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Tag: Innovation

Disruptive Brands: How to Challenge the Status Quo and Succeed

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Disruptive Brands Are In

We’ve talked some about disruptive brands, why challenging the status quo and presenting information in a fresh way is an important driver of successful businesses today. Millennials value disruption more than any generation before. Many brands and businesses today are thriving because they aren’t afraid to do something new and make a splash. Companies everywhere are trying to figure out how to be the next Uber, AirBnB, or Amazon of their industry – innovating faster than their competition, hiring the most creative people out there, and doing something that’s never been done before.

Innovation and creativity are becoming more and more valued by employers today. Businesses realize they need new perspectives and people who are unafraid of bringing new ideas to the table, in order to drive their business into the future.

The Challenge of Always Challenging

Although disruptive brands are at the center of much of the media around successful business today, it’s not an easy job being a truly disruptive brand or business. Challenging the status quo and succeeding at it is a challenge in and of itself.

A new, change-driving idea isn’t enough. You have to actually make that idea come to life, and that’s a huge task. There are a lot of disruptive companies with innovative ideas who simply don’t make it.

For some, it’s overwhelming and seemingly impossible to prioritize ideas – focus isn’t appropriately distributed and impact gets diluted as a result. Succeeding at being a disruptor requires intense resiliency. Timing is always a challenge, as is getting others on board. Some visionaries have trouble seeing the value of incremental change and quick wins, coupled with their larger vision and greater creative energy. Others underestimate the importance of having a strong and unified team to make their vision a reality.

In the end, successful disruption requires not only a desire to challenge the status quo, but a clear vision, comprehensive research, planning, backing, and endless perseverance.

So successfully challenging the status quo hinges on:

1. Balancing vision with the now

Implementation is hard work, even with a clear vision of what’s ahead. It’s important for disruptors to remember the value of incremental change and quick wins. In the end, it’s all about balancing long-term goals with short-term practicalities. Your larger vision should be what drives everything. But disruption doesn’t happen overnight. It takes planning and prudence to make it work. Big ideas need small ideas to back them up (and sometimes, check to see if they are even feasible). Big steps and big splashes need preparation.

2. Building a stable, resilient team

Balancing these two ways of thinking – small and big – requires a team of diverse thinkers and doers. Because disruption is all about change, building a cohesive, supportive, and aligned team is key. In fact, disruptive thinking itself often thrives in collaborative settings filled with different perspectives and ways of seeing. You need people who are willing to challenge each other – different backgrounds, different strengths, and yet a unifying charge to create and produce change.

Working as a team helps advance ideas for change. When a group feels like they have joint ownership over an idea, it’s more likely to become a reality with everyone rallied behind it. Even someone who challenges the idea can bring up important flaws and help frame the concept for people who might doubt its impact.

3. Knowing your market inside and out

One of the main challenges of behaving as a disruptive business, is the entrance of new competition. When a new idea catches on – and it often does like wildfire – you find others piggy-backing on some version of your idea. Suddenly, you don’t stand out as much. Think Uber and Lyft. Being there first can be both a benefit and a barrier, and differentiating and continuing to say something that resonates and keeps you ahead of the curve hinges on knowing your market inside and out. How can you continue to offer something different? How can you continue to challenge the status quo?

In-depth research and awareness of your audiences and potential competitors is key. Being one step ahead of the game can go a long way. And staying fully informed is key to making sure you have the right timing with the right people – a large part of the equation.

4. Fostering a culture formed on disruption

It’s important to consider how you can maintain the disruptive spirit of your business, even years down the road. Building a culture that is open to fresh perspectives, change, and embraces people who ask questions, challenge ideas, and show an innate curiosity, is key.

Disruptors are often restless. If you want to be a truly disruptive brand, you have to embrace this restlessness. Allow employees to find novel ways of creating, thinking, and learning. New information always drives new perspectives. Be transparent and create a culture of trust where people feel comfortable challenging each other and voicing their opinions in constructive, productive ways. Be open to seemingly bad ideas as well as the good ones. Work with each individual to make sure their voice is heard – helping them learn, grow, and continue to challenge even their own thinking.

Keep Disrupting…

At the end of the day, being an authentic disruptor isn’t dependent on a single idea, product, or breakthrough. True disruptors and truly disruptive companies continue to think and are, in essence, constantly and continually disrupting.

These companies build their entire culture around innovation and new thinking. They constantly work to recreate the chaotic, creative, disruptive, and innovative spirit that led them together in the first place.

Companies who continually challenge the status quo are never satisfied. These brands and businesses are open to change and thrive off of it. The status quo is always changing, and with their oath to challenge it, so are they.

Competitors might (and most likely, will) enter and adapt a version of their original idea. But the winners will always be one step ahead – never part-time, never half-in, never done. True disruption is about constantly shaking things up – challenging even the status quo you yourself have created.

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

Read our recent post on Messaging for Disruptive Brands

How Great Leaders Accelerate Innovation Through Meaning

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Why the need to accelerate innovation?

“No company in the future will be in a position to succeed if it squanders the imagination of its employees.”

Professor Gary Hamel, co-founder of the Management Innovation eXchange (MIX) and the M-Prize: Innovating Innovation Challenge.

Hamel says innovation is one of the most important and difficult challenges facing business around the world.

At the same time, innovation is a vital capability for companies because it is the:

> only insurance against irrelevance
> only antidote to margin-crunching competition
> only way you can out-perform a dismal economy
> only way to build enduring customer loyalty

Yet, he says, “I don’t think there’s one company in a hundred that makes innovation the work of every single employee, every day.”

He identifies three reasons why organizations aren’t truly innovative from top to bottom:

  1. People throughout the organization (front-line employees, administrative assistants, people in the centers, tech support staff, people in the warehouse, etc.) have not been given training in how to be innovative.
  2. There is no facility for people with ideas to get the time off from their current responsibilities to develop their ideas. Nor is there any available “experimental capital” that could help them prototype their innovations.
  3. Employees don’t have a clear understanding of what is expected of them or what is in it for them.

We would add a fourth point to Professor Hamel’s list:

4. Employees don’t share a common goal or purpose that inspires innovative thinking.

What’s missing in most companies is a compelling Purpose Beyond Profit.

When a company’s employees all share a common goal, purpose, and ambition built around making the world a better place, the opportunities for innovation abound.

A Purpose Beyond Profit that is folded into your brand strategy focuses everyone on the meaningful outcomes of the work they do.

This desire to do good brings them closer to those who are impacted by the company. These insights prompt them to focus deeply on the hopes, needs, values, and aspirations of the people the company serves.

Valuable, relevant, and practical innovations come as employees extend empathy to others, draw on their personal desire to create meaningful outcomes, and benefit from the company’s training, time, and financial support and clear expectations.

A company with a strong purpose inspires, stimulates, and enables the innovation it needs to thrive in the 21st Century.

The benefits go beyond profit as well. Meaning-based innovation creates a Meaningful Workplace in which employees feel that what they do matters: to themselves, to others, and to society.

As Professor Hamel says, “When companies innovate, you find that not only does market value go up, customers are happier, and so on, but most of all, it changes the human spirit of work. We were born to create as human beings. We can’t help but to create. But we need the skills, the tools, the environment, and so on. When you give people permission, when you allow them to bring those states of energy to the fore, you also create an organization in which there’s an unbelievable amount of excitement. The bubble of human excitement is always there with people thinking and dreaming up new ideas.”

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

Autonomy and Accountability: A Balancing Act That Fuels Innovation

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

Higher Demands for Innovation Today

Across industries today, businesses and brands are realizing the need to embrace an innovative mindset in order to compete. In today’s shifting times, agility has never had so much value. And brands who want to be positioned to thrive need to be able to move fast and smart enough to stay ahead of the competition.

This hinges on having motivated, inspired, and productive people behind you. Innovative businesses today are fueled by people who believe in their purpose, are given the freedom they need to experiment, take calculated risks, and work creatively in order to move things forward.

Out of Balance  

Because of the increased demand for innovation, creativity, and higher engagement from employees today, many businesses are embracing a less hierarchical approach – moving away from rigid organizational structures and towards a more flexible approach.

However, giving more freedom to employees can sometimes be a double-edged sword. Yes, increased autonomy can drive creativity and engagement. And yes, it can empower people to innovate and experiment. But unchecked autonomy can easily lead to inefficient methods of doing business, lack of clarity surrounding business goals and objectives, and even organizational mayhem.

The key is finding the perfect balance – giving people the freedom to feel empowered in their own work, while also building the guardrails, systems, and check-points that keep people accountable and moving towards common goals and objectives. You want to give people the optimal amount of freedom to drive productive behavior and business results. And this balance is a challenge for businesses today.

Embracing Autonomy, Maintaining Accountability

Here are some ways to find balance – driving business forward with clear direction and the freedom needed within it to fuel innovation forward.

1. Clarity of purpose

Clarity and alignment around purpose is key. Your people should understand your driving motivator of business and be able to stand behind it proudly. When future aspirations come into focus and purpose is strategically established, it’s easier to be smart about what goals and objectives really matter and who is going to get you there.

Purpose allows people the freedom to work in different ways and experiment and innovate autonomously with a clear future in mind – a future everyone is working towards. The workplace becomes open to different working styles, ways of learning, and methods of creating. And this diversity drives innovation and productive collaboration.

So be transparent about the purpose of assignments and how they relate to the larger purpose of the business in order to set clear expectations. Being transparent and clear will help people find productivity within freedom and flexibility – bringing your business closer to its larger vision.

2. Agile structure

It’s no longer enough for brands and businesses today to be innovative. They have to be fast – moving quickly, always innovating, and outpacing the speed of competition. Businesses who want to compete today need to be agile and this often means they need a more flexible structure. Think smaller teams, dynamic workplace cultures, and efficient collaboration. Teams have to be adaptable, dynamic, and willing to flex and shift. Working in cross functional ways is of great value.

And leaving outdated organizational structures behind means that leaders have to give up some control, which is hard. But empowering employees to self-organize, work cross functionally, and collaborate is one the best things you can do as a leader. Focus on alignment and fostering an agile mindset in order to help autonomous employees do the work your business needs.

3. Build a culture, make it personal

Like anything in business, how you want to be perceived from the outside must shine authentically from the inside out. Culture plays a large role in innovation. In order to fuel a constantly innovating business, you need to build a culture that values freedom, experimentation, and creativity. But it also needs to be a culture that values accountability, transparency, and trust. An experiment-friendly culture or a risk-taking culture only functions to your advantage if you have people who are going to get the job done no matter what. This means meeting deadlines, motivating towards goals and objectives, and striving towards a clear purpose.

Innovative cultures thrive not only when they focus on business goals and objectives, but personal development and growth. Creative, independent people are more motivated when they see their own goals connect to the goals of the business. When it’s personal, it’s more meaningful, and the balance between autonomy and accountability is more easily met and maintained.

Leading and Empowering

Part of the job of being a leader is figuring out the best way to utilize your people to find the best solutions to the right problems. Giving away control, yet working to establish systems that check expectations, keep people accountable, and establish clear goals and objectives is a hard balance to strike, but a necessary one nonetheless. Like anything, it takes practice and experimentation. Think about the best practices your business can follow in order to empower your employees to drive your business forward feeling autonomous and accountable for a future they have true stakes in.

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

Creativity: The New Competitive Advantage for Businesses Today

Posted on by Catrina Morbidelli

The Rising Demand for Creativity at Top Businesses Today

Over the last couple of years, top companies have shifted their mindset about creativity and its value. It’s now clear that creativity drives business success today, and brands who want to stay ahead, foster innovation, and stand out in a competitive marketplace need creativity to fuel their business forward.

As a result, creative people are more in demand than ever before. However, what it means to be creative is hard to define. It’s a wide spectrum. People stay creative and approach creativity in unique ways. And being consistently creative is no easy task – even for the most creatively inclined people in any industry.

We believe part of staying creative — staying imaginative, asking questions, taking risks, having vision, saying something new — is staying inspired. However, finding daily inspiration is difficult.

As a fine artist working in a branding agency, relying on daily inspiration is a necessity — both at work and in my personal projects. Starting a new painting or creative undertaking takes a certain type of mindset, and staying committed to a creative lifestyle allows my work to keep evolving. Here’s how.

Conquering Fear

Many artists spend a lot of time feeling afraid that they won’t find the inspiration they need. This often makes the act of creating feel daunting. I believe there is a balance to how much fear is the right amount. Personally, I need fear to push me forward and drive my energy, but I’ve found too much fear can also limit my creativity. It’s scary to stare at a blank page or an empty canvas. The immensity of the white space feels like it might just suck you in sometimes. It makes you question: are you adequate? No matter how intimidating these natural feelings of fear can be, it’s important that we accept them as a natural reaction to creating something new. We can’t negate fear, but instead need to accept it and use it to fuel our creative energy. That’s where courage comes in.

Practicing Courage

You have to be brave if you want to produce something new. Ideas won’t transform into realities without courage. Part of being an artist is striving to create something different – something that doesn’t yet exist, something you can claim as your own — while also creating something that is accessible to the people you want to relate to your art.

This simply isn’t possible without the willingness to escape our comfort zones and take a risk on ourselves. Inspiration and true creativity stem from experimentation, imagination, exploration, and questioning. Being experimental and questioning established norms and the way you see things or do things isn’t always easy, but it is always rewarding. When we really take risks, we can move forward.

Commit to Perseverance

To keep moving forward and continue to cultivate creativity, perseverance and commitment are key. It’s one thing to have ideas – it’s another to see them through. Creating is an entirely involved process. You can’t be half in, half out. It requires full commitment if you want your ideas to come to life. And though the outcome won’t always be what you envisioned, the process is always valuable.

So commit to living a life that is less routine and more curiosity-driven. Understand that by observing, cataloguing, and pulling from your personal experiences, your inspiration will flourish. I believe the notion that inspiration will “just arrive” holds people back from their greatest achievements. Picasso once said, “When the muse finds you, let her find you working.” Don’t get caught up in the romanticism of creativity. Instead, work hard and act on ideas.

Bring Some Faith

While you constantly work at it, you also have to have faith in the creative process. Trust that through practice new realities can be born. Stay informed about the world and the happenings surrounding us. Pay attention to everything that heightens your senses. News stories, poetry, art, books, movies, sounds, scents, and the patterns of people are great sources of inspiration. We must act on the ideas that appear in order to take them past imagination and into creation. And don’t take things so seriously. If an idea hits a wall, step back and work on something else. Come back to the project only after giving yourself the chance to look on it with a fresh set of eyes and thoughts.

Anyone is Creative

The notion that only certain people have what it takes to be creative needs to be squashed. If we allow ourselves to be open to the inspirational process, so many new and exciting things can happen. And this doesn’t only apply to art. Every industry, business, and calling requires creativity.

Businesses today are worried more than ever about how to stand out and say something different. Industries are crowded with competition. People are constantly trying to find new approaches to learned practices. Talent is never secured. More work, innovation, creativity, curiosity, and inspiration is being demanded in every realm. Fostering creativity – in whatever sphere – will open new doors, create unique possibilities, and unlock hidden capacities as long as you are willing to take risks, be open to suggestions, and are ready to be courageous. Creativity will give your business the competitive advantage it needs in 2017.

Keep posted to hear more from of our team about what keeps us inspired and driven.

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

Fresh Perspectives: Refresh & Energize in 2017

Posted on by Saja Chodosh

2017, A Different Year

Each new year marks a new opportunity for reflection, change, and asserting goals and objectives. 2016, like many years in reflection, was a whirlwind of ups and downs, successes and challenges, learning and progress.

By stepping away from the office and our workflow for the holidays, we gained distance from the happenings of 2016. And at Emotive Brand, we believe this space and time away is critical to gaining the clarity we need to take 2017 by storm.

There is great impact and value in stepping back in order to see things with a fresh perspective. Everything comes into focus and we are able to view our business with increased clarity. And this renewed vision gives us the charge needed to look forward with fresh energy and revived focus.

Stuck in Reflection

Oftentimes, people bring too much of the last year into the new year. And although we believe it’s integral to thoughtfully reflect on 2016 – what worked and what didn’t, and how we can do better – it’s also integral to embrace the new year as just that. New. A fresh start. A different opportunity. A time for change. An opportunity to refresh, positively re-energize, open up to new perspectives and possibilities, and embrace what the future has to offer us.

Hitting Refresh

Stepping away and hitting refresh generates the focus needed to achieve goals in 2017. By asking yourself and your business: What’s most important? What do we care about this year and why? You can strip yourself of excess work and worries that aren’t bringing you closer to your greater aspirations as a brand or business. 

Remembering your purpose and brand promise is integral here. The start of 2017 is a time to remember why your business really matters, and who it really matters to. Return to your purpose, and review your strategy to make sure you are still aligned. What’s no longer relevant? What needs to change?

The new year is a chance to refocus your efforts and kick-start innovation. And in order to do so effectively, organization and prioritization are both key. As is setting specific goals – both personal and business-driven – that clearly map to larger aspirations, dreams, and visions for what this year could hold. Be open to new ways of thinking and fresh perspectives that may shift how you did things in 2016. Embrace different POVs, approaches, frames of reference in order to rev up creativity, innovation, and teamwork from the start of 2017.

This time of the year is also the time to reset expectations. Internally, get aligned on what is expected from your brand and business in 2017 and how this vision dictates what’s expected of each individual and their work in the coming months. For any client-facing business, managing expectations with clients or partners in the new year is also important. Remind people of the timeline and what it’s going to take to create maximum impact. Reinstating feedback loops or building new ones if necessary is also important.

Positivity Moving into 2017

In addition, a fresh start means letting go of any negativity. Embrace new challenges, and let the things that didn’t go your way in 2016 go. Use your renewed energy to channel positivity and change coming into the new year. Strive for balance. Start with an open mind. Embrace new perspectives. Hitting reset can help breathe new life into your business and brand – motivating you to move forward with a clear purpose, straightforward goals, and an inspired, positive mindset.

Keep posted for more insights, news, and thoughts from us in 2017.

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

Co-Founders On Brand Strategy Today

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Co-founders, Bella Banbury and Tracy Lloyd, weigh in on what matters in brand strategy today.

It’s important to remember that, in the end, the age-old question is always the same. Client needs all come down to “How do we differentiate our brand?” It’s just the way people ask the question and the way we answer the question that evolves. Here’s what we’ve been seeing more specifically in the market:

1.Heightened attention around data security:

Since 2016 was all about using data, now it’s all about safely storing and accessing that data. Gartner predicts that by 2018, 50% of business ethics violations will be related to data. There are lots of questions and doubts about how brands are collecting information and keeping it safe. People are distrustful and worried about privacy issues. Smart brands are focused on security and smart storage. And those brands that can keep data safe, and their users even safer, are winning.

2. Even greater demand for trust:

Companies with a culture of trust have outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of three, and high-trust companies are more than 2½ times more likely to be high performing revenue organizations than lower-trust companies. Nothing is as important as trust for any brand looking to make an impact moving forward. In 2016, we saw a lot of brands lose people’s trust, both internally and externally, in banking, in technology, in the automobile industry, and in the food industry. So this year a lot of brands are working on building and keeping trust this coming year. And this effort always comes back to brand strategy – helping brands make promises that they can keep to both build and keep the trust earned. That’s what we do.

3. Purpose divides:

The conversation around purpose-led business continues. There is more and better research coming out that supports the ideas of purpose-led business and the research supports our belief. When companies articulate and embrace a meaningful purpose or vision, their people naturally pay more attention to all the elements that drive sustainable growth. Brands that want genuine purpose to fuel innovation, culture, and business need to make sure they live authentically by it and communicate it clearly.

4. It’s all about disruption:

It’s clear that people are drawn to brands that are challenging the status quo, saying something new, and making a splash today. Whatever is it –disrupting a category, challenging the way we pay for things, changing the way we get healthcare, the retail experience – it’s all about disruption. Industries we’ve been most excited about are insurance, healthcare, wellness, and education because of this same reason. Brands that reimagine what is possible and deliver new ways of behaving will gain momentum over their competitors who remain stuck in the same thinking.

5. Digital health, on the rise:

There are many changes afoot in wellness and digital health. Last year, we saw more investing in this space and we imagine brands will need to start working harder to differentiate themselves in the next year. Right now, the future seems exciting and yet somewhat vague. This space will require digital health brands to clarify, differentiate, categorize, and tackle shifts head on. The digital health market is huge, and those brands that can figure out how clearly articulate why they matter and deliver on that promise could very well become Wall Street darlings.

6. Role of the CMO changed for good:

The role of the CMO is almost unrecognizable to five years ago. CMOs are now expected to deliver against P&L metrics, grow the top line, and drive the brand forward. Steering the brand in the driver’s seat means delivering on the brand promise. It also means ensuring all customer experiences are aligned to the brand purpose. It’s about understanding the customer journey and embracing customer experiences across all channels. So in order to compete, the CMOs of 2017 need to be brand focused, technically savvy, and data driven. They need to deliver better customer experiences and use insights to strategically deliver business growth.

7. All about brand experience:

Because expectations of brands are continually rising, smart brands are uber-focused on creating meaningful experiences. The real challenge is creating cohesive, connected experiences that resonate across platforms and at every touchpoint. These experiences drive engagement, build loyalty, and drive ROI. And brands need a clear strategy for succeeding in creating the right kind of experiences for the people they are trying to reach. Developing strategies to outline brand behavior has become more relevant for brands looking to deliver something people can count on – whether it’s B2B, B2C, or B2B2C.

As a San Francisco branding agency, we are excited to continue to help our clients develop the right brand strategies to transform brands in order to transform business.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

Why the Best Brands Act Like Tech Companies

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Everyone’s in Tech

Today, it’s not a question of tech vs. non-tech. At the end of the day, every company is a technology company.  This means it’s time to throw away preconceived notions about what tech companies are, what they do, or where they do it. Technology companies don’t only thrive in Silicon Valley. Technology companies aren’t all as big as Google. In fact, you don’t even need to sell technology to be a technology company.

It’s not always about the product. It’s about how you do business, how you compete, and how you offer the most meaningful value to customers. It’s about embracing opportunity and fueling business with disruptive innovation.  And today, this all comes down to tech.

There’s a reason why innovation is at an all-time high, disruptive technologies are more disruptive than ever, and new competitors constantly emerge, enter, and shift the ever-expanding landscape of technology. And companies that don’t act like technology companies are lagging behind. And at the end of the day, in today’s increasingly digitized and hybridized world, everyone needs to act like a tech company in order to compete.

Embracing The Best Qualities of Tech Companies

Ignoring what’s happening at the top tech companies of today is only going to hurt your business. Across the board, all businesses have to work to stand out, gain and keep competitive edge, offer new value to competitors, and agilely compete in and against shifting markets. There’s a lot to learn from the way successful tech companies are approaching their business and their brand. So let’s take some plays from their rulebooks.

Following Suit

Brands that follow the rules of the best tech companies are finding success. So embrace it and own it. Here’s how:

1. Constantly test, learn, and adapt:

Businesses are constantly looking for new ways to understand, reach, and connect with the people important to their success. For many top tech companies this means constant research and testing. But it never stops there. Integrating these findings and insights, learning from them, and tailoring the business and brand towards successful solutions is a constant task. Because customer expectations are evolving at rapid pace, being able to keep up with current needs and adapt accordingly is key to staying competitive in any market today.

2. Be agile and flexible:

Many brands need a new, more agile approach to address the changing dynamics of market and businesses and stay ahead of the competitive curve. Agility is the new norm. Flexibility is a requirement, and fast is the new normal pace, especially in times of growth. People want brands that can anticipate their needs: built for them, catered to the ways they want to connect with and experience the world, and able to move fast with (or often times, ahead of) their shifting desires.

3. Innovate, never imitate:

The top technology companies of today aren’t successful because they accepted the status quo or followed along the path of competitors. Asking questions, challenging long-held assumptions, and focusing on innovation can fuel real, transformative change for businesses. Curiosity, a focus on learning, and collaboration are one of the best ways your brand can power innovation. Look for problem solvers, big thinkers, and people unafraid to ask questions to help build a brand that is more innovative. Innovative brands today stand out and constantly move forward with momentum.

4. Identify needs and create meaningful value:

Top tech companies aren’t at the top simply because of their product or service alone. It’s about how they communicate their value proposition. There are endless businesses that are great at creating new products and services. However, most of these businesses struggle because they are unable to craft a value proposition for their offering that stands out from their competitors. These are the business that quickly fall off and lose competitive edge. This is because products don’t have real value unless the value is fully realized by customers themselves. These means winning brands understand customer needs and know how to communicate their value in a meaningful, impactful, and persuasive way.

5. Look toward the future:

Brand relevance relies on looking towards the future. Top tech companies understand that success today does not guarantee success tomorrow. They build their business for the future and map their brand towards these goals, objectives, and greater visions. Brands that aren’t designed for the future simply cannot compete in an ever-evolving digital landscape. In order to stay relevant, stay forward-thinking.

Maximum Impact

There’s a reason why the best brands are not only embracing technology but acting like tech companies. See how you can apply some of the top practices of thriving tech companies today to the way you approach your business and your brand, no matter what industry you sell in. By moving faster, with agility, and more dynamically, we believe you will be able to offer more meaningful value to the people who matter to your brand – making your brand more impactful and your business more competitive and positioned for success.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy agency.

Sparking Innovation Through a Purpose-Driven Vision

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Innovation. Everyone wants it. But what is it? Where does it come from? What’s the best way to shape a culture of innovation? What best aligns, inspires, and motivates people to innovate? What role could a new brand strategy play in transforming your organization into an innovative powerhouse?

Continue reading “Sparking Innovation Through a Purpose-Driven Vision”

The Value of Leadership that Inspires

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Leadership Leads to Inspiration

The strength of a company depends heavily on its leaders and their leadership. Successful business leaders have to be smart, hardworking, and able to get things done. But, often, that’s simply not enough to fuel a thriving business. Today’s companies require more than just intelligence and drive. As a result, more and more companies are seeking out and focusing on developing their ability to drive inspiration and motivation. And in modern business, whether a leader can inspire, motivate, and engage employees is what sets one leader apart from the next.

Inspiration not only leads to more engaged employees, but it consistently leads to increased innovation and business achievement. A company that can cultivate the skills that will inspire, motivate, and engage employees across the organization will gain a competitive edge in today’s marketplace. Why? Because motivated employees make things happen.

New Requirements for Leaders

Recent changes in the business world have reshaped the workplace, and therefore reshaped what’s required of leaders. Here are three key shifts that are happening today:

1. Focus on the customer experience

The move from product to customer experience is a major source of competitive advantage for businesses today. While companies will always need to deliver high value goods or services, high customer experience has become just as essential. Thus, customer-facing employees have tremendous influence on the success and future of a business. If employees feel inspired and engaged, they will then amaze and inspire customers.

2. Increased independence

This concerns the nature of the work itself. Today, increasingly more jobs rely on collaboration and independence. It’s become common in the workplace for people to collaborate across departments, do their work remotely, and manage themselves. People are expected to generate their own ideas, and take responsibility more than ever before. Being able to stay motivated and creative, especially with little supervision, requires both dedication to your team and passion for your job.

3. More millennials means = demand for meaning

We can’t forget the millennial generation. While the ways in which we work, and the work itself, have both changed, so have today’s youngest employees. Millennials’ value proposition is not related to traditional motivators. The millennial generation will work hard for a company if they believe in its values and purpose, not necessarily for a larger salary or better title. So creating inspiring and meaningful workplace for this generation is critical to attracting and retaining today’s top talent.

How do you motivate employees in an organization when the classic carrot and stick approach will no longer work?

In order to inspire and engage, leaders must energize those around them and create a climate of trust. Their leadership must extend beyond just their own team and be linked with a company’s strategy and overall workplace culture. While there is no “right” way or one way to be inspirational, these types of leaders tend to have courage and lead with authenticity. They utilize empathy and empowerment. And their leadership style flexes and adapts depending upon what’s required of them in the workplace.

To be a next generation leader, these are the key leadership skills to develop and practice:

1. Individualistic

Leadership is not one size fits all. It takes time to learn and cultivate the abilities, strengths, and motivators of each person. Each person has their own style, motivations, and way of thinking. When you focus on the differences between individuals, you change from trying to build the “perfect” team to building a “great” team — one that will be more productive and engaged.

2. Focus on strengths

Cultivating someone’s inherent talents leaves people feeling authentic, valuable, and empowered. An inspirational leader has a good sense of his or her own self, and therefore, sets a good example by developing their own strengths and offsetting their own weaknesses. When people work in strengths-based environments, creativity and productivity increase. Everyone feels like they can do what they do best.

3. Self-aware

Having a sense of mindfulness promotes better overall health and workplace satisfaction. Being self-aware is the essence of leadership itself – being able to stay calm under pressure, cope with stress, and empathize with others. A leader must be able to reflect on their actions and revise as needed. Remaining open to new ways of thinking and interaction creates a required sense of trust and connection to other people.

4. Optimistic

Remaining resilient and positive in the midst of challenges demonstrates a sense of confidence and level-headedness. Leaders who are optimistic don’t just have a goal in mind, they have a strategy to achieve it, and the motivation to implement their plan. Optimistic leaders are able to inspire people to believe that the future will be better than the present. And furthermore, that they have the power to make it so.

5. Visionary

Orienting people toward an aspirational future creates individual purpose and joy. When people feel relevant, they are more likely to participate and contribute. Proactively developing a culture of “you are part of something larger than yourself” creates a common platform for everyone to make unique contributions towards.

Lead the Employee Experience

In order to deliver a great customer experience, you must deliver a great employee experience. And understanding that employees are looking for more than just a paycheck and a “job well done” is the first step in becoming a successful 21st century leader.

In today’s workplace, the opportunity to be a leader is open to anyone who develops their inspirational skills and combines them with their own unique strengths, enthusiasm for the job, and authenticity. Valuing inspiration throughout an organization teaches everyone to be more aware, reflective, and empathetic. Ultimately, a team that reinforces the core principles of inspiration will have a competitive edge, and a more productive and resilient future.

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.