When you’re a brand strategy firm with a B2B technology focus, there’s no better place to be than the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area. Silicon Valley has extended everywhere the bay waters touch the shore, so our location on the Oakland waterfront puts Emotive Brand at the epicenter of the action. Living and working in the middle of this incomparable start-up mecca, we’re surrounded by some of the greatest technology companies ever built, with leading VCs and amazing entrepreneurs as friends and neighbors.

For many years, we’ve used brand strategy to solve business problems. Since we work primarily with C-level clients, our strategic conversations with executives give us great insight into their businesses, their products and services, and their brands.

We’ve had countless C-level conversations, and we’ve seen the same business issues surface again and again. Whether it’s an early stage start-up or an established global enterprise technology company, executives ask us to help solve similar problems, year after year.

Here are the dirty dozen for start-ups:

1. We have a great product, but we are not scaling quickly enough
2. We can’t hire top talent fast enough
3. We are having culture issues due to fast growth
4. Our people need to know what they’re working for, we need help articulating Mission, Vision, Values
5. Our brand doesn’t stand for anything more than a logo
6. We are struggling to really understand our target market
7. We are launching a new product and need to sharpen our positioning
8. We are unable to convert website visitors into leads
9. We need help differentiating our offering
10. We are going to an event next month and need help fast
11. We need help with our pitch deck
12. Our business is lagging, I think we need a new logo (this one kills me most)

Here are the dirty dozen for global technology enterprises:

1. We operate in a complex and crowded ecosystem and need a clear story
2. We need consistency in how our brand expresses itself
3. We are a successful product company without a brand that connects with people
4. I’m the new CMO and I need a clear brand strategy so I can execute quickly
5. We need help as we prepare to IPO
6. We need our product or service to matter more to people
7. Our people need to know what they’re working for, we need help articulating Mission, Vision, Values
8. We’ve shifted our business strategy and need help positioning it and communicating it internally and externally
9. We’ve acquired a new company and need to know how that alters our brand architecture, our overarching brand strategy, and our culture
10. We need an employer brand strategy to help with culture and recruitment
11. We need a sales enablement program
12. We are struggling with brand awareness

These are some of the real business issues that we have been repeatedly asked to address. At their core, many are people issues, having to do with customers, employees, investors, or partners. You don’t have to be a B2C company to have important people issues.

As a successful, battle-tested Bay Area brand strategy firm, we develop unique brand strategies at the intersection of business, brand, and meaning. We’ve found that leaders who embrace brand strategy as part of their overall business strategy have a greater chance to help their brands gain a deeper, more emotional connection with the people who matter.

If you, like your peers, are wrestling with similar business issues, you might consider arming your business strategy with a stronger, more meaningful brand strategy that takes your company to a new level. Then watch your brand, and your business, thrive.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy firm who uses our proven methodology to craft the most successful outcomes to solve our clients’ most pressing business issues.