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Tag: Corporate Narrative

Fast Forward Your Narrative: COVID was a catalyst for change. Is your corporate narrative still relevant?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

COVID was a catalyst for change. Is your corporate narrative still relevant?

At the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, companies were scrambling to respond to the moment. But as recognition sets in that these changes are here to stay, we must respond to a new movement: one that moves fast, with feeling, for the future.

The landscape of brand, business, and culture has been undeniably transformed. So, we must figure out how to communicate in ways that were empathetic and relevant, contextually aware, human, and sensitive. Given our new normal—a constant state of change—today’s leaders, brand stewards, and their teams must be extremely focused, maintain leadership amidst uncertainty, and have the ability to rapidly and dynamically re-evaluate what their company stands for, how it communicates, and why it’s vital to the world.

Making sure your Corporate Narrative resonates with customers, partners, and employees requires an agile strategy and clear communications that reflect your company in a way that is authentic and appropriate for this moment. There is no better time to lean into your brand, ensuring that it connects to both hearts and minds, knows what to say, when to say it, and how to say it.

We have developed a new program to meet these challenges that we’re calling Fast Forward. It efficiently develops one specifically-targeted Corporate Narrative to ensure you are on-brand in how you communicate with employees, customers, your wider partner ecosystem, boards, and investors.

  • The CEO Narrative enables CEOs to communicate a leadership vision appropriate for a moment that reaches all audiences.
  • The CMO Narrative is customized to enable CMOs and their marketing teams to communicate with external audiences, such as customers, partners, and boards.
  • The CHRO Narrative is designed to give CHROs and their teams the messages they need to speak with employees during this time.
  • The CRO Narrative is focused on sales with customers, prospects, and partners.

On this page, you’ll find our recommended approach to quickly assess and adjust your Corporate Narrative to ensure your company is in the best position for what is undoubtedly a new era for business.  

Emotive Brand is an Oakland brand strategy and design agency.

Do You Guys Do Messaging?

Posted on by Giovanna Blackston Keren

Do You Guys Do Messaging?

When clients ask us to share our ‘typical’ brand strategy process, we are careful to respond that there is no typical process as all client needs truly are different. The right-for-this-client scope of work comes as a result of a deep process of inquiry into our clients’ circumstances, budget tolerance, depth and expertise of team, and an assessment of what we think they will need to really make their brand perform in the market. Invariably, the question comes, “what about messaging, do you guys do that?” Indeed, what about messaging? A classic component of the strategy line-up, we’ve been doing a fair bit of thinking about this deliverable of late.

Messaging, also referred to as Messaging Framework, Messaging Grid, or Messaging Platform, is classically a compendium of messages, written in plain-speak (i.e. not in Brand Voice), designed to translate the core strategic tenets of the brand positioning into relevant and motivating messages for each of the brand’s core audiences (current and prospective customers, partners, employees, etc.). Sometimes, each message will be accompanied by a ‘message pod’—a sample piece of copy, written in Brand Voice, to help a client understand how this message would actually execute in situ.

Why are Messaging Frameworks useful?

What’s great about the Messaging deliverable is that it takes strategy out of a Keynote (or PowerPoint, as the case may be) and demonstrates in real, marketing-jargon-free words what the ideas actually mean in practice. The deliverable goes a long way to take theory into practice and also show how versatile the idea is in its ability to be relevant and motivating for a variety of audiences. A seeming ‘score,’ but to be honest, we’re wondering if this is really the most useful tool for our clients.

When are Messaging Frameworks not what the doctor ordered?

Messaging Frameworks, while noble in intent, can sometimes end up DOA. There are a few reasons we’ve seen this happen. In some cases, our clients have a robust team dedicated to writing content. These teams are well-equipped to take Messaging and turn it into copy and content that extends and enhances their existing messaging. However, for many companies, this is simply not the case. Content is cranked out by all kinds of people, not necessarily writers, and trying to take messaging into copy can feel like a herculean task. Similarly, younger organizations, especially tech companies, are not well-positioned to write content that sits above product descriptions, features, and benefits. For them, brand is a new language and often the reason they’ve turned to a branding firm for help. Figuring out how to infuse their heavily product-focused content with brand messages is simply not in their skill set. Or in their timelines.

What’s a better option?

We’ve been asking ourselves how we can better meet our clients’ needs by giving them content they can actually use. The answer turns out to be not a Messaging Framework at all. The fact of the matter is, there are a variety but not infinite number of touchpoints that are suited for brand messaging. Rather than developing a framework of messages that must then be matched with a need and then recast in Brand Voice, we are asking our clients to tell us exactly what they need from the get-go. A sparkling new “About” section for your website? Check. We can do that. We know who the audience is and we know what key ideas we want to convey to them. We’ve got the Brand Voice down. Easy. How about a blurb for your LinkedIn profile? A sales outreach email? A CEO announcement to employees? PR boilerplate? Check. Check. Check and check.

It’s a new world. Time is money. Brands are erected in months, not years. We are increasingly helping our clients get right to the point with brand-led content they can use out of the gate. There may still be utility for a Messaging Framework for large, distributed companies with plenty of writers with time on their hands. But from our perspective, brand-led, ready as-is content is the way to go.

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

Is it Time for a Brand Refresh?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

What Got You Here

Sometimes it’s hard to recognize that it’s time for a brand refresh. Why embark on a brand refresh if your business is successfully growing? Many high-growth companies grow organically, without any strategic direction. Things takeoff. Your team expands. New offices open. Your product line multiplies. And growth mode may happen without making plans for how the brand will accommodate and flex as the business develops.

At these times, decisions are often made that help an internal team manage change. In many cases, this means that some of the key brand components end up holding greater meaning for those inside of the company, but lack meaning for other key audiences – prospects, customers, and recruits – who also matter to the brand’s success.

The warning signs of a solely internal-facing brand are plenty: internal names for your product, add-on brands, or a website that has been pieced together, mirroring the evolution of the company. These common indicators show that important audiences have been forgotten. If this sounds familiar, your brand needs to start looking outside itself.

Forgetting Who’s Outside

The problem with an internal-facing brand is that the brand isn’t always clear or powerful to outsiders. The purpose of an impactful brand is to connect meaningfully with all the people who matter to your business – inside and out. So if a brand makes sense to your team, but isn’t as easily understood by external audiences, your brand loses impact, and as a result, business eventually stagnates.

Sometimes all the effort that went into scaling your business becomes your brand strategy – making it very hard for outsiders to understand who you are, what you do, and why you matter. And when the people crucial to your business’s success don’t understand your brand, your business can easily fall behind the competition, risk becoming irrelevant and may even lack the future support needed to move your brand and business forward.

Time for a Brand Refresh

Consider these aspects of your strategy to refresh your brand and position your business for continued future growth.

1. Brand Architecture

For many high-growth companies, add-on brands have rendered your architecture irrelevant. Do you have one brand or many brands? A branded house? Or a house of brands? How do all of your products fit into the structure of your brand? Evaluate how all the different products, business units, and pieces of your brand fit together. Don’t let organic growth lead the way. Develop your brand architecture to help people understand your business, products, and services. Enable that architecture to work for today and accommodate for tomorrow.

2. Category Reframing

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. Companies that have experienced organic growth oftentimes outgrow their original category without realizing it. As such, many high-growth company will start in one category and need to shift into another over time. This shift might be necessitated by the advancement of products, the market, and/or new category. Choosing the right category or defining a new one is critical to positioning your brand in a way that frames your value and makes it relevant to your customers. We like to think of category development as a process that helps clarify and shape the perceptions, feelings, and attitudes about your brand. Think about articulating the right metaphor that will make it easy for people to find meaning in your brand.

3. Positioning

Knowing how you want your brand represented, enforced, and reinforced is part of developing your positioning. A strong and meaningful positioning can enhance what your brand does, how it differs from your competitors, and why it’s better than any alternative in the market. Ensuring you have the right positioning strategy is critical to building your business.

4. Target Audience

Who is important to your brand? Who do you sell to? Who are your most important brand champions? Who are the key influencers? These are all important questions to answer during a brand refresh. For high-growth companies, the people who were important to your brand when you started have probably evolved. So take a critical eye and focus on understanding precisely who your target audience is, why you matter to them, what are they looking to solve, and how can you create messaging to speaks to their needs and desires.

5. Your Why

It’s critical to make sure you lead with ‘why’ during a brand refresh. Most likely the success of your business and its growth is the result of your purpose, or reason for being. Formalizing your purpose into a brand promise will help your growing team get aligned internally around why you matter. Everyone can get on board the same boat and row towards the same higher purpose. And when you align everyone internally and drive them towards that purpose, the people on the outside will feel your why as well. A brand is a way of bringing your purpose to life, so focus on it and how you can make people believe in your brand.

6. The Competition

In order to differentiate yourself and offer unique value to your audiences, you have to know your competition – inside and out. Who you were competing with when you started businesses has most likely entirely shifted, especially in the fast-paced business world we work in today. Map your current brand against the competition and shift accordingly.

7. Corporate Narrative

Investing in developing a corporate narrative helps everyone understand who you are, what you do, why you matter, and what the future holds for your business. If everyone internally has insight into this, it helps the external storytelling become clear and consistent. Your corporate narrative should help tell the story of your brand in an honest, meaningful, and emotive way.

8. Creative Assets

Oftentimes, making your brand more clear, powerful, and meaningful to key audiences means refreshing your visual identity (and from there, your website). Ensure your identity represents who you are and why you matter. When looking to revamp your website, hire experts. Make sure your navigation clearly reflects your brand strategy and make sure your value proposition is clear and understandable to website visitors. There are many decisions to be made when redesigning a website, so use your newly refreshed brand strategy to guide these decisions. A strategically lead redesign is key to having a well-designed user experience.

A Brand Refresh = More Meaningful, Competitive, Successful Business

Taking the time to invest in your brand will bring tangible positive results to your bottom line.

In order to hold greater meaning in the hearts and minds of the people who are most important to your business, strongly position your brand and focus on meaningfully articulating your value.

By getting everyone around the table internally, with sales and marketing brought together, your sales cycle quickens, your business becomes better positioned for success, your recruitment efforts prove more successful, and your brand helps fuel a competitive and thriving business.

Refresh your brand and bring its purpose to life for both inward- and outward-facing audiences in order to stay ahead and continue to grow. Your business depends on it.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy agency. 

Investing in Corporate Narrative During Transition: Essential Tool for CEOs

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

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Transformations and Transitions

The corporate narrative is an essential tool for CEOs. Persuading them to invest in one is hard sometimes.

Competitive pressures on businesses today are stronger than ever. And as a result, many companies are taking new directions, which are leaving CEOs to reevaluate their position, redirect employees, and build new identities and strategies that are going to fuel business forward amidst important transitions and transformations.

As many businesses today shift and flex to changing market demands, it’s easy for a large transformation or transitional period to leave critical audiences and stakeholders feeling lost. Lack of alignment, disparate value propositions across the organization, mixed information, brand behavior, unclear values, or varied messages from recruiters all add to this feeling. And a lack of clarity and/or mistrust among the people most important to driving your business in a new direction is detrimental to a successful transformation. 

Falling Short

When businesses are in the midst of a large transition, focusing on a corporate narrative is usually one of CEOs last priorities. Execs are more concerned with the changing business at hand, meeting profit goals, or fighting off the newest competition. But what they don’t realize is that a strong corporate narrative is the high-potential solution to these top concerns.

Misconceptions about the impact of a strong corporate narrative may be due to the fact that few companies have actually leveraged their corporate narrative to its greatest potential. In these instances, the narrative is stifled because it is formulaic and limited in its reach, use, and emotional impact.

The Value Received From a Corporate Narrative

When built and leveraged in the right ways, a corporate narrative can help your business stand out and fuel the people who are going to power your business forward.

1. Standing Out

Differentiation is one of the biggest outcomes for businesses who dedicate time and resources to a strong corporate narrative. Because corporate narratives operate as long-term solutions, they can help your business sustainably stand out (as compared to a short-term solution like leading with a new product or service). Successful corporate narratives tap into an unmet desire of the people they are trying to reach, and this is the most powerful differentiator. Meeting important rational and emotional needs for the people who matter to your business is the competitive edge your business needs during a time of transformation.

2. Fuel Business Efforts

A strong corporate narrative can help fuel business efforts and drive innovation forward during a transformation by getting people inside and outside the company on board with the new vision of the business. When people are engaged and excited about what the brand and business can fulfill for them, they start behaving in ways that enrich the purpose and drive business forward. Consider all the app developers who have gotten excited by Apple’s narrative, developed their own apps supported by the platform, and as a result, driven Apple forward.

3. Power Innovation

Narratives have the power of opening up possibilities and opportunities for your business. Often, they help bring new audiences into what’s at play, and as a result, new voices get heard, people engage more, and innovation increases. For instance, having a strong narrative might attract new partners or companies to you that want to be a part of the story. Think of all the cutting-edge collaborations Nike has done. Because narratives encourage action and build a community around your brand, they attract more active people, which leads to more innovation. Giving people a narrative to buy into can help people see new possibilities and become more likely to experiment, explore, and collaborate. 

4. Pull People In

When trying to take a new direction with your business, it’s important that you bring people along on the journey. Investing in a corporate narrative can help build important relationships that will help your business sustain long-term success. Instead of pushing shifts on people, a narrative can help people feel like they are part of it, that they’re role matters. When you have a narrative, even during turbulent times, people are more likely to stand by you because they believe in what you stand for.

Your Corporate Narrative = Your High-Potential Solution

With a simple, flexible corporate narrative that fits the direction you want to take, and clear guidelines on how to use it, your business gets propelled in that direction. You become more differentiated, loyalty and pull increases, and innovation amplifies because everyone takes a more active role.

A strong narrative embodies the long-term opportunity your business offers and represents a sustainable future of meaning. It connects with the right people at the right time – bringing them into your collective culture that is formed around the vision, values, needs, desires, and aspirations that your narrative articulates so simply and so clearly. It is a foundation that can drive business success – a high-potential solution for any CEO looking to transform or transition their business in a new direction needs to be taken seriously.

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

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If Grandma Could Do It, Why Can’t The CMO?

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

My grandmother used to tell stories to the kids in my neighborhood. She would gather us around, get this far-away look on her face, and start in on a tale of some kids in the woods or a rabbit in the meadow or whatever. They would always be just as long as they needed to be, no longer. We would hang on her every word.

Once I asked her to retell a certain story we had heard from her years before, and she agreed. But as she told the story, it kept taking twists and turns I did not remember from the first time. ‘That’s not the story, Grandma,” I objected. She nodded with certainty. “Yes it is,” she said. “It’s a very old story, and I know it well.”

Continue reading “If Grandma Could Do It, Why Can’t The CMO?”