learned into their existing practice. In the end, everyone is looking to improve and gain some kind of performance edge.

A good coach, like a good brand strategy agency, understands that not every athlete or business is the same. Each athlete plays, practices, and performs for different reasons, just like every business has different motivations, goals, aspirations, and a unique story behind what they do and why they do it. And each athlete, like a business or brand, needs someone who deeply understands these differences and can help them reach maximum impact, performance, and meaning within the market.

2. A coach must adapt to the objectives of the athlete.

Powerful and impactful brand strategy gives each individual client the specific tools they need to succeed. Brand strategy can be the whole package – brand naming, positioning, visual identity, brand narrative, etc. – but that isn’t always necessary. On the other hand, it might simply be fine tuning a strong business with a fresh look, a slight shift in positioning, a new category, or just a simple refinement of the narrative.

Brand strategy at Emotive Brand is about making your brand matter more to people and, as a result, transforming your business. And each brand and business is different and demands a customized path to transformation. In order for an athlete to meet their goals, he or she needs a plan tailored specifically to them. Good coaches adapt to each athlete’s objectives if they want them to thrive. By deep diving into the client’s needs, challenges, strengths, and weaknesses, a brand strategy firm can help any business reach its full potential, ready the organization for growth, and strategically position the brand for success.

3. Good coaching is key to beating the competition.

Brand strategy is all about helping businesses be fit and fast, just like coaches. In today’s ever evolving digital landscape, business is more fast paced than ever before. In order to compete, you have to be one step ahead of the competition. You can’t win unless you have a strategy for competing and maintaining relevance in the market. For brands, this means a full understanding of what makes you different from your competition. What gives you an edge? How can you stand out? How can you maintain your place at the top or make your way up there? What kind of people are going to help you “win”? What makes you special as a team? These key, strategic questions can position your business to compete even within highly competitive, always shifting markets.

4. Coaching requires teamwork and collaboration.

A sports team can’t be successful without working together. This also applies to any coach and athlete relationship. Success requires a collaborative and respectful mindset. And we’ve found that brand strategy helps teams become more open to new ideas, people, and experiences, while recognizing and respecting that every individual has different values, beliefs, experiences, and boundaries. Empathy and trust are key, as is a focus on strong communication.

In the end, strong collaboration promotes growth, widens perspectives, increases creativity, and inspires innovation. And through our work, we’ve found that collaborative businesses more easily overcome challenges and aptly conquer obstacles. Working as a team gets everyone aligned and moving towards common goals. So when we work with clients, we think of their challenges as our own, just as a coach might about an athlete’s or his own team’s. This joint ownership makes clients feel more supported and situated for success.

5. The value of coaching is realized when the strategy comes into play.

Creating a strategy only gains real value when the strategy is activated and actually comes to life. This might be likened to the difference between practice and an actual game or competition. An athlete might have a strategic plan they’ve gone over and outlined with their coach, but the success of the strategy isn’t realized until the actual competition, match, race, etc. In our world, this is when the strategy goes to market. So as an agency, our job isn’t only to create a strategy for our clients, but to give them the tools and assets to make it come to life. How is the strategy going to live and breathe? A visual identity and guidelines for how to use the brand help demonstrate how the strategy will work, live, and compete in the market.

Coaching can help an athlete reach peak performance, beat the competition, and meet goals with a tailored plan for success. And we know, first hand, that brand strategy can do the same for your business and brand. So consider the power of brand strategy and how it can position your business to thrive.

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

How Do You Create a New Brand Category?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

All Signs Point to a New Brand Category

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

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

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

Moving Forward

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

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

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

Defining a New Brand Category

1. Research and analyze:

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

2. Establish a budget:

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

3. Choose a category:

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

4. Prove your brand is different:

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

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

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

Download our White Paper on Brand Category Creation.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

Brand Guidelines: An Interview with Emotive Brand Senior Designer

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

The Importance of Brand Guidelines

Emotive Brand hinges itself on the ability to transform businesses through brand strategy and strategically informed design. Miguel, a senior designer in the studio, works to bring brands to life by creating clear, inspired, and emotive brand identities. In this interview, Miguel discusses a process of branding that is often overlooked: building brand guidelines. Read to learn more about the importance of having a roadmap for your brand and how it should be used to create maximum impact.

Why might businesses overlook the importance of brand guidelines?

They aren’t easy. No one wants to read a manual. And it can be overwhelming, both to digest and to create. Building a clear guide takes focus, a high attention to detail, and a deep understanding of the brand itself. I think part of the reason why people disregard the importance of guidelines is that they don’t fully grasp all the places their brand touches. It isn’t just a logo. It’s composed of a variety of elements that when used correctly together make your brand recognizable and meaningful to people. You need a roadmap to keep the brand consistent. Brand guidelines are essential to every brand no matter how big or small, local or global, new or old.

How do guidelines help bring a brand to life?

The goal of brand guidelines is to help your people – designers, writers, strategists, new employees, veterans, freelancers, hired agencies, etc. – bring your brand to life. Brand guidelines help those people build a cohesive, clear, and recognizable brand and they are the people enabled to propel your business. Without guidelines, the brand assets have no value – the guidelines bring them to life. They provide a clear and simple toolbox that includes a set of standards for using brand names, logos, typefaces, and other design elements in ads, brochures, newsletters, packaging, digital communications, and any other ways the brand might communicate.

What happens when a brand doesn’t have clear guidelines?

The brand will inevitably become inconsistent. It will be diluted. This means that brand recognition goes down and customers and employees become confused about your brand. With all the pieces and no instructions on how to use them, the brand assets become valueless. Without a roadmap, your brand seems unsure of where it is and where it’s going. Especially during times of growth, those new to your brand need to have a clear understanding of how they can help your brand live. So you need a strong, consistent, and solid brand to stand out. Without a guide, that just isn’t possible.

How do the guidelines help employees?

In the end, having a clear guide helps the whole team become aligned. It doesn’t matter if you’re a strategist or a designer, everyone has the tools to build the brand in the most meaningful way. Everyone has a map and this map makes people feel empowered and able to do their job. Less time is wasted. Less people are frustrated and lost. Even when a business is onboarding someone new, the guidelines get them quickly on board with how the brand lives. And when you’re brand is truly living and all the parts are working altogether, that’s your emotional impact. That’s your brand doing its job.

What are some of the challenges of creating brand guidelines?

For me, as a designer, writing is not my strong suit. But I’ve learned to make sure whatever I’m writing for the guide is detailed, yet still clear and simple, much like a manual. It really has to take people through the process, step by step. It can’t be complicated because at the end of the day, complication will dilute essential brand information. I’ve learned that the simpler the visuals are, the fewer steps you need to communicate. It’s about achieving the right balance between visual and verbal instructions so the guide is the clearest it can be for everyone who might use it.

Another challenge is finding balance between laying out rules and structure, while also allowing for brand flexibility. When I’m working, I’m also thinking, “What’s the next thing for the brand?”. You have to try and imagine possibilities for the future so that the brand can grow. One thing that helps is showing examples of how the brand lives in real life situations. At Emotive Brand, we always outline parameters for print, digital, and environmental signage. These situations might not exist for the brand yet, but we are trying to help build a brand that thinks ahead and work within those parameters while still moving forward.

Do you think brand guidelines can help businesses grow?

At the end of the day, guidelines are what make a brand recognizable. The consistency a guide creates is key to people’s ability to recognize your brand. When people recognize your brand, your brand is able to grow. Strong brand guidelines help steer your business towards growth. Guidelines, in the end, are all about creating maximum impact for your brand.

Read Miguel’s post on Brand Identity: What’s Your Type?

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy firm.

Uber Rational: A New Brand

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Yesterday, Uber launched a new brand identity, and it has sparked a lot of media attention. It’s amazing that an app icon update and a new website can create so much buzz, attention, and debate, but it got us thinking: What’s the real impact of changing an already established brand identity?

We believe brands need to consider both rational and emotional needs when embarking on telling their story. Uber’s new identity focuses on telling a rational story about what they do. But it lacks the emotional impact of why they do it and why consumers flock to it. ‘Why’ is critical because it imbues a brand with meaning, drives consumer decision-making, and fosters loyalty.

And the brand identity is particularly important to a company like Uber, where every journey begins with the app. Uber’s new “Bit Atom” concept feels austere, so much so that we wonder if Uber considered what feelings they were looking to evoke when users tap the icon on their screen. We envision Uber would want to evoke feelings like freedom, movement, ease, safety, and liberation – none of which are particularly rational or austere.

At Emotive Brand, we believe that brands should evoke human emotions at every touchpoint. Evolving your visual identity is something that needs to be considered thoughtfully. To do it right, you need to lead with a clearly articulated purpose and an understanding of your brand’s desired emotional impact. Emotional impact drives the expression of how your brand looks and feels to consumers.

Communicate the change and bring people along your journey.

Modifying, evolving, or introducing a whole new visual cue isn’t the same or as simple as introducing a series of new product features or software updates. If brands are about emotion (and they are), then changing a brand’s identity is going to have an effect on how people feel about you.

So when you change your brand’s identity, it’s important to manage how people experience the story of change. Communicate the change, internally and externally, in a way that takes people along for the “ride.” Don’t foist the change on people. Make the people who matter to your brand part of the story.

Make sure the story starts with why, not with what.

When creating a visual identity, it’s important not to get bogged down in the what. Lead with why, and let your symbol mark this journey.

For Uber, the app icon should set the emotional tone of the  experience from the first tap. What feelings does Uber evoke? Why does the brand matter? These are the questions we would ask when embarking upon a brand transformation.

Don’t misunderstand: We are confident that Uber didn’t undertake this change lightly. But change is hard, particularly when it comes to big brands with lots of social currency like Uber, and the stakes are very high.

We would have gone with something more evocative of feelings, emotion, and sense of purpose. But then, it’s not for nothing that our name is “Emotive Brand.”

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design consultancy.

Meaningful Leaders Resolution #1 for 2015

Posted on by Jerry Holtaway

Lead by proudly, confidently and passionately proclaiming a new destination for your customers, your employees and your business.

Going beyond profit, declare your intention to do well by doing good.

Give everyone the answer to their burning question, “Why?”. Why does your business exist? Why is that good? Why does that matter?

Continue reading “Meaningful Leaders Resolution #1 for 2015”