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

Hello!

Tag: CEO

2016 San Francisco Branding Agency: A Year in Review

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Looking Back

As I look back on this year and reflect on the work we did, the shifts our agency made, the clients we encountered, and everything else in between, I can’t help but share some significant insights and lessons I learned working in a San Francisco brand agency.

Agile Strategy Meets Actual Reality

This year was about meeting clients wherever they were on their brand strategy journey and finding tangible ways to deliver impact to their business and brand. Luckily, we saw this coming. We developed new ways to adapt our more linear brand strategy methodology to the changing needs of business leaders over the past two years.

This year was about honing in on how to deliver the strategic thinking and creative opportunities at a high level on a shorter timeframe. Working in agile ways requires a completely different approach to strategy. So we adjusted our agency at every level from operationally scoping a project to delivering a statement of work (SOW) — fast. Our projects are specific. We work in sprints. We are more collaborative with leadership teams. And we are developing a strong reputation for leading this style of work with high-growth companies.

Investing in Employer Branding and Culture

This year we saw a big shift in both interest and funding for developing employer brands and improving employee engagement and culture. This is an exciting turn for us as an agency as we strongly believe your brand comes from the inside out. We had more inbound calls this year and worked on more employer brand projects than in the last few years combined.

Research by PWC points to CEO’s being concerned about not being able to recruit top talent. And we have seen this ourselves with some of our larger, global enterprise tech companies this year. Recruiting and keeping top talent requires an investment in brand. So we are excited to see employer branding become more of a part of marketing. This will enable a more integrated approach between corporate brands and employer brands. Music to our ears.

The CEO Makes All the Difference

At Emotive Brand, we work in the C-suite. It’s where strategy is developed and executed. It’s where purpose and vision are born. And it’s the only place you can actively drive meaningful change. But, not all CEOs are the same. Their needs and interests around the brand they support vary dramatically.

As a whole, the projects that we worked on that were the most successful stemmed from an actively engaged CEO: someone who understood the full value of brand strategy. Brand strategy projects that do not actively include the CEO as a driver of the project become less strategic and tend to lose momentum and focus.

Sales-led Brand Strategy Resonates

As an agency, we have a very sales-led approach to developing brand strategy. And we’ve started using it in how we market ourselves as an agency and how we develop brand strategy. Executives want to know that you care about driving their business forward in all areas – most especially increasing revenue and profit. When we work closely with the CRO or Head of Sales, we see the impact of our work on the business’ bottom line. We get inside of the sales organization to learn what’s working and what isn’t. What their prospects and clients are looking for. What messages resonate and don’t. It helps us hear what the brand is doing well and what it needs to do to better compete as voiced from the front line. And when we intimately understand the needs of the customers, we’re better positioned to craft a strategy that resonates at an emotional level.

What does that mean for Emotive Brand in 2017? A Return to Brand

I believe we will see a renewed focus and an increased investment in brand strategy across the board.

Businesses that thrive will be those that have a solid brand strategy in place to drive growth, differentiate, and enable more meaningful experiences. In order for marketers to be strategic and successful within their own organizations, they will need the brand to work harder for them than ever before. And in order to meet the needs of marketers, I imagine brand strategy will become even less traditional: more strategic, more purposeful, and more personalized in its approach.

At the same time, clients will have a new opportunity to lean into brand strategy with confidence knowing they don’t necessarily need to buy the whole enchilada. I think we will continue to see clients looking for specialized projects – ones that meet the immediate needs of the business.

What does that mean for us at Emotive Brand?  A continued commitment to be more flexible. We can no longer rely on a one size fits all solution to brand strategy. So we plan on doubling down on our time spent listening to client needs in order to craft the right solutions that meet those needs and create maximum impact. And we will be working even harder to develop the right processes and frameworks to do just that. Here’s to a strong 2017!

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand agency.

Purpose-led Brands and the Role of the CEO

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Purpose-led leaders lead thriving businesses.

If you are a marketer faced with the task of re-branding or leading a brand strategy for your business, think about the person most influential to its success. Wondering who is essential to be part of the team? Ask yourself:

  • Who has the greatest insight into where your business needs to go?
  • Who can make sure that the company’s brand strategy embodies, and brings to life, this vision?
  • Who sees how the people, processes and policies of the business need to evolve to address future issues and opportunities?
  • Who is the best person to lead the organization forward in a focused, unified and purposeful manner?
  • Who do you need to ensure is on the team and willing to lead this project by your side?

The CEO

Yet, how many CEOs play a vital role in the development of brand strategy – that is, to the point where they achieve real feeling of ownership of the strategy’s ambition? Going further, what does this mean to the successful deployment  and socialization of the brand strategy across the business?

Unfortunately, all too often, branding is seen as a subset of the business, a line-item in the overall business strategy, and the responsibility of a team (and their agency) reporting to the CMO.

In many cases, the resulting “brand book” invariably features an introduction from the CEO, in which there are a series of predictable, jargon-filled and corporately-safe comments. It may have the signature of the CEO below it, but few honestly believe the CEO has written, or even read, this letter.

Delegated activity, not a transformative business strategy

Indeed, for the CEO, the “brand” often is a mystery and something better left to others. It is something to be delegated and not to be owned. As such, to the CEO it is more of activity resulting in a document, than a key element of a transformative business strategy.

This state of affairs leaves any brand strategy, however meaningful, out on a limb. While the brand team will be passionate advocates of the strategy, everyone else in the company will, like the CEO, think of the brand as “someone else’s job”.

And this, sadly, is where many brand strategies crumble to pieces.

  • A brand strategy becomes a new logo and guidelines.
  • A strong brand promise is created, but it is not clear what it means or why it matters.
  • The brand strategy, while the right one, lives in a file cabinet drawer, or on the wall as a poster.
  • Or worse yet, a brand strategy is developed, yet never fulfilled on.

The brand strategy fails because it was neither truly “top-down” (it came from another “department”, not from the big honcho), nor “bottom-up” (because employees beyond the brand team didn’t see it as their job to do).

The value of CEO ownership

When a CEO is urged, encouraged and, if need be, prodded to take a lead in the brand strategy process, a different result is experienced. It’s not at all that the CEO develops or writes the strategy. Rather, the CEO comes to see how his or her vision is embodied in the brand strategy, and how it can be used as a tool to transform the organization so that it can be stronger today, and better fit for the future.

When a CEO is seen as the chief proponent of, and supporting voice for, the strategy, employees throughout the organization see the strategy as more core to the business, and what they do within that business. They pay attention to strategy (assuming its delivered to them in a personally relevant and emotionally important way) and absorb it’s intent into their work practices (again, assuming they are shown how to do just that).

The value of across-the-board brand activation

Truly purpose-led brands stand out because they not only enjoy top-down support starting at the CEO, but because the brand strategy doesn’t stop at communications to the external world.

In this bottom-up mode, purpose-led brands take an holistic role in transforming how the brand is experienced, both inside and outside the business. No one in the business is left behind, as the brand strategy is deployed and socialized in a way that makes it the company’s “way of being”. Where employees are taught what it means to “Live the brand” each and every day.

When they feel purpose-driven, focused and gratified, employees work individually and in teams to create an energy that attracts the best customers, the most talented recruits, the most potent partners and the right investors. And your business thrives.

Top-down, bottom-up brand purpose-led strategies for better results overall

Brand strategies that embrace this “top-down, bottom-up” thinking aren’t relegated to the sidelines by the organization. Rather, as CEO-empowered forces, the relevant ambitions of the strategy become ideas which shape employee attitudes and behavior across the business.

Being based in the CEO’s vision, these purpose-led brand strategies work harder to point the business in the right direction, move it ahead with greater speed and agility, and lift it to a higher, more meaningful level in the hearts and minds of people.

Interested in learning more about a purpose-led brand strategy? Curious how to transform your business with a brand strategy? Download our white paper below.

Download White Paper

Emotive Brand works with CEO”s to help create purpose-led brand strategies that transform business.

The CEO Challenge – Turning Corporate Vision Into Reality

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

The corporate vision statement

We’ve written before about the gaps between what business leaders believe and what their employees think when it comes to the company’s corporate vision and values.

Today we’d like to explore another gap. This is the gap between what the CEO sees as the company’s vision, and what employees are doing to help achieve that vision – often referred to as the Corporate Vision Statement.

In some cases, the gap exists simply because employees haven’t been informed of the vision.

As such, they are left to their own devices, pulling the company and its brand strategy apart because they don’t know how or why they’re meant to keep it together.

In other cases, the gap exists because the vision was delivered to the employees in a way that left them feeling less than enthusiastic.

Delivered in an alienating “corporate” way and not in a meaningful “human” way.

It therefore did not enchant, inspire or engage the employees.

It simply did not matter to them.

It literally “went in one ear and out the other”.

We help our clients turn their vision into a meaningful reality.

We get corporate visions to matter to employees, and employees align to the vision.

We do this by translating the “corporate vision” into a credible and meaningful “human ambition”.

We make the vision both personally relevant and emotionally important to employees.

They come away not only with a clear idea of what they need to do, but also with a profound sense of why they should help the company achieve its vision.

As result they are motivated to propel the company and its brand to a more meaningful position in the world – a position defined by the CEO’s vision and tempered by an understanding of what it takes to get people to care in today’s world.

Have you been involved in any programs where this has been executed well? If so, we’d love to help.

If you have a “corporate vision” that has not yet been articulated into a meaningful brand narrative that employees can rally around and believe in, let us know. We can help!

You might enjoy reading more about our ideas around Brand Promise by visiting our blog.

We are launching a new solution entitled “Path to Purpose”. This is a 6-week program that was developed for senior leadership teams to get aligned around the value of a corporate purpose statement, how to articulate it, what it means to your business, and how it can align your entire organization around it meaningfully. If you are interested in learning more please contact Co-Founder, Tracy Lloyd.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy firm.

Inspiration from Purpose-Led CEO of Givesurance, Jennifer Rasiah

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

We had the pleasure of sitting down and speaking with Jennifer Rasiah, founder of Givesurance and the Emotive Brand epitome of a purpose-led leader.

Starting as a claims evaluator at Prudential Financial and working her way up to Senior Executive at Hub International, Jennifer had 15 years of experience in the insurance industry under her belt when she decided to make a change. A meaningful change. She wanted to make a real difference in the world and saw an opportunity to leverage her deep knowledge of the insurance industry and her innate desire to give back. So, Jennifer created Givesurance and altered the insurance industry as we knew it.

Instead of spending 50% of commission on acquiring and retaining customers through agents, Givesurance leverages the company’s established partnerships with charities to pass along donations to non-profits.

Operating as a funding platform for these charities, Givesurance allows charity supporters to return up to 5% of all monthly insurance payments as donations to the partner charity of their choice through their existing insurance payment. Essentially, people can help the world at no additional cost to them. By supporting a diverse and constantly expanding range of causes from global development non-profits to local food and clothing banks, Givesurance produces a personalized sense of giving for both individuals and businesses.

Jennifer’s deep-rooted need to give back was evident in the very way she discussed the astounding potential of Givesurance. We were so inspired by Jennifer’s meaningful vision that we decided we needed to share Jennifer’s words, stories, and goals with you.

We hope this inspires all leaders to lead with their purpose, shedding light on why creating a meaningful brand not only matters for business performance, but also for fostering social good and impacting the world at large — our world.

The following is an excerpt of our interview with Jennifer:

How would you define a purpose-led leader?

To me, a purpose-led leader is someone who isn’t bleeding his or her passion out for everyone else to see. It’s someone who can’t stop until they have made the difference they need to.

Why did you start Givesurance?

After gaining an in-depth understanding of the insurance industry, I realized I could assist insurance companies while doing good for non-profits. The business is a culmination of my passion and professional interests. We’ve built relationships with more than 225+ insurance carriers and 60+ charities. Givesurance started working with our partner charities to help them spread the word and raise money for their organizations and those they benefit.

What are the biggest challenges facing today’s purpose-led leaders?

Building a sustainable business that continues to support your endeavors so you can continue doing the good work. It’s almost like you need gravity to be standing here, or you’ll be floating all over space. We need to always evaluate limitations. You can’t just say you want to give back to the community and give everything you have if that’s not within your means.

How is your business redefining the industry?

Givesurance is connecting insurance and nonprofits for the first time, giving insurance customers an option to do something good with their monthly premiums. Beyond our founding notion, Givesurance engages with a number of audiences that need our help. Just recently, we’ve been focused on providing newer companies with an opportunity to give back to their local communities via corporate social responsibility programs — and they love it!

Why does Givesurance matter?

In this economy, consumers are financially strapped in every area of their lives. They want to make the most of their dollar. Givesurance lets consumers do just that. With the donation wallet, app users become philanthropists at no additional cost. The impact of their giving attitude extends to the many disadvantaged communities within our world.

What impact could you have on the world?

To know that $25 in Givesurance donation credits could provide 100 meals to the underprivileged or 125 books for children in rural parts of Africa is why we began this business in the first place. We have the ability, for example, to the gift of education or sustainability…to increase the quality of life for many people across the world.

Why do you think brand is important for purpose-led companies?

Brands are the reason people associate with a cause, and without it, there’s no identity.

What inspires you everyday? What are your aspirational goals?

The people around me who encourage me to do my best are so inspiring and truly impact my work. In terms of what I aspire to, Givesurance is focused on partnering with even more charities to generate awareness. If all U.S. households could get 5% of their insurance payment back as a donation credit, then more than $100 billion would go toward charities. We want to spread the word to as many households as possible and become licensed in all 50 states.  

What are the most important values to you when you do business? Why? How do these play out both in long-term and day-to-day practices?

Never give up — the minute you give up is the minute you fail. Appreciating the people around you and the work they do is also extremely important in business. Without believing in yourself or those around you, your business won’t function.

Interested in learning more about Purpose Beyond Profit? Download our white paper.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco Branding Agency.

Thoughts for CEO’s

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Business is hard.

Companies face a never-ending stream of challenges.

Ask a CEO, “What’s the matter?”, and he or she is likely to talk anxiously about need to scale faster, recruiting top talent, lagging innovation, disgruntled customers, growing competition, the threat of commoditization, investor concerns, and a litany of other issues.

These are real issues and concerns.

They are often complex issues that are difficult and expensive to address.

And, try as they may, many CEOs have trouble implementing the changes needed to counter these disruptive and destructive ailments.

Why?

Quite simply, it’s because employees who are in a position to resolve a business issue simply don’t care enough about the business to do what it needs them to do.

They don’t care enough to help your business prosper, to work with greater energy and purpose, to bring you new ideas, to buy more of your products instead of your competitor’s, to see your business as uniquely relevant, to invest more money in your concern, and so on.

Sure, they know your business.

But does it matter to them?

When your business matters to people, they will act in ways that will help your business prosper and thrive. They will feel that they have valid reasons to do so. They will believe that you both share common values and goals. They will want to see your business do well, and will take the steps you need them to take in order for that to happen.

  • How can you get people to care about your business?
  • How can you get your business to matter to them?
  • How can you get people on your business’s side?

Start by stepping back from the issues that currently occupy you.

Start thinking about the people who are standing behind each of those issues: your customers, your employees, your partners, your suppliers, your investors, and so on.

Think about the changes they’ve been undergoing as society moves from the Age of Opulence to the Age of Meaning.

Then, ask yourself:

“What truly matters to these people?”

“How can we align our business more to what they care about?”

“How can we change the way they think and feel about us so that we’re more important to them, both rationally and emotionally?”

“How can we develop a purpose that they can connect to, embrace, and co-own with us?”

“How can we change the experience of dealing with our business to make it have a more meaningful impact on people?”

C-Suite Confusion, Fear and Disagreement

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

It’s little wonder someone like musician David Carroll was inspired to produce a music video – that went viral – about United Airlines’s cavalier attitude toward him when he complained about how they badly damaged his guitar in transport.

“United Breaks Guitars” – cited in an excellent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit – was a wake up call to United.

But its point about the importance of responsive customer service in the on-line age doesn’t seem to have penetrated the business world as yet.

As the infographic summarizes, there’s C-suite confusion about who’s responsibility for customer service.

Customer service is, for too many C-suite leaders, a fear-based, reactive response to threats, rather than a proactive way of improving customer service and spreading customer recommendations.

There is disagreement about how well social media efforts are working, with the C-suite convinced all is well whereas middle managers are less impressed.

How can these leaders become better aligned around the role, goals and true success of their customer service efforts?

One way would be for them to get aligned around a purpose beyond profit – a compelling idea that helps them see how they can truly matter to people.

Another way is to define a specific emotional aura that you want people who do business with, or work for, the company feel with every contract – so that the outcome of customer service is more defined in human terms.

Establishing a new code of behavior that’s more in touch with the social zeitgeist will go along way in helping people both in the C-suite and throughout the organization align their ways of being.

From top down, and bottom up, businesses that matter know their purpose, how they want people to feel and how to behave to make it all come true.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy firm that works with the c-suite of high-growth companies.