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Read all previous issues of Healthy Brand Mondays here.
Support a Thriving Culture with Traditions, Artifacts and Secret Rooms
2 min read - 1 Quote & 1 Lesson
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Read time: 2 min
At a glance:
Quote: Want a thriving business? Support a thriving culture
Lesson: Three ideas to go beyond behaviors
Quote
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast, operational excellence for lunch and everything else for dinner"
Peter Drucker
Lesson
In branding, one of the most neglected audiences are employees. Although companies spend millions of dollars on brand campaigns and external facing activations, a bad experience with customer service can upend all of that.
Employees are the biggest under leveraged group of brand ambassadors and when they are on the same page and marching to the same beat, the effects are extremely powerful.
However, most culture efforts are one dimensional and detached from brand, becoming a HR values project instead of a company imperative at the highest levels.
Culture is NOT a bunch of posters on the wall
In this issue, I share with you three examples of how to create an environment for a unique and powerful culture to thrive.
HINT: It’s not just putting your core values on the wall or a desk top wall paper
Three examples to draw inspiration from:
1/ Traditions
Pumpkin carving contest at NASA
At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, they hold an annual pumpkin carving contest. It’s completely voluntary and not mandated by management. This is essential, because a tradition is never compulsory, if it is, it becomes a routine. And they are not the same thing.
At NASA’s JPL, their pumpkin contest is “out of this world”, from programmable pumpkins to pumpkins that literally hover above ground, engineers show off their skills by going all out.
Photo Credit: https://www.designboom.com/art/nasa-pumpkin-carving-contest-halloween-10-31-2018/
What kinds of traditions will help your employees bond while cultivating behaviors that exemplify the culture? Pumpkin engineering far outweighs value posters like “Creativity” and “Fun”, don’t you think?
2/ Artifacts
Medallion and Ceremony at Medtronic
At Medtronic, the giant medical device company, every new employee receives a hefty medallion that is inscribed with the company mission in a ceremony. And when its founder Earl Bakken was alive, he would personally present them at multiple ceremonies around the world every year.
The artifact represents the commitment to the company mission and highlights the induction of the employee into a culture that puts patient welfare at the heart of the business.
Photo credit: https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/the-3-best-run-companies-in-the-healthcare-sector
Artifacts don’t have to be extravagant and lavish, it is a physical representation of what is important.
3/ Secret rooms
Speakeasy at Pixar
The legendary Pixar studios has many secret rooms, but the most famous is the speakeasy that you can only access through a tiny access panel. It was in Andrew Gordon’s new office when Pixar moved into Emeryville, CA, where he noticed an access panel that opened up to a small room that was meant for air conditioning maintenance.
He had other plans and outfitted it with Christmas lights, shag carpet and even a fully stocked bar. When Steve Jobs and others found out, they loved it. It became a VIP hangout. Dubbed the “Love Lounge”, as the signage says above the entry, it was visited by the likes of Tim Allen, Randy Newman and Roy Disney.
Photo credit: https://www.messynessychic.com/2014/04/24/the-secret-speakeasy-room-found-at-pixar-studios-where-steve-jobs-hung-out/
Photo credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/98868154304794481/
Frivolous? You may say so, but what is a better way to experience “Creativity” and “Out of the box” and “Fun”? A value poster? Or a secret Love Lounge? You decide.
Conclusion
Culture is not a set of posters on the wall. To encourage a thriving culture, think beyond behaviors. Think about how people can experience and discover what’s to be expected of them without telling them. Whether it’s traditions, artifacts or secret rooms, the key is to never force something, it should be organic and real.
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
Top Questions I Like to Ask at the Beginning of a Brand Engagement
1.5 min read - 1 Quote & 1 Lesson
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Read time: 1.5 min
At a glance:
Quote: Questions are key
Lesson: Questions you should ask as a brand strategist, questions you should expect as a a client
Quote
"To ask the right question is already half the solution of a problem"
Carl Jung
Lesson
Brand strategy is the face of business strategy - it involves making critical decisions in how your business strategy comes to life and how to intentionally provide the best environment for your brand to thrive.
In every brand strategy engagement, it’s about understanding at a high level the bright spots and dark areas of the business.
What’s the transformation needed for the organization to win and succeed?
What are the key differentiators that matter to the ideal customer?
What position might the company own in the minds of the customer?
What may be standing in the way of the transformation?
Any hints of potential solutions?
Getting a firm grasp of the business and it’s journey allows for a more relevant brand strategy and a higher potential for success.
Ask the right questions to solve a business problem
What else can great questions do?
Since branding is often misperceived as just colors and design, asking the right questions at the outset can dispel some of these myths. You will notice that I don’t ask anything about the visual aspect at this stage of the engagement - it’s far too early!
Design agencies tend to go there straight away and that’s a red flag… unless a client wants to potentially rebrand a year later because nothing makes any sense. GASP!
Here are my favorite questions to ask (not exhaustive, just a start). So steal these questions for your brand strategy engagement or sniff out imposters as a client!
What worries you about your company? What keeps you up at night?
What’s your business goals for this year, in three years and out five years?
Anything unique about your business model?
Describe your current state and desired state (of the business, of the organization, of your customers etc.)
Is there anything confusing about your offering? Could it be simpler?
What does your product pipeline look like? Does it complicate or simplify the offering?
Who are your competitors and why do you win? Why do you lose?
Does the market understand this company? What should they know that they don't know today?
Is there anything about the company and the product you wish every prospect knew about?
What is a commonly held belief about your industry that you passionately disagree with?
Do you feel like you understand your ideal customers wells? What problems are you and aren’t you solving for them?
If we asked five customers or prospects, what would they say your company stands for?
What sets the company apart? What does it do that nobody else does, and how important is that to the market?
Conclusion
Questions allow you to understand your client and also communicate who you are. Ask critical questions early on to set the engagement on the right path.
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
It's Time to Leave "Value Proposition" Behind
3 min read - 1 Quote & 1 Lesson
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Read time: 3 min
At a glance:
Quote: Focus on what we really need
Lesson: Positioning encompasses what value proposition is trying to accomplish
Quote
"The best way to find out what we really need is to get rid of what we don’t."
Marie Kondo
Lesson
The world of marketing and branding is complicated. So complicated in fact, most marketers don’t have a clear grasp of all the tools and frameworks they need to build a strategy and a plan.
Why?
We are bogged down by lexicon and jargon, not unlike any industry that has been around for awhile.
I say it’s time to clean house.
In this issue, I’ll help you truly understand what is “value proposition” and how it can be abandoned for a clearer and more powerful concept: Positioning. I’m not an academic, and so my point of view will always err on the side of application and practicality. Are you open minded? If so, read on…
Ditch value proposition, embrace positioning
The definition of value proposition
Value proposition is the full mix of benefits or economic value which it promises to deliver to the current and future customers who will buy their products and/or services (Wikipedia)
It’s derived by looking at the pains, needs and wants of the customer and matching them with the features, functional and emotional benefits of the product.
“Howie, isn’t this important? Why trash it?”
It is important, but it’s insufficient, the work is not done, because a value proposition alone is not unique or different and it will simply blend-in with the myriad of options in the marketplace.
This is where the concept of positioning comes in.
The concept of positioning
Positioning refers to the place that a brand occupies in the minds of the customers and how it is distinguished from the products of the competitors (Wikipedia).
A positioning strategy is determining and deciding what is the most RELEVANT and DIFFERENTIATING for a TARGET CUSTOMER SEGMENT.
If you have this in mind, there is no need for a value proposition, because it’s a more encompassing concept.
By understanding the target customer, the product and the white space unoccupied by competitors, you can uncover opportunities for a positioning strategy which incorporates the unique benefits you need to communicate anyway.
Said another way, if you focus on positioning, the value prop is already covered.
So simplify and drop the value prop… stop trying to figure out why their different, when to use what and end up confused. Decide on clarity now.
Your objections, my replies
But Howie…
1/ I’ve read somewhere that the value prop is what is on the landing page, so don’t I need one?
Copy on the landing page should be a headline that hooks the audience. It is an expression of the positioning and brand strategy into a creative line as defined by a creative campaign brief, not a “value proposition”. Why not have a headline that not only communicates the benefit, but starts to own a unique space in the mind of the customer? So no, you don’t need it.
2/ Isn’t the value prop a broader concept than positioning?
The value prop as discussed earlier is not differentiated and hence you may read online that it is a broader concept. It is less specific and not as effective as it fails to consider the competition. Pass on the value prop.
3/ Don’t we have to communicate the benefits through a value prop?
Nope. See 1/.
Conclusion
Stop being confused on value proposition vs. positioning. Think of positioning as being inclusive of what the value prop is trying to accomplish, so drop it and keep it simple.
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
Establish the Voice of Your Brand & Get Ready to Be Loved
3 min read - 1 Quote & 1 Lesson
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Read time: 3 min
At a glance:
Quote: Voice matters
Lesson: The Clouds & Dirt brand voice model
Quote
"It only takes one voice, at the right pitch, to start an avalanche."
Dianna Hardy, Author
Lesson
Words move people.
From “I have a dream” to “This was their finest hour”, language creates ideas in people’s minds and if you change the language, you can change the ideas. “Self-checkout” sucks, but “express checkout” is attractive. “Sports mode” is ok, but “ludicrous speed” is exciting. Yes, words matter, both what you say, but more importantly how you say it.
One of the most informing book I read about the power of language and how to create a brand voice comes from Strong Language by Chris West. (Go buy the book! You won’t regret it!) He uses the example of Mini and Ferrari, showing how a brands voice can show up dramatically differently.
Mini
Born to corner. Driving a Mini is a ton of fun, thanks to its legendary go-kart handling. We could go on about its lightning quick responses and glue-like grip…
Ferrari
The Ferrari embraces the Side Slip Control 6.0 concept, which incorporates an algorithm that delivers a precise estimate of sideslip to the onboard controls systems…
It gave me and my practice of brand strategy an adaptable model to create a voice for any brand I’m helping to create.
Establish a voice for your brand that your audience will recognize and love
In this issue, I will share with you the Clouds & Dirt Brand Voice model, derived from the brilliant work of Chris West.
MACRO VIEW “CLOUDS”
Narrative
At the highest level, we need to know what story the brand is always telling. This sets up who the brand is trying to be. If there is already a brand strategy document, you will find either a brand narrative or you will be able to craft a narrative from the purpose, core values and personality traits. Here are some questions the brand narrative needs to answer:
What is the world the brand is trying to create?
What kind of people live in this brand’s world?
What does the brand stand for or against?
What does this brand believe in?
Example:
Mini (the Mini Cooper) believes in a world where driving your car should be fun, like driving a go-kart.
Tonal Values
You only need three tonal values. Each of them with descriptions that make the value clearer. Tonal values can be extracted from the brand personality. A brand that is “caring” can have a tonal value that is “friendly” or if a brand that is “prestigious” can have a tonal value that is “aloof”.
To give the tonal value more specific descriptions, use the 5 HOW technique, ask it again and again, until you get the value defined and differentiated in the category.
The brand sounds friendly.
How so?
It’s friendly like your neighbor
How like a neighbor?
Like someone who is welcoming
How is it welcoming?
By being very open, acknowledging your presence and sharing information
(Here we are getting someone - Friendly through information sharing)
You can keep going until you get to something highly relevant and differentiating for the brand.
MICRO VIEW “DIRT”
Once you have the Clouds set, it’s time to get down to the ground and really be specific.
Lexicon
Jargon is inevitable in any industry. The question is, which ones will you retain and which ones will you kill? If you are launching a whole new sub-category that is trying to differentiate itself, what words will you kill from your vocabulary?
What are some of the most used but meaningless words that your brand will not stand for?
Create a list around different groups, for example:
Product description
Customer service
Culture and careers
Problem statement/ disease state
Category/ sub-category description
Levels
When you have your tonal values, there is an ability to fine-tune them by your audiences. Take each tonal value and give them a 0-10 scale where your language most embodies that value at 10 and least embody that value at 0 (neutral). So effectively you have different levels of each value by audience.
For each of your key audiences whom you will be developing targeted copy for, go through an exercise to score a number on the scale to denote how much of that tonal value you will be using.
Example
Physician audience (Friendly 5, Prestigious 8, Nimble 10)
Patient audience (Friendly 8, Prestigious 5, Nimble 7)
This will give your brand voice guidelines the specificity it needs so your writers can do their job effectively and efficiently!
Conclusion
Establish a brand’s voice and you can paint the world in the mind of your audiences. They will recognize your brand anywhere and they will love you for it.
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
Seven Principles for Brands to Capture & Hold Attention
3 min read - 1 Quote & 1 Lesson
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Read time: 3 min
At a glance:
Quote: The value of attention
Lesson: How to capture & hold attention
Quote
"One of the greatest gifts you can give to anyone is the gift of attention"
Jim Rohn
Jim Rohn probably didn’t see it coming, but he predicted the attention economy. The value of our attention is being traded everyday and so if we were to master this economy, we have to master attention. Not just giving our attention intentionally but also the skill of capturing and hold the attention of our audiences.
Lesson
To influence anyone’s behavior, you have got to first capture and hold their attention. If not, your brand is invisible and will do no one any good.
I will share seven principles I learned from the book: Influencing Human Behavior by Harry Allen Overstreet and use The Dollar Shave Club ad as an example to illustrate each principle.
This ad has more than 28 million views on YouTube, it launched in 2012 and sky rocketed the brand into unicorn status, ultimately resulting in a $1Bn acquisition by Unilever four years later in 2016.
Learn and apply these key principles of attention for any brand
1/ MOVEMENT
Imagine if you had to hold your attention to a dot on the wall. It’s an impossible task, our eyes want to wander and if it does in fact stay focused on one spot, our brain is going to be put into hypnosis, or state of sleep.
Movement is paramount to holding attention, and if you’ve noticed, the scenes in the Dollar Shave Club ad is in motion the entire time. Whenever you ask “What is happening” or “What is going to happen?”, you’ve nailed this principle.
2/ KEEP THEM GUESSING
Unpredictability and drama is key. When the audience discovers it for themselves as opposed to being spoon fed and explained, they pay far more attention.
In the ad, they keep you guessing the whole time. What other crazy things will Mike say?
“Are the blades any good? No, our blades are f***ing great”
And what ridiculous scenes will appear?
Screenshot from Dollar Shave Club YouTube Channel
3/ LIKE ATTRACTS LIKE
The way in which we influence will determine who we influence. When we speak passionately, we arouse those with passion, when we proceed with cheerfulness, we get frank cheerfulness from those naturally cheerful.
I also call this the magic mirror. We need to show up as the person your target audience wish to become.
In this ad, Dollar Shave Club is clearly attracting those who have a sense of humor, not prude and see themselves as a rebel of sorts.
4/ LEAVE IT UP TO THEM
It’s infinitely more interesting if you ask a question than if you give a statement. Example in the book:
Let’s say there is a pamphlet on habit training for kids. Which is more attention grabbing?
“Does your child have temper tantrums?” vs. “Many children have temper tantrums”
“Does your child fuss about his food?” vs. Many children fuss about their food”
When you are asked a question, you are expected to reply. It leaves the answer to the audience and it engages them.
In the ad, Mike asked:
“Do you like spending twenty dollars on brand name razors? 19 of them go to Roger Federer”
This is infinitely more interesting than saying “The brands you buy today are too expensive”.
5/ INTRODUCE A CHALLENGE
When Gandhi flung a challenge to the British Empire, he became a figure of foremost interest in the world. If you want people to pay attention, throw up a challenge, but it needs to be fair and it needs to show sportsmanship.
Mike throws down a challenge to the status quo of paying for expensive razors.
“Do you think your razor needs a vibrating handle, a flashlight, a back scratcher and ten blades? Stop paying for shave tech you don’t need.”
And people paid attention. It rallied an entire market to rebel against big brands choose affordable convenience instead.
6/ NEW BUT FAMILIAR
We all know that introducing something new attracts attention, but what’s really important is that the new thing you are introducing, it needs a connection to what is familiar.
If an idea is introduced that seems like a complete overturn of the current perception and idea, you will turn people away instantly. The magic in the new never grows old, but be sure to sufficiently tie it back to the old to be at least interesting as well as acceptable.
The new business model of a subscription vs. buying each blade at a retail store wasn’t just thrown out there in the ad. It was introduced as money and time saving solution. Affordable blades shipped to your home.
7/ DON’T OVERWHELM
The mental limits of attention is real. When too many options are given, when too many elements are presented in a piece of art, the mind wonders, it shuts down and attention is lost.
With all the craziness going on in the ad, the key message is clear and presented as a slogan at the end of the commercial.
SHAVE TIME. SHAVE MONEY
Conclusion
Attention is critical to influence behavior. Apply the seven principles so you can best capture and hold the attention of your audiences.
P.S. - I’ve watched the ad probably 50 times. It’s just so good…
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
The Problem of Brand Purpose & How to Solve It
2.5 min read - 1 Quote, 1 Lesson & Framework
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Read time: 2.5 min
At a glance:
Quote: Give it away, give it away , give it away now!
Lesson: Learn a framework to get your purpose “just right”
Quote
"The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."
Pablo Picasso
The idea of purpose has become a cultural talking point, at least here in the United States.
But the big problem about purpose is that it can be too big and intimidating for every brand to embody (at least that’s the prevailing perception today)
I saw this comment once on LinkedIn
“We sell ball bearings to businesses, there is no need for a purpose, we aren’t saving the world”
So what should brands do?
(My point of view is that I don’t care what you call this: mission, vision or purpose, technically they are different and I’m more than happy to get into an academic discussion about them, but hey, who has the time? You just need an idea to bring energy and a direction to the brand.)
Lesson
In this issue, I will help you solve this problem of purpose.
I will share a framework that helps you choose a purpose that is just right for the brand and use it as a Northstar, no matter how “small” it may be.
A brand’s purpose should feel natural and bring energy to the brand
Introducing the Goldilocks Purpose Zone
Where the right purpose for the brand rises above the BAR OF IMPORTANCE and falls within the ROLE OF THE BRAND.
1/ THE BAR OF IMPORTANCE
A purpose needs to feel important. It doesn’t have to be about saving the world, but it needs to feel like something a person would be willing to fight for. Something that goes beyond the product.
Some brands talk about being the best, building the best widget in the industry. If we are honest about it, does it rise above the bar of importance? Do people really care? Are they willing to fight for it? What about your customers and stakeholders? Do they care?
But Howie, my company just makes widgets…
I say, if water company can have something compelling, you can too
Liquid Death: “To make people laugh and get more of them to drink more water more often, all while helping to kill plastic pollution”
To make people laugh -> right there is an idea that goes beyond the product, water in cans. Who doesn’t want to laugh more and feel more joy?
Even if you are making ball bearings, are you helping the world run smoother? Can that idea transcend the product?
Notice that this is a choice, and that’s part of your brand strategy: making a set of decisions and choices to win in the market.
In the world of healthcare, brands can usually rise above this bar, the problem is usually the next guideline.
2/ THE ROLE OF THE BRAND
Sometimes the purpose of the brand is unbelievable, so audacious that it feels inauthentic, forced and unachievable.
Some brands will talk about “transforming the entire industry”. And whenever I hear that in healthcare, I call BS. No one company and brand can change the multi-trillion dollar industry with misaligned incentives at every level. That’s going beyond the role of the brand.
But Howie, my company IS really saving the world…
This is where we have to take an honest look at not just our beliefs but actions. What is the proof of your company saving the world? Especially beyond what you are selling? Brands who have grand visions of world changing work, don’t just do it through the products they make, because that is self-serving. When making claims of world changing ideas, actions need to directly oppose making money.
Patagonia: Yvon Choinard cemented their purpose of “in business to save the planet” by giving the entire company to a trust that will forever fund sustainability efforts.
CVS Health: “Building an entire world of health care around each and every person we serve, no matter where they are on their journey” They were one of the first to pull all tobacco products from all of their stores even though it meant losing millions and millions of dollars in revenue at once.
Fall within the role of your brand.
Don’t go talking about world changing ideas unless you have the actions to back it up and it passes the sniff test.
Conclusion
Every brand can have a purpose. Having a Northstar beyond just making widgets and money will bring energy to the brand, and give it opportunity to communicate and engage on a larger idea. Just make sure it rises above the bar of importance and falls within the role of the brand.
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
A Creative & a Strategist Walk Into a Studio: Creating Desire in Brands with Meg Beckum & Paul Collins
EP. 21 | Meg Beckum & Paul Collins
Read time: 2.5 min
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What if creatives and strategists worked seamlessly together? What if they were able to put aside their egos and created brands that were desirable?
In this episode of the Healthy Brand Podcast, I had a great discussion with Meg Beckum, Executive Creative Director and Paul Collins, Executive Director of Strategy & Innovation from Elmwood, a brand design consultancy. We dove into the potential conflicts of creatives and strategists, where to find big ideas, and how to create desire in the world of healthcare.
APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
Don’t see your podcast player? Click HERE
In this episode:
Strategy needs to be provocative by having a point-of-view
Choose debate over framework, conflict over compliance
Make healthcare brands desirable through emotional rewards
Get strategic inspiration in the arts and culture instead of peers
How to be a super star creative
The epiphanies of Paul and Meg during a pivotal moment of their lives
KEY LESSONS
Strategy needs to be provocative by having a point-of-view
“How do we be very commercially sound in our recommendations? How do we create the urge to actually want to work on this brand? It should make people say - Oh my god, I never thought of this category like that.”
Paul Collins
One thing that both Paul and Meg emphasized was how the brand strategy needs to provoke new and expansive thinking about the brand.
The rigor of analysis needs to be there, but the end result is a definitive point-of-view, a distillation of research and creative thinking.
“Love your hundred page deck, but we’re going to put everyone to sleep. A strategist needs to bring things to a hard point”
Meg Beckum
Choose debate over framework, conflict over compliance
“That's something that we'd really try to encourage in our studio. Maybe we frustrate each other a bit with that. But I think our best work comes from all of us sitting around the table debating - are we pushing this far enough? Is this interesting?”
Meg Beckum
When asked about whether they use templates and frameworks, what was more important to Paul and Meg was the culture of debate and critical thinking. Rather than filling out a template, it was more important that creatives and strategists get into a room and push on the idea.
“We are building a learning culture that's based on crits or critiques, infusing the values into those meetings because you don't want it to become like a checklist. And so the idea is to be meeting frequently and having conversations and reinforcing those beliefs. So it becomes more organic to the work versus formulaic...”
Paul Collins
In this way, there is actually more learning and it becomes more specific to the context and problem at hand.
Make healthcare brands desirable through emotional rewards
Healthcare has a dearth of desire and that is impacting people’s lives. Meg and Paul sees a world where healthcare brands are attractive and desirable, helping to remove psychological barriers so people can live healthier.
"People talk about experience all the time, but it's less about the path to purchase or moving commercial drivers. And it's really about saying, what are the psychological obstacles or barriers that are preventing people from taking this action. And then how do you actually design the experience to remove those obstacles and barriers?"
Paul Collins
Paul shares three things to think about when creating desire:
Vision: Paint a really interesting and compelling vision of the future instead of just talking about what the brand does for you in the here and now.
Chemistry: Express beliefs, values or point of view to establish a rapport between the brand and the audience.
Agency: Through effective communication design and experience design, give people the control over their destiny and “art direct” their own future - part product, part perception and framing.
The trap that most healthcare organizations especially those creating medicines and devices is communicating solely about their science. According to Meg, what they need to make happen is creating a world where that abstract science becomes tangible and real. That’s how desire is created.
“A lot of organizations come to us and are like, we really want to talk about the science. The science is so advanced. And it is, it absolutely is.”
“Imagine a cancer drug or something like that. Yes, I want to know it's the very best science imaginable, but I also want to feel better. Making the abstract of science feel real and see how people can make that progress and paint that picture for them. I think that's sort of the power of a designer - you can make that abstract science real”
Meg Beckum
Conclusion
When strategy and creative can move and groove together, amazing things can happen. Whether you are in an agency or a client working with one, make sure your teams are aligned, willing to debate, so the best work prevails.
Learn more about Meg and Paul:
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
No Name, No Brand: Everything You Wanted to Know About Naming with Scott Milano
EP. 19 | Scott Milano
Read time: 3.5 min
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Names are typically the first thing founders and entrepreneurs think about when starting a business and launching a brand but it’s not as easy as it seems…
In this episode of the Healthy Brand Podcast, I sat down with Scott Milano, founder of Tanj, a brand naming and language studio specializing in helping brands change the world one word at a time. We talk about the considerations you need to have when naming, why naming is not as easy as it seems, and how he came to name the Nintendo Wii.
APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
Don’t see your podcast player? Click HERE
In this episode, we cover off on a variety of topics:
Your brand name is the tip of your storytelling spear
Naming can seem easy, but DIY at your own risk
Context and creativity is the secret sauce to a great name
How Scott came to name the Nintendo Wii and a really interesting name that was put on the table
The link between the brand name and its visual and verbal identity
The threat of AI on the business of naming
KEY LESSONS
Your brand name is the tip of your storytelling spear
“If you don't have a name, you're not in business. How can people talk about you? So it's like an essential ingredient, it's an identifier.”
Names are important in branding. It is the first thing people hear and it can help your brand spread or it can confuse the heck out of your audiences. Scott points out some basic criteria:
Good name: memorable, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and lets an interesting brand story unfold
Bad name: complicated, hard to spell, hard to pronounce, and misleads the audience about the brand
“The right name encodes some sort of DNA about the broader brand, becoming an entry point to the story and experience that comes afterwards”
There are many different types of names and there is no “right” answer for any given situation, so part of the process is to leave no stone unturned.
Scott didn’t go through all the types of names in this podcast, but shares a construct below:
Naming can seem easy, but DIY at your own risk
“I can name my kids or my dogs, why can't I name my own brand? They think it should be easy and it should come quickly, and sometimes that is the case. But more often than not, it's not. I think anyone who's named a brand as an entrepreneur, as a brand manager, as a CEO realizes that it's a pretty significant decision.”
When speaking with Scott, he talked about their process and how data driven it is. It is certainly a robust undertaking making sure that no stone is left unturned.
We have catalogs of thousands of names that we amass for any given project. For each of those names, there's probably 40 or 50 data points that we have to work through.”
Scott also talked about some areas of naming that clients often forget. It’s not just a creative undertaking. It’s about risk.
“There are other essential parts about naming - in terms of trademark, it's a way to protect all the intellectual property that's a part of your brand”
When you're talking about global brand names, how do they travel across the world? Does it mean something offensive in a key language and market? Or is there some sort of cultural sensitivity that you should be aware of? So it's just a lot of due diligence”
Context and creativity is the secret sauce to a great name
The naming process is unchanged, but the journey to every name is distinct. Scott was very quick to emphasize that the context of any brand dictates where the project goes.
Some examples of context:
Audience
Competition
Business and category
Brand strategy and persona
So before starting a naming project, have a brand strategy and understand the context and how you want your brand to show up. Psst…you know someone who can help you with that 😉
If not, just make sure you have answers to these questions:
What is your brand doing?
How is the brand doing it?
Why does it matter to the world?
Geographies at launch vs. in the future?
This information helps to ground the team tackle the project like a snowflake - one of its kind.
"We don't come to the table for a client with any preconceived notion - like this needs to be much more straightforward or let's get really creative and create something that is totally untethered from the context of the brand"
Who is suited to be a superstar namer? Scott shares that there is no one type of person but creativity is certainly a core element
“I don't think there's any one kind of plain and simple or best fit background…I think you can come at it from a variety of different angles, and that's actually what we look for when we're bringing new folks onto the team.
Different perspectives throughout life: language and culture. We all share kind of a love of writing to some degree. Some are more creative writers, others are linguists. People who just have a strategic kind of view with a creative bend to it. People who can think laterally, they're comfortable being uncomfortable”
Conclusion
Naming is really important, but as a brand strategist, my advice is that the work is not done once you have a name. It’s what you make it, it’s the experiences you create that makes the name, the brand memorable and remarkable.
Learn more about Scott:
- Tanj
Resources
- Chat Namer an AI tool for naming powered by OpenAI by Tanj
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
Becoming the Most Wanted: Outcomes, A Bag of Tricks & The Red Phone with Josh Ingram
EP. 18 | Josh Ingram
Read time: 3 min
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How does a brand become the most wanted? The most wanted company, marketer, or brand strategist? What are the key elements to make that happen?
In this episode of the Healthy Brand Podcast, I sat down with Josh Ingram, founder and principal of The Most Wanted Company, a strategic growth consultancy at the intersection of brand, innovation, and performance. He shared the latest in the world of brand and performance marketing, as well as some tips and tricks to be prepared for any occasion as an indispensable strategist.
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In this episode, we cover off on a variety of topics:
Leverage both brand and performance marketing – “a match made in heaven”
Build your brand by focusing on the outcomes you want
Have a bag of tricks ready for any occasion
Be open to ideas from anyone and anywhere
See brand as an asset, not a media type
Curiosity is the biggest C amongst category, company, and customer
KEY LESSONS
Leverage both brand and performance marketing – “a match made in heaven”
“Brand marketing is creating fandom before they walk through the door”
When Airbnb’s CFO announced late in 2022 that focusing on brand marketing efforts brought them higher returns, many brand marketers were quick to hail that as proof to double down on brand marketing and forgo performance marketing.
But Josh had a different take.
He was quick to point out that every company and brand is in its own lifecycle and it is unfair to take Airbnb’s situation and apply to everyone. Instead, see it for what it is - both is needed to win.
“Purpose and performance are a match made in heaven. When you can have them working together, you get a better return, you get a lowered cost per acquisition, you get a higher recall, you get more conversions…what's happening is these functions are operating in silos when they need to be working together.
Brand marketers need to have the the business case that they can bring forward to justify investment. And so they need to work with performance marketers. Performance marketers wanna have more efficient spend. They wanna have long-term relationships. They want to increase the value of the customer. They need brand marketers for that.
And as business operators, we need to look at the whole entire thing as a conversation about investment and asset value and long-term growth”
Build your brand by focusing on the outcomes you want
Stephen R. Covey’s second habit of highly effective people is to “Begin with the end in mind”. This is not only a fantastic principle for individuals, it is a great one for brands.
What is an outcome that’s important to the business?
Josh lists a few as examples:
Intent to purchase
Repeat purchase rate
Clinical outcomes of patients
Percent beds filled at a hospital
With two that cuts across different industries
“As brand builders and as operators, we need to focus on those outcomes and make sure that we are using brand to influence those outcomes as much as possible.
One thing that we've been building out at Most Wanted that we do see as a through line across many industries are two areas of focus for outcomes: lifetime value of the customer, that's something that brand can impact very clearly. And then employee engagement”
By putting together a dashboard of different metrics, you can keep the eye on the outcomes your brand needs to influence, with one metric being the “Magic Metric”
“Find that one metric that can lift other metrics. Oftentimes trial is a really effective magic metric because once you try a product, you're more likely to pay more for it, you're more likely to seek it out”
Have a bag of tricks ready for any occasion
Everyone of us have been in situations where we were caught off guard, whether it’s in a meeting or suddenly being called on to present on a topic. In order for us to win the day no matter the situation, we all need to have a bag of tricks ready. From a story at our fingertips, to a workshop exercise!
In the podcast episode, Josh recalls an incident when he thought it was going to be a meet and greet at the client site, but it turned out he was going to be leading a workshop for 20+ people right there, being put in the hot seat.
Instinctively, he bought himself time by asking everyone to write down what success looks like and quickly grabbed a whiteboard. Everyone needs to have their own bag of tricks, and this is a damn good trick to have just in case…
"It’s this classic sort of consulting tactic, of just defining success. But if you're ever in a situation where you're put on the spot, the first thing you can do to help yourself is to just define success and read the room."
Another one is to have some sort of analogy for what you do. It can help create an instant connection to your craft and your work. Josh gives several examples in the episode, but here is one
"I'm your red phone. When you have a problem. When you have a disaster, pick it up. I'll be on the other line. We’re here to help. So that was a way of talking about the phone calls I would get from agencies as an independent consultant.”
Conclusion
Becoming the most wanted is not an overnight endeavor. It’s crafting a brand strategy and executing against it day-in and day-out. Josh dropped a ton of lessons and insights throughout this episode, so if you are building brands, or just interested in how to become the most wanted product, company, or individual, give it a listen!
Learn more about Josh:
Resources
- Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelley
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
How to Make Your Brand More Memorable
4.5 min read - 1 Quote, 1 Lesson, 1 Tool
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Read time: 4.5 min
At a glance:
Quote: Don’t let them forget you
Lesson: The five principles of memorability backed by neuroscience
Tool: Introduce a S.T.A.R moment in all your presentations
QUOTE
"If you can’t be brilliant, be memorable"
David Ogilvy
If people can’t remember you, can’t remember your brand, you’ve lost your chance to be different, to be picked, to be loved.
Lesson
Henry Molaison was a normal 8 year old boy living in Hartford, Connecticut, until he was knocked down by a bicyclist and hit his head. Shortly after, he began experiencing seizures.
His seizures got worse and worse, so bad in fact that when he was in high school, his principal wouldn’t let him walk across the stage during graduation because he was worried Henry might have a seizure mid-walk and cause a scene. Amidst the increasing number and intensity of seizures, his family was approached by a surgeon with a proposal of an experimental procedure.
And in their desperation, they said yes.
Henry Molaison, then 60, at M.I.T. in 1986 (Photo credit: www.nytimes.com)
Henry was 27 years old and on September 1, 1953, he had portions of his hippocampus and amygdala removed.
Although his seizures was somewhat alleviated, he lived the rest of his live, almost 50 years in more or less 30-second increments. He was no longer able to form memories. You could introduce yourself to him, leave the room and come back having to introduce yourself all over again.
This was a tragedy for Henry, but it was also one of the most significant breakthroughs in neuroscience. Why?
In 1949, Donald Hebb, the “father of neuropsychology” published a seminal book, The Organization of Behavior which he hypothesized that neurons are capable of forming networks that create and store memories, and different types of memories are located in different locations of the brain. And the case of patient HM confirmed this hypothesis, paving the way for an entire new field of memory and memorability research.
“Neurons that fire together, wire together”
Donald Hebb
The logic here is that the more neurons that fire during an experience (watching an ad, listening to a pitch, seeing a TedTalk etc.) the more memorable the experience. When building brands, when communicating, if no one remembers you, no one can choose you.
My top five favorite principles to be more memorable, backed by neuroscience:
(1) Involve more senses: When each of our senses are engaged, specific neurons in our brain start to fire. And so it’s not a big leap to find that when more senses are engaged, the more memorable the experience. Especially for smell and taste, where specific areas of the brain is activated, primarily the hippocampus and the amygdala, two areas strongly implicated with emotions and memories. If possible, engage people with more than sight and sound.
(2) More emotional peaks: We remember more details about emotional events than neutral experiences. They are more vidid and accurate. You probably remember more about your wedding than when you brushed your teeth this morning. When BBC did a neuroscience study on emotion and memorability, they found that 70% of long-term memory encoding peaks are associated with emotional intensity peaks. In addition they found that brand films with 10+ emotional peaks rank in the top quartile for memorability. Find ways to to emotionally engage your audience and pack in those emotional peaks
(3) Introduce novelty: When you present the brain with something it has never seen before, it has to process and hence involve more areas of the brain. For example, there is the strategic use of ambiguity, where multiple meanings could be derived from a single image or statement. Such a practice has long been used in advertising, where viewers are made to exert just enough cognitive effort to help code it into long-term memory.
Absolut vodka: capturing the product’s unique shape as formed by different subjects. It holds the record for the longest uninterrupted advertising campaign ever – 25 years across 1,500 different ads. (Photo credit https://www.hapskorea.com/)
(4) Deliver surprise:
Our emotions amplified more than 400 times when someone is surprised. 400 times! Think of how much more of an emotional peak that is, no wonder we remember surprises so well. When we are surprised, it tells our brains that something is really important and we need to pay attention. We actually physically freeze for 1/27th of a second. When we are positively surprised, our feelings of happiness, joy will be amplified, but the same can be said for negative feelings. It doesn’t however alter its memorability.
(5) Tell a story: The most important way to be memorable is to tell a story. What’s fantastic about stories is that this one strategy can string together senses, emotional peaks, novelty, and surprise! The term storytelling has been gradually gaining importance in the world of business for years now, but what is actually happening to our brains when stories are told? It turns out that when you hear a story unfold, your brain waves actually start to synchronize with those of the story teller. That is why story is is such a fantastic vehicle to deliver memorability, our brainwaves actually sync and the more of the other principles you use, the more memorable it becomes.
Conclusion
The science of memory continues to evolve, but what we already know gives us some great principles to apply to increase the memorability of our message and our brands. I’m not at all suggesting we have to apply all of them, in the end it needs to serve a purpose and it needs to feel authentic to the brand.
Tool
What is the last presentation or talk or pitch you remembered? I’m thinking NONE. The truth is, most presentations and pitches suck. Too many things to say and nothing really said. I learned a simple add-on from Nancy Duarte’s book Resonate to make your presentations more memorable and it uses many of the principles listed above.
It’s called a S.T.A.R moment.
Give the audience Something They’ll Always Remember. This particular moment, when done well should be what the potential investors, the management team, the client remembers after two weeks while chatting at the watercooler or better yet, becomes a viral post on social media.
Here are the five types of S.T.A.R. moments from the book:
Memorable dramatization: Use a prop or a demo or a reenactment or a skit (e.g. Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes into the TedTalk auditorium)
Repeatable soundbites: Coin something that is pithy and something that perhaps rhyme so it’s easily repeatable (e.g. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” Johnny Cochran)
Emotive storytelling: Attaching a great story to a presentation so it can be retold over and over again (e.g. James Clear telling his story of when someone mistakenly swung a baseball bat into his face and he had to start stacking habits to return to normal)
Shocking statistics: If you have shocking data, present it upfront and draw attention to them (e.g. Black women in the US face three times the maternal mortality risk as white women)
Evocative visuals: A compelling image that is emotional (e.g. below on climate change)
Never bore you audiences again! By introducing a S.T.A.R moment in your presentations, you increase the probability that the audience will remember your big idea.
Photo credit: icepeople.net
References:
Patient HM:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/magazine/the-brain-that-couldnt-remember.html
Hebbian Theory of Learning:
https://thedecisionlab.com/thinkers/neuroscience/donald-hebb
Principles:
https://bbcnews.bbcstudios.com/media/5331/bbc-science-of-memory-2018.pdf
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
How Companies Can Embrace Equity & Inclusion Today & Into The Future with Dr. Félix Manuel Chinea
EP. 17 | Félix Manuel Chinea, MD
Read time: 3 min
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Company purpose still has a place in the world of brand. And it can be very powerful if you want it to be. Think about Patagonia and how its follow through on purpose has made it one of the most successful and iconic brands on the planet.
But the biggest problem for companies is that these efforts are often seen as expenses and when times get tough, they get cut. We've all seen how Chief DE&I officers are hired and fired, and the recent tech layoffs involved many people who were doing equity and inclusion work.
So when I talked with Felix, the head of health equity and inclusion of Doximity, a digital health company (think LinkedIn for physicians) I really wanted to understand how he has made it work there and how it's being embedded into the company.
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In this episode, we cover off on a variety of topics:
The definition of DE&I and health equity
Value exchange for long-term impact
The curb cut effect
Culture change is inherent
Consistent actions to bolster the brand
What to look for when hiring for DEI & Health Equity roles
KEY LESSONS
The definition of DE&I and Health equity
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are three values that organizations strive to embody for fair treatment and full participation of all people in the workplace.
Health equity on the other hand applies to health care companies applying the principles of DE&I to the communities they serve.
“In the broadest sense health equity is giving everyone the opportunity to live their healthiest life. There's opportunity to be more specific about it, especially in the space of digital health. What does health equity mean in terms of the sphere of influence that you have as an organization? What is the mission, what are the types of products that you build and how do you make that more equitable?”
Value exchange for long-term impact
One of the most critical challenges for organizations is ensuring that this work doesn't get cut when bad economic times come along. You should not be able to switch values on and off based on external conditions, but that's what you see in some companies.
The reason? It's not a value, it's a program. Worse, it's a fluffy communication tactic. And when media covers all the "failures", we get confusion.
"I had a recent LinkedIn post that asked the question of whether advancing health equity is too fluffy of a term. People losing sense of what does health equity actually mean and what are we actually doing."
When talking Felix, he offers up a unique strategy so the organization doesn't see these efforts as a resource drain, instead, the organization gets value from it. He talks about an example in Doximity where they offer a free service to clinics offering free care and in return, they get very specific feedback about their product.
"A lot of times when we think about a free clinic program, many people will think about this as a charity program. But instead, if you think about this as an exchange of value that really shapes our product in a meaningful way, then it creates a more sustainable process moving forward. "
The curb cut effect
Another challenge we see is the push back in organizations when developing special programs that help one specific group of people. Felix saw some of this at Doximity, but he offers a model that can help address this fear.
He brings up the curb cut effect from the work of Annie Jean Batiste, the head of product inclusion at Google.
"The curb cut effect is this: when we cross the street, the sidewalks have that cut at the curb. And that was actually designed initially for folks in wheelchairs. But then you reflect and you think about who all benefits from that cut in the curb. Folks pushing strollers, folks pushing grocery carts, folks on bikes, folks roller skates or roller blades.. A lot of people benefit from that design even though that design was centered on folks in wheelchairs."
"So the same concept can apply to product design"
So when this is applied to their free telehealth service, the unique perspective and feedback from their free clinic customers allow them to develop features that other users can enjoy and benefit from.
Conclusion
DE&I and healthy equity work is not easy, especially embedding it into the culture of the company. But it is an opportunity to bring energy and vitality into the brand. The opportunity is that most organizations don't do this well, so if your brand can embody these values and make tangible impact, you can truly elevate your brand, not to mention help all those disenfranchised feel a sense of belonging.
There were a ton more lessons and Felix gets pretty deep on the topic: Listen to the whole episode on Apple Podcasts
Learn more about Félix:
Resources
- Michelle Mijung Kim – Book: The Wake Up
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
Branding is Not Just Advertising, it's a Complete Experience
2.5 min read - 1 Quote, 1 Lesson, 1 Post
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Read time: 2.5 min
At a glance:
Quote: What is our reality?
Lesson: A brand experience framework
Instagram Post: Idea is not execution
QUOTE
"Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced"
John Keats
We can know everything about something, but until we go through it and feel it in our bones, can it truly become a part of us. That video you just watched about cliff diving, it's not real until you jump off that cliff. That promise the brand just made to you, it doesn't become real until you've experienced and felt that promise.
Lesson
Learn the framework to pull through your brand essence across every touchpoint.
By leveraging every touchpoint to build brand equity, you are giving people every opportunity to trust and love your brand.
Most marketers and brand builders fail because they use a marketing funnel that ends when the prospect "converts" or purchases the product or service. That model tremendously limits all activities that could be aligned to the brand.
YOUR BRAND IS NOT A FUNNEL, IT'S A CIRCLE
The framework
Awareness & Interest (educate and help the target segment understand why your product or service is relevant and different)
Comprehension & Decision (make the purchase decision easy by removing all barriers to a yes)
Adoption & Utilization (create a product and service experience that delivers on the promise of your brand so it results in repeat use or new purchase)
Community & Ambassadorship (allow users and customers to become part of a special tribe, leveraging voices of fans to make more people aware of the brand)
Look at every instance where the target segment is exposed to the brand. How is the brand essence experienced? What unique experiences can we provide beyond ads, videos, and content?
Consumer Example:
Fictional consumer brand - Mandalore Pans
Brand essence - "Cookware for the planet"
1. Awareness & Interest
A downloadable iron chef recipe booklet that features dishes that use only sustainably sourced ingredients in your region.
2. Comprehension & Decision
When you buy, you are automatically enrolled into a pan recycling program where you can send old pans to be recycled for free 1 time.
3. Adoption & Utilization
All packaging is 100% made from recycled materials and compostable. The tags and instruction booklets actually have embedded seeds that grow into flowering plants. Just add water.
4. Community & Ambassadorship
Closed group “Mandalore Chefs” to share recipes, cookware care, and other tips on sustainable living.
Health care Example:
Fictional health care brand - “Invisible” hearing aids
Brand essence - More than meets the eye
1. Awareness & Interest
Invisible ink consumer activations - posters, billboards, post cards etc. Looks empty/ benign until UV light is applied
2. Comprehension & Decision
Audiologist and sales rep materials that look very generic on the outside, but a totally different experience on the inside
3. Adoption & Utilization
Packaging and app designed to be more like a premium speaker than a hearing-aid
4. Community & Ambassadorship
Hearing aid parties where only those with “invisible” hearing aids can hear the music
Conclusion
Elevate your branding efforts by using this framework to pull through the brand essence across every touch point. Go beyond messaging and content into experience.
Instagram Post
When you feel like you made progress by having an idea…
Credit: @thomasandvisuals
You get to a brand essence only to NOT execute it. It's such a shame! For those of you building brands, take a swing and bring it home... help those who are ready to LOVE your brand.
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
Surviving the Unthinkable, Building Resilience, & the Alignment of Purpose with Geralyn Ritter
EP. 16 | Geralyn Ritter
Read time: 4.5 min
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How do you build resilience when a catastrophic accident upends your life? What does personal resilience have to do with company purpose and sustainability?
In this episode of the healthy brand podcast, I sat down with Geralyn Ritter and we had an honest conversation that connects the dots between brand, reputation, and pain. Geralyn survived near-fatal injuries in the derailment of Amtrak 188 outside Philadelphia where eight passengers were killed and over 150 injured in 2015. She is an author and Executive Vice President of External Affairs and ESG at Organon, a health care company focused on women’s health.
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In this episode, we cover off on a variety of topics:
Resilience is skill anyone and any company can build
What pain can teach us about perceptions and brand reputation
How to build a personal brand while being an employee
Authenticity is easier when you focus on others and not yourself
Aligning your personal purpose with your company’s purpose
Shaping a company culture of inclusivity and belonging
KEY LESSONS
Resilience is a skill anyone and any company can build
Credit: GeralynRitter.com
One of the amazing things about Geralyn is that she can find the humor and silver lining in just about anything. But she also talks about resilience being a skill that can be built over time. She talks about the power of reframing.
“I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself when it was about three o'clock, and the boys came home from school. Something just clicked. Here I was six months in with who knows how long in front of me, and I was gonna be home every single day when they got home from school. And I thought, you know, I need to treasure that. I called 'em in and they jumped in bed with me. And we watched a movie that afternoon, and I said to myself, you know, when, when have I ever curled up at 3:30 in the afternoon for no reason? It just kind of hit me that I needed to reframe.”
It's a deliberate practice that can help us go through the toughest times.
“Reframing is the heart of resilience, but it doesn't come easy. Like I said, sort of deliberately trying to reframe this enforced slowness and look for the good part of it. I think it's really healthy. It really helped me. But it was hard work”
If our identity is one of resilience, or if we are trying to build resilience into our identity, every time we reframe something bad that is happening, we are essentially making a vote for that type of person.
Every reframe becomes a vote for your resilience.
For companies, resiliency is a brand competence. When the market and the external factors are not in your favor, how can a brand continue to deliver on its promise? And part of the answer is to take a longer-term view.
“ESG is resiliency for companies over the long term. Long-term resiliency to the shocks that are gonna come. Whether it's climate related, social related, change in long-term macroeconomic trends. Preparing now, investing now in programs around equity, around reducing admissions, good governance that considers the perspectives of all your stakeholders. Fundamentally, that's how you build a resilient company over the long-term”
A healthy brand is a resilient brand, and when you start asking some important questions, you will know where to focus
“What are the issues that matter? Where can you make a difference? Where can your company actually have an impact? Or what are those issues that would actually affect your company? That's where you focus.”
What pain can teach us about perceptions and brand reputation
Geralyn had to go through pain. A lot of pain. And the more she dealt with it, the more she learned that pain is perceived very differently by those who are experiencing it and those who see it experienced.
“Fundamentally, pain cannot be measured, you know, in, in some ways it is subjective. And what I mean by that is it's the brain responding to whether the body is in danger. And it may be a signal of tissue damage, or it may not be, you know, many people have heard of phantom limb pain. There are lots of examples where the body is injured and the brain doesn't actually feel pain or the body is not injured, but the brain does feel pain”
“How our brain interprets pain is very complicated, and it is a matter of perception. It's the same thing as we talk about telling our story…perception is reality”
The lesson here is that, like pain, brand and reputation is also a matter of perception, where there is not really a universal truth about pain or reputation. It only makes sense from the perspective of the individual, or a group of homogenous individuals – aka audience segment.
“When you think about reputation, people say, oh, well they have a good reputation. My question is always with who? With who? Does this company have a good reputation? Well, with who? Does the man on the street know them? Maybe, maybe not, but maybe their customers love them and would never go anywhere else. Yes. Maybe they're the darling of Wall Street, but yet, you know a lot of activists or social groups think that they're horrible. What does it mean to have a good reputation? You've gotta go deeper”
Geralyn emphasizes that broad quantitative metrics about reputation is not useful.
“You try to reduce it to a number who has the best reputation. That's kind of meaningless to me”
How to build a personal brand while being an employee
One of the most asked questions about personal brands is how one balances between their company brand and their own personal brand. Geralyn talks about how it needs to be separate.
“When I have purely leaned into trying to get word out about my book, I hired a separate publicist on my own dime…I do try to keep a, a certain separation of church and state but, but keep the two sides informed enough that, that we don't step on each other.”
But at the same time, look for opportunities to leverage her personal story to talk about the company purpose, both internally and externally, because her experience is her identity, and it doesn’t make sense to hide it.
“I am fortunate that part of my job is to talk about our company's purpose internally and externally. And it is very genuine. And the fact that it does connect to a personal sense of purpose, that's not kind of a stretch or strained…So I don't hesitate to draw on that personal narrative as I am talking about the need for more research, for example into women's pain”
In fact, she feels that not acknowledging her experience and disability is disrespectful.
“I don't wanna be train wreck girl, but it's always front and center in my mind, but it in a way that it shapes my perspective, not that it needs to come into every conversation. But at the same time, if you ignore it, if you just never talk to me about it, if you pretend that it didn't happen, you dishonor me that way”
Conclusion
Resilience is an important skill personally and for company brands. Geralyn’s story of not only surviving, but thriving after her devastating accident is inspiring. Listen to the full episode, hear Geralyn talk about her story on your favorite podcast player.
Learn more about Geralyn:
Resources
Bone by Bone by Geralyn Ritter (100% of proceeds go to non-profit organizations that support trauma professionals and trauma survivors)
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
"Atomic Culture": Applying the Power of Habits to Organizational Culture
3 min read - 1 Quote, 1 Lesson, 1 Post,
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Read time: 3 min
At a glance:
Quote: Action creates identity
Lesson: Three-step framework to apply habit principles to culture
Instagram Post: Don't stop, keep going
Resources: Two books and a podcast episode
QUOTE
"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become"
James Clear
Lesson
I will share a simple three-step framework to help you tap into the power of habits to build a formidable culture.
Because as we all know, culture is one of the most important elements to an organization. It can make or break a company.
But most organizations just put values on the wall or on their website and they call it a day. No one practices those values nor do they make tough decisions based on them.
If you want behaviors that last (habits), you have to focus on identity
James Clear talks about the three layers of change that occurs when creating habits: outcomes, processes, and identity.
Most people start off by saying "I want to lose weight" and that is an outcome. The next layer is by implementing a system or process like going to the gym and ultimately a new identity "I am a person who works out" is where lasting behaviors reside.
Similarly, when organizations are creating a culture, they want people to behave a certain way. For example, they want their employees to collaborate more, that's an outcome. By implementing a system to aid collaboration like cross-functional teams, that's a process. For lasting change to take place, you'll want to establish an identity "I am a person who collaborates".
An example:
Amazon
Outcome: Collaborate for the customer
Process: Two pizza teams
Identity: An Amazonian is obsessed with customer experience, constantly being curiosity, nimble, and experimental
The power of identity comes when someone who works at the organization is personified "Amazonian" or "Googler". This makes it very simple for employees to adopt behaviors at the deepest levels, often times so powerful that these values are retained after they've left the organization.
Here is a three-step framework based on the layers of behavior change as described by James Clear to build a compelling culture.
Envision: Showcase what it means to be a person who thrives at the company. What are the principles, why it matters and why it makes you better. Name it for maximum effect (eg. Amazonian's and their "Day 1" mentality )
Enroll: Help people understand how to live those values. Set up processes and systems that make it easier to live them everyday. (eg. At Zappos, they measure percent of customer interaction on every call instead of number of calls taken per hour - establishing a system of measurement and rewards that deliver the best, not the fastest service)
Experience: Make sure employees feel what it's like to adopt this new identity. This is establishing vocabulary, stories, artifacts, and traditions that immerse employees into the culture.
Creating a culture is about creating an environment for it to blossom. Ultimately if you create the right conditions, principles and values can become part of the identity of your people, making the outcomes more attainable and the new behaviors more sustainable.
Instagram Post
When you are having a tough time deciding what projects or tasks to execute on:
Instagram post from @lizandmollie
We are often impatient for change, but a great reminder is that every mountain is climbed the same way - one step at a time.
Resources
Culture Built My Brand by Mark Miller & Ted Vaughn: Book + my podcast episode with Mark
Atomic Habits by James Clear: Book
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Dominate the B2B Industry with Brand: A Raw & Unfiltered Conversation with Jason Vana
EP. 15 | Jason Vana
Read time: 4.5 min
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Why do some B2B companies thrive while others struggle? How should leaders think about branding vs. performance marketing efforts? Jason has real answers for us.
Jason Vana is the founder of Shft, a Brand and content strategy agency focused on B2B companies – helping them become the only choice for their customers. He is also an established thought leader in the world of B2B, with over 50K followers on LinkedIn.
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In this episode, we cover off on a variety of topics:
The most controversial topic in the world of marketing and branding
The irony of ironies in the B2B world
The powerful strategy of being different, not better
The fallacy of MQLs (marketing qualified leads)
The three most important things to learn as a marketer
The real Jason Vana, please stand up
KEY LESSONS
Branding is not a marketing function; it cuts across everything
As controversial as it may seem, I subscribe to the same idea. If brand is the feeling and perception someone has about your company, product, or service and branding is the execution of every touch point to create that feeling, how can it be a marketing function?
“Branding has just been confined or just tossed into marketing because marketing is promotional, branding is just this way to promote ourselves. But I think you and I would both agree that if I call into a company and I talk to a receptionist who's rude, that impacts the perception I have of the company.
“And so when it comes to brand, it is far more than just a marketing aspect. It really is built also by sales, by marketing, by operations, by production, by customer service, by your product, by every aspect, every point of contact”
The problem with branding being held in the marketing department is that they don’t have power over the entire organization.
“I don't know any marketers, any CMOs that have that authority. Most CMOs are like, oh that's the COO's job, not my job. That’s the disconnect in B2B…they don't understand what a brand truly is.”
“And it can’t just be the CEO either, because most CEOs are not brand people, they are product people. You need a Chief Brand Officer that sits between the CEO and the other functions.”
When Jason shared this online, it was the most controversial org chart in history, shooting it to virality status.
LinkedIn Post HERE
“The CEO should not be the owner of the brand cuz they don't even know what a brand is or how to build a brand. So if that's the case, then you should have a CBO that everyone reports to because the product and operations are just as much part of brand as marketing is. That's a conversation that a lot of people don't wanna have yet because in most org charts, brand sits under marketing, you've got a CMO, and then you've got like the chief brand marketer and, that is basically a glorified policeman making sure that everything is on brand.”
There are no impulse buys in B2B, branding is the only way to generate sustained demand
The ironies of ironies is that while the world of B2C is admitting that branding efforts have a higher ROI than performance marketing, B2B businesses continue to bet on performance marketing. It should actually be reversed as there are impulse buys in the B2C world, making it a more viable performance marketing candidate than the B2B world, with long sales cycles and drawn out decision making processes.
“Airbnb, Adidas and ASOS, three B2C brands that in the last year, all of them have come out and said we have moved away from performance marketing into brand marketing.
Airbnb made that move in 2019, they dropped their performance marketing started doing brand campaigns. They have had their most successful quarter and their CFO has said it is because of our investment in brand.
Adidas. They thought the majority of their sales was coming from performance marketing. And when they sat down and looked at the data, they found out 60% of their sales actually comes from brand campaigns, not performance marketing.
ASOS spent a quarter I think it was last year, one of the quarters last year, they made 80% of their marketing budget was in performance marketing and sales dropped 105%”
According to Jason, performance marketing is demand capture and branding is demand generation. I tend to agree, it also explains why performance marketing efforts have high initial ROI, then diminishes over time – there is no more demand to capture, the top of the funnel has dried out. Whereas branding continues to fill the top of the funnel. It’s not “either or”, it’s “and”. You need both to win long term.
“Imagine if you, if you sell a hundred thousand dollars service and you have a queue of people waiting to work with you, that's never gonna happen with performance marketing. It doesn't build that kind of loyalty of like, screw everyone else. I'm willing to pay more to work with you. That's what brand does.”
“Different” always beat “better”: lean into what makes the brand unique
Jason states that for a brand to be healthy, it must understand why it is different and I couldn’t agree more. He recalled for us a story about his days in a B2B company:
“One of the first things I did was I created an account pretending that I was a food processor. I went on all the competition's websites and requested information and I just wanna see how they respond
Nine years later, I'm still waiting for a response from some of those companies. Even the ones that did respond, it was one or two days So I said we're gonna make it super easy for people to hear a response. We will have an answer to them in 30 minutes - That is how we're gonna win. We broke the standard and we stole opportunities away from these big companies because of that.”
By zigging while everybody is zaggin, they stood out with a real experience that addressed a pain, not a “promotional” message. It was a tangible fulfillment of their promise. When looking for something unique, you also have to make sure it’s a sustainable differentiator.
“I've heard this a lot. It's our team is what sets us apart. No, it's not <laugh> because your team will be completely different in 20 years. So if that's your differentiation in 20 years, you're done. You know, like what actually makes you different?”
Because if you are not, you just set off the biggest nuclear bomb in the market, driving it down, down, down.
“If your customers can get the same thing from all your competitors, you are no longer competing on something unique, you are just competing on price.”
Conclusion
Branding is demand generation and when done well with performance marketing, you can truly dominate in the world of B2B, because no one is really doing it that well. The same in true in the world of health care, build a brand and your customers will line up around the block to choose you. Listen to the episode on your favorite podcast player for all the truth bombs.
Learn more about Jason:
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Poetry, an Action Priority Matrix, & Silent CEOs
3 min read - 1 Quote, 1 Idea, 1 Tool, 1 Article
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Read time: 3 min
At a glance:
QUOTE: The importance of rational and emotional thinking
IDEA: Is it really a tactical ask?
TOOL: Use this to prioritize projects and tasks
ARTICLE: CEOs are silent on societal issues... now what?
QUOTE
“Science describes accurately from outside, poetry describes accurately from inside. Science explicates, poetry implicates. Both celebrate what they describe.”
Ursula K. Le Guin
I think about this quote a lot. As a strategist, there is so much we do that's at the intersection of rational and emotional thinking. Too often, the rational proof points, features, and benefits are prioritized over the emotional part of the story.
This quote reminds us that both the rational and the emotional have a role to play and they are equally powerful.
IDEA
Throughout my career as a strategist, I can't count the number of times the client was asking for a tactic (eg. website, brochure, social post etc.) but after further inquiry, they realized help was needed further upstream -> Strategy.
There was not an established brand strategy to create any content or tactics that would move the needle.
Something to think about: what do you actually need? Do have a firm grasp of what problem you are solving for? Is the solution really a tactic? Or is there foundational brand strategy work that needs to first get established?
Some questions to ask:
What is the brand's positioning?
Is there a defined voice and tone?
Is it crystal clear across the organization?
Do we know the singular message for each tactic?
Do we know exactly the barrier we are trying to overcome for each tactic?
These questions can help to point you in either direction. Tactic or Strategy?
TOOL
When you are having a tough time deciding what projects or tasks to execute on:
There are usually more things to do than the time or resources required to do them. This matrix works really well when you are trying to decide what projects NEED to get done vs. those that SHOULD get done. With this matrix, you (and your team) can start to stratify and strategically prioritize what are the projects you need to plan out, which ones can be quick points on the board, which ones you may execute opportunistically and which ones to stay away from.
It's very simple, but a highly effective way to help any team figure out what to do when they have a laundry list of things to tackle.
ARTICLE
America's CEOs have gone silent on national tragedies
2 min read on Axios here
Human rights issues, societal challenges, the recent death of Tyre Nichols - CEOs are quiet.
As brand builders, executive communications are very important. The take away is that the power of employees has somewhat diminished from 2020 and because of the economic recession, many companies have laid off their DE&I departments.
Two things that struck me:
We need to redo DE&I in organizations, it can no longer be a side hustle, it needs to be embedded into the organization and its business (through product development and building a brand around all purpose driven efforts.)
Companies don't have DE&I as part of their purpose, or their purpose is just a plaque on the wall, purely for decor. This makes it hard for leaders to take a stand.
I believe companies can and should speak out, especially those who seek to do good while doing well.
Ways I can help you:
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Stories That Shape the Trillion Dollar Biotech Industry with Dan Budwick
EP. 14 | Dan Budwick
Read time: 4 min
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How do Biotech companies raise millions of dollars just based on a concept? How do they convince physicians and patients to try an unproven treatment? Dan shares what it takes to build a successful brand based on hope.
Dan Budwick is the founder and CEO of 1AB, a communications agency focused on early stage Biotechs – helping them tell stories and build their brands. He cut his teeth in the world of media relations, working with the top journalists and brazen CEOs to bring the most important stories to the public.
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In this episode, we cover off on a variety of tips and topics:
Weathering the failures of science with brand
Simplifying the scientific story
The compounding power of relationships
Social media as a vital channel for communications
Integrity and ethics in the world of biotech
How to build a company where people love to come to work
KEY LESSONS
Withstand inevitable failures by building a trusted brand
The world of Biotech is ridden with failures. It’s a natural outcome when the boundary of science is pushed to its limits, exploring, and uncovering potential cures and treatments that can conquer devastating diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.
Dan has seen his fair share of hard times.
“I was with a company who had phase three clinical data failures and have had to make layoffs and go back to the drawing board. And it's tough. They’ve poured their heart and soul into it.”
Trust is built through the way data and evidence is announced. The keyword Dan said was “tempered optimism”, you never want to come across as chest beating, because you never know when things can go south.
“Sometimes it's just about the way that you make an announcement…sometimes you just have to state things straight and walk away and keep your head down and keep going. I was talking to a client this morning about an interview that they were doing, and this is what we talked about, just play it straight, state the facts. The data looked great but just don't make too much of it. Tempered optimism is a good way to approach things.”
“You're playing ultimately a very long game. And so your reputation with those guys as being a straight shooter when things are great, but things are not so great, I think goes a long way towards really solidifying those relationships and, you know, being seen as those people that those reporters need to call”
And a big learning from Dan was that companies need to start building trust and cultivating ambassadors before they need them. Don’t wait until there is some big announcement to reach out to journalists and reporters.
“We have clients that have invested a lot of time over the years ahead of those milestones to establish and cultivate those relationships. They look at media, the way they, they look at investor relations. It's a process. And those are the ones I think that have ultimately benefited the most.”
Simplify the scientific story to reach a broader audience
In the world of biotechnology, the science can get really complicated and it might seem counter intuitive, but some founders are worried that a simple message can come across as simplistic. Dan was adamant that if the science is too complex, no one will know their story and they will miss out on reaching a broader audience and gaining that momentum.
“Honestly, some of the content was so dense that you would read it and pass out like three sentences in… find ways to grade it up or grade it down depending on the level of technicality of the audience”
“The use of a great on point analogy is powerful. We've also had clients that totally bombed on analogies and it's actually been really embarrassing…having the right one can really bring things to life in a way everybody can understand”
As a communications and brand professional in the health care world, you don’t have to know everything about the science, but it does require that you know enough to be able to explain it. Dan talks about his approach.
“Take me through this like I'm a dog <laugh>, like I'm a small animal. These people that we work with day in and day out are some of the most brilliant people within their line of specialty. But you still have to put it on a website. You still have to put it in a press release. You have to be able to see it in an article and have it make sense. So it does require you to break things down.”
Invest in the compounding power of relationships
When Dan started his company, 1AB Media, he immediately had a few clients. How? He had developed amazing relationships over decades of working with in the Biotech industry.
“Oh man. I am not here without my relationships… my time at Pure, the relationships that I built within that Cambridge ecosystem and what that did for me”
He recalled when it all began and how the importance of relationships was ingrained in him by his first boss.
“In 1999, my first boss gave me the best piece of advice I've ever gotten. We want to move you into health care. And he took an envelope and he slid it across the table at me. I opened it up and I saw a green Amex with my name on it. And he said, I want you to go out and I want you to form relationships with every reporter that covers health care. I want you to get to know everything there is to know about them. I wanna know what they like, what they don't like, what their editors expect of them. I wanna know if they're married or single. I wanna know what sports teams they like. I wanna know what gum they chew.”
Building relationships is often not a priority for those early in their careers and that’s a missed opportunity. If you start investing in it early, it will pay dividends over time.
“You can be the most junior member on a team. It doesn't mean that you can't develop relationships because the person that you have a relationship with within that company who may also be young is gonna grow up and is gonna go somewhere and is gonna be somebody.”
Conclusion
The power of stories and communications is palpable and it’s especially evident in the world of Biotech where investments are made when there are no products and requiring many years for a treatment to get to market. The flow of billions of dollars - all based on how well the stories get told.
Learn more about Dan:
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The Art, the Science, & the Practice of Generating Insights
3.5 min read - 1 Quote, 1 Idea, 1 Tool, 1 Article
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Read time: 3.5 min
At a glance:
QUOTE: Everyone might see the same thing, but you can think something different
IDEA: Insights are not observed data
TOOL: The bridge between the problem and the strategy
ARTICLE: What does an insight look like in your brain?
QUOTE
“Thus, the task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.”
Arthur Schopenhauer
TBH, I had to read this quote a few times. But the more I read it, the more it was revelational for me. This quote IS an insight. It brings me back to when I was working at a big agency and whenever we were in a pitch, we were scouring for data no one else might have so we might present insights that wowed.
And every single time, when the data came back, we always said, “there is nothing new here.” We then proceeded to come up with different hypotheses and eventually landed on something that is deeper, more controversial, all without new data.
This quote puts into words what we did without knowing what we did.
Takeaway? When generating insights, try looking at it from a different perspective instead of spending time digging for new data.
IDEA
Visualizing the quote in a slightly different way would be this 👇🏽
Data comes in all forms: interviews, survey results, desk research, analytics, modeling, etc. And what is really important to understand here is that no matter what the data presents, it won’t give you the insight.
Data = What is explicit
Insight = What is implicit
An insight takes a leap of creativity, creating a revelation and an “aha” from the patterns we see and experience.
Here are some examples:
Data = Apple falls from the tree straight down onto the ground
Insight = The force that makes the apple fall and that holds us on the ground is the same as the force that keeps the moon and planets in their orbits
Data = Shaving ads for women look all the same
Insight = Companies are afraid to show hair on women
Data = Patients choose where to get care using physician reviews
Insight = Unlike retail, location matters less in health care, people place experience over convenience
TOOL
A simple framework is the insight funnel. It shows how a problem is solved through an insight. It’s a simple way to communicate a solution or a strategy you arrived at.
This framework also shows the process of getting to the solution. From a problem, there is the Conscious Submersion phase, where you gather all the data, do some analysis, start to read and dissect anything that is relevant about the topic, rally submerge yourself into that world.
After being thoroughly soaked, you enter a stage of Subconscious Creation, where the mind start to make connections and generate ideas, often the insight appears during a shower or on a walk. So don’t fret during this phase, it’s a natural part of insight generation. In fact, take the time to step away.
Once you’ve landed on an insight, there is a Conscious Emergence stage, where you start to translate how that insight leads to a specific action or solution.
ARTICLE
This is a downloadable chapter of a book titled Toward Super-Creativity. The chapter is called The Aha! Moment: The Science Behind Creative Insights by Wesley Carpenter (you can read it online or download it by registering)
Want to see what an insight looks like in your brain?
The image on the left shows a topographic distribution of gamma-band activity during an insight and the image on the right shows area of activation corresponding to insight effect during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
In this study, participants were presented with three words (e.g., potato, tooth, heart) and they were asked to think of a single word to create a familiar two-word phrase for each word. (e.g., sweat potato, sweet tooth, sweetheart). Once they arrived at a solution through an insight, they were asked to press a button. This specific type of problem was used because one can solve it analytically OR through insights.
Maybe we’ll have to hook up our strategists to an EEG and fMRI and take the images to qualify their insights 😂
This chapter is such a fascinating read, but to save you time, I’ve summarized the key points here:
Insights are but one method of problem solving
Insight problem solving involves unconscious processing to arrive at that “aha moment” that merges into one’s stream of consciousness. Analytical problem solving on the other hand is systematical and involves logical reasoning.
Each method has its own pattern of errors
Analytical: errors of commission (i.e., incorrect responses). Analytical approach may have one fixated on irrelevant information as a looming deadline approaches.
Insights: errors of omission (i.e., timed out). Insights is typically an all or none approach.
Solving a problem through insights allows loosely connected ideas to be surfaced
Imaging and electrical activity in the brain shows that insights are preceded by a weak activation of a broad semantic field, allowing remote associations of knowledge to stream into consciousness.
Removing visual distractions can help your brain create insights
Before an insight appears, a burst of alpha waves and then gamma waves happens. To lay people like us, what does that mean? It suggests that the brain is limited visual distractions and focusing the energy inwardly for remotely connected knowledge elements to contribute to the “aha”. Whereas an analytics method is focused more externally, where alpha waves are decreased in the visual cortex.
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How to Propel Your Brand Forward Using The Power of Your Culture with Mark Miller
EP. 13 | Mark Miller
Read time: 5.5 min
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Why is it that some organizations build the most amazing brands, but some fail to create anything compelling? Mark has an answer for us.
Mark Miller is a co-founder of Historic Agency and leads product strategy, marketing transformation and brand. He has rebranded nearly 100 organizations and specializes in all things strategy including brand, product and marketing. He is also the co-author of the Amazon bestseller “Culture Built My Brand."
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In this episode, we cover off on a variety of tips and topics:
What led to the writing of “Culture built my brand.”
The six elements of building a thriving internal culture
Most prolific examples of cultural elements seen in the wild
Culture can be built no matter the size of the organization
The untapped opportunity in health care
The agile approach to branding
KEY LESSONS
Culture is the main reason behind brand success or brand failure
When Mark and team asked themselves the question “why is it that some clients would take off after our rebrand, while some would go back to the old brand or not even launch at all?” They had a hunch.
“There was a pattern that we started to see with clients that were struggling to be successful in their own brand and owning their own brand - that was all cultural issues.”
A brand is typically thought of as the way others feel and say about you, but Mark helps us make the link between the external and the internal.
“There is something deeper to your brand and how you operate as an organization or a company. We found that really culture has more to do with your brand, then just what other people think. Because how you hire, how you fire, what you, what you prioritize in your budget, what decisions you make, what values drive, all of that ultimately trickles down to the customer experience and your product which is what people think about you”
And culture shows up not during the good times, but when things get rocky. Mark shares a personal story about Historic when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit.
“Almost 40% of our revenue was gone in two weeks. the first two weeks of covid, people just said, we're gonna cancel, and it doesn't matter the fees, some members of the management team didn't resonate with the values that we had as a company and the expectation on leadership and those kind of things. And so we were forced to make some decisions. We had to let some people go.”
And how prioritizing culture played a key part of their growth in a trying time.
“We wanted to refocus our culture…align to the things that were important. And it was amazing to see people step up. And people will perform better when they're in a culture that they connect with that makes sense to them… and they will step up for organizations because they love where they work.”
Culture is not just posters on the wall – there are six elements to building a thriving culture
Often, when you bring up culture, companies will point to the values they embody, often on their website or on the walls of the office. That’s certainly a starting point, but certainly not the end. Mark talks about the six different elements they’ve found in their research that organizations can use to create an environment for culture to thrive.
1. Principles
“Everyone has values, but principles are behaviors. They teach your team how to actually work. Like how to behave, how do they treat each other? How do they treat customers?”
2. Architecture
“That's the organizational systems process. If anyone's had a submit a expense report that spends more time doing that than it does actually making the charges on your expense expenses that's a problem, right? What are the systems, the things behind the walls that you don't actually see, like plumbing and electricity.”
3. Lore
“Those are the unspoken or sometimes spoken stories that the organization tells about itself. And sometimes that is intentional, right? From leadership or from marketing or communications. Sometimes it's water cooler talk that senior leaders and executives don't know. What we found was organizations (who had thriving cultures) were really intentional about shaping and influencing that”
4. Rituals
“The things that we do as an organization that highlights or embodies the brand. So an example in the book we give is NASA's pumpkin carving contest. It's grassroots, it's not paid by government taxes, you know, tax dollars. It's all subsidized by the employees. Their pumpkins are really crazy, some of 'em actually lift off and explode”
5. Vocabulary
“Vocabulary is the being intentional about the language you use. So Netflix is really famous for this. They have a bunch of internal words they use, like “sunshining”, which is when you share a failure so that the rest of your team can learn from it. Or the “keeper test”, which is for managers. If you have an employee whom you would fight to keep, if they were gonna leave, then they should be on your team.”
6. Artifacts
“Infusionsoft, which is now Keap, has a football field like AstroTurf in their office, and that's for one of their values – “leaving in it all on the field” And so they have staff meetings on this AstroTurf as a reminder for people to leave it all on the field. So that would be an artifact.”
Design experiences and processes that reflect the company’s values
When culture and brand is reflected in the experiences and the processes of the company, it can be so powerful. The same can be said when nothing is reflected – powerfully terrible.
“No one really thinks about organizational systems as part of their brand, right? But if your expectation is you want a nurse to have great bedside manner and be efficient and super smart and be like an operator, a Navy seal essentially…Yet every interaction with the software and HR and parking is a nightmare, that is gonna bleed out into the way they interact with doctors and with the way they interact with the patients and what information they put into systems and which ones they don't.”
This is also especially true for younger generations, who are more and more part of the workforce.
“Generation Z and millennials have have really good BS meters, right? Whereas older generations, it was duty, tradition. And so there's this cultural shift that's happening right now. And so we gotta be transparent. We have to have a brand that isn't just, you know, paint on the outside of our building, but is something that actually is an expression of who we are and how we operate”
Mark also reminds us that it’s not just the big organizations who can walk the talk, aligning values to action.
“The barbershop that I referenced in, in my book Nico’s barber shop, is they, they take I think once a month time to do haircuts for those in need, right? So sometimes it's a like a, a boy's home, sometimes it's a homeless shelter. Sometimes it's low income people who are, are getting interviews like, or sometimes it's teaching kids how to do barbershop haircuts and all that kind of stuff. That has generated rapid, rapid growth - from a haircare product line to multiple stores.”
Indeed, purpose driven branding, a core idea from David Aaker remains very relevant for organizations big and small.
Conclusion
You can’t rip culture apart from the brand. By addressing the cultural challenges head-on, you give the brand a boost in authenticity, laying the foundation for a brand that’s going to fulfill its promise every single day.
Learn more about Mark:
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand
Branding is Everything, a Bulletproof Strategy Framework, & More
3 min read - 1 Quote, 1 Idea, 1 Tool, 1 Article
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Read time: 3 min
At a glance:
QUOTE: Trust and relationship building does not belong to just one function
IDEA: Branding is everything
TOOL: Campaign strategy framework
ARTICLE: Brand marketing works
QUOTE
“Brand relevance, relationships, trust, should not be left to marketers and communicators and brand experts. That should be the core of any leadership team”
There is so much wisdom behind this quote. Organizations typically silo their functions, but when something like reputation and brand relevance is involved, the entire organization needs to be aligned.
Look at what happened to Southwest Airlines. Culture and branding was probably siloed and left to the marketing and HR functions, because in order to truly fulfill their brand promise of LOVE (their latest campaign being “GO WITH HEART”), it really should mean having the best technologies and systems to make that a reality, which we all know was their downfall over the holidays, canceling over 16,700 flights and forecasting a loss of $875 million.
Trust and relationship building does not belong to just one function.
IDEA
This one illustration garnered 265K views on LinkedIn. I think one of the reasons why it achieved viral status was that it spoke a truth that most understand and feel, but never talked about in the open. Amidst organizational politics and fiefdoms, who dares to claim branding (typically a function of marketing) is everything?
But understanding this one thing has far reaching consequences. How does an entire organization align around fulfilling that brand promise?
TOOL
A simple but highly effective way to frame up any marketing or communications program is the BUSINESS-TO-BRAND STRATEGY framework, adapted from the Nested Strategy from Julian Cole, an ad strategy trainer.
BUSINESS GOAL: What is the business trying to achieve? (eg. Gain 5% market share in 1 quarter)
BUSINESS PROBLEM: What is the business problem we are trying to solve? (eg. Competition winning new accounts)
BUSINESS STRATEGY: What is the business strategy to tackle the problem? (eg. Focus on new accounts where we have a foot in the door)
HUMAN GOAL: What is the decision maker/ target customer trying to achieve? (eg. Physicians are trying to get through the day without total burn out)
HUMAN PROBLEM: What is the underlying problem that is preventing them from reaching the goal? (eg. Being high achievers, they are not willing to half-ass anything)
HUMAN INSIGHT: What is a revelation that no one talks about? (eg. The right technology can half the time without sacrificing their identity)
SINGLE MINDED PROPOSITION: What is the one thing we want the audience to take away? (eg. Show that ABC technology can help them achieve everything without sacrificing anything, including themselves)
ARTICLE
This is about a year old, but the message is very clear: brand marketing works. Early 2022, Airbnb’s CFO talked about their financials from 2019 to 2021. They decreased performance marketing spend by 44% and increased brand marketing spend by 119%, and saw their losses turn into positive profit over a 2 - 3 year period.
My takeaway is that brand marketing works, but it also needs to be balanced with performance marketing tactics. In addition, brand marketing results take time, so set up your measurement and start tracking efforts over the long term.
Ways I can help you:
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Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand