In 2020, telling a client’s core brand story includes expressing it clearly, succinctly, in increasingly small spaces. When used correctly, icons are a highly effective way to convey big ideas without using a single word.
IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), a trade association at the nexus of the media and marketing industries working to harness the power of the digital economy, released “Disrupting Brand Preference,” a study highlighting the growing impact of disruptive shoppers – including brand Super Influencers on the traditional purchase path at every point of the sales cycle, from discovery to purchase. Black Ink helps organizations and brands define and express brands, helping to create the social places and portals for customers to discover, experience, contribute to and share brand stories.
Organizations reimagining their brand and continuing to build on their trust capital have the opportunity to not only regain their pre-pandemic business momentum, but to lead the way in rebuilding and revitalizing their lives, their business, and the lives of their employees, their neighborhoods, their communities, their towns, and their cities.
A results culture evaluates progress based on producing measurable results leading to high quality revenue growth and is an organic outgrowth of an organization that is flexible, creative, innovative and open, in and among itself, and with others. It presents a unified face to the world, owns up to its successes and admits its failings. The results culture rests not only on measurable milestones, rewarding people based on performance where progress is tracked, it is a culture whose people do the right thing even when no one is watching.
Your brand is a promise you make. It’s a promise of purpose, of relevancy, of “truthiness,” of trustworthiness – and your organization must be able to deliver the promise in a meaningful, engaging manner. The brand must be signaled, spoken, written, and acted into being by everyone in your organization … it’s a good time to check in with our brand, to find out if we really are putting them at the center of our experience, if they still are the hero of our brand story, if we’ll still be a good “fit,” if we really do “get them.”
With the economy finally poised for reopening post-Shelter In Place, many brands have the opportunity – and some, the need – to be realigned and reenergized. If you’ve hunkered down and worked, and reworked, your organization’s strategic operations survival plan, it’s time to pivot to a post-Shelter in Place brand revitalization.
As of April 2020, nearly one third of all SMBs have stopped operating; for the smallest businesses, those run by the self-employed or for personal income, the situation is even more dire.
Assess everything you currently have in the market, starting with the channel that gets the most eyes. Evaluate those assets and messages from a new point of view: one that is living in a world with record-high unemployment rates, economic uncertainty, and general anxiety.
Each week Black Ink’s “WeeklyGrind” provides valuable insight into topics relevant to shaping brand principles, strategies and tactics; creating powerful brand stories; and empowering businesses to gain trusted share of voice.
