In professional services, people are the brand. If consultants, accountants and attorneys don’t walk, talk and think their firm’s brand, the brand may never amount to more than a catchy tagline or an attractive logo. But professionals are a tough audience to convert to brand ambassadors. They work long hours, often billing for…
Most of us have at least one closet stuffed with things we’ve forgotten about or rarely use – the pasta machine that was a Christmas gift 10 years ago, mud-encrusted soccer cleats or outgrown toys. The prospect of clearing out this clutter is daunting, so we tend to ignore it, even if the resulting…
We bring you the latest trending and newsworthy articles in B2B branding and marketing.
This week, a fascinating interview tells how Goldman Sachs is using Snapchat in its marketing, a new CMO Council survey offers insights into customer expectations — and Accenture ponders the future of banking.
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Every year, Fortune ranks the world’s top companies across a range of criteria. Looking at the classic Fortune 100, the more recent list of Unicorns (private startups that are valued at $1 billion or more), and other lists, we were curious to see how color was used in the brand identities of these successful…
Millennials. Generation Y. Whatever you call them, consumer brands understand the importance of the huge cohort born between 1980 and 2000. Whether they think millennials are refreshingly confident and engaged, inappropriately self-centered and entitled, or some combination of the two, marketers realize they are critical to the success of consumer businesses, responsible for $600…
While conducting research for our branding project with ICF, a global consulting firm, we did a lot of “typical” research: in-depth interviews with senior leaders in the organization, conversations with current and prospective clients, and an online, all-employee survey. We were getting a lot of good material – insight into the company culture, perspectives…
For decades, law firms went to market with stale messages that did little to create compelling impressions in the minds of their audiences, let alone lasting ones. To a large extent, they got away with it — relying on the strength of their bench, their personal relationships, and the knowledge that big companies had big budgets…
Virtual reality. Artificial intelligence. Drones everywhere. One minute a new technology seems like the stuff of sci-fi. The next minute it’s this year’s hottest Christmas gift. We are inundated with the magic and wonder of innovative technology, even if we aren’t exactly sure how it will ultimately affect our everyday lives…
We bring you the latest trending and newsworthy articles in B2B branding and marketing.
This week, we explore the invisible CEO, this year’s winning entries from the D&AD Awards, and what content creators really think about branded video.
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When we conducted external interviews as part of our work developing the Zelis Healthcare brand, one thing became clear: the healthcare payer and healthcare provider clients who worked with Zelis were obsessed. Not with the healthcare payments technology that got doctors and other providers paid more quickly. Not with the healthcare-claims integrity services that…
One of the most common objections we hear during rebranding initiatives with professional services firms is, “This is a people business. Why do we need a brand?” Senior partners and “star” consultants or lawyers assume that their clients are buying them – their knowledge, their expertise, their charisma. But in today’s hyper-competitive global marketplace…
Minimalism is a trend whose time has come — again and again. In the early 20th century, artists and designers rebelled against representational imagery, in part as a visual response to political revolutions. Later, in the 1950s and early 1960s, bold, clean typography and flat, colorful imagery underscored the optimism of the jet age.
“Flat” design…
Our co-CEO, Howard Breindel, recently examined a critical factor that’s often overlooked when it comes to executing a successful rebrand: the relationship between the branding agency and the CMO. Beyond solid research, stellar creativity, a strategic launch plan, it is the quality of this relationship that can determine a brand’s success or…
To delight your clients, you must design your service to create memorable, empathetic experiences that meet their expectations and advance your strategy. The acclaimed new book Woo, Wow, and Win by Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell shows you how businesses of all kinds are using service design to create memorable experiences for their…
Rising client expectations have made delivering an exceptional B2B brand experience more critical than ever. To respond effectively, many organizations are turning to service design to reimagine and revamp the client experience at every stage of their journey. But to design a successful journey, you must know your starting point.
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In today’s B2B marketing landscape, all B2B brands are content publishers and all B2B marketers are content marketers. We fulfill these roles at varying levels, but none of us can escape the importance of content – useful, relevant and accessible information – in the B2B buyers journey. Here are some of our recommendations for what to…
At a recent Financial Communications Society lunch, Jaime Kalfus, Global Head of Brand Experience at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, presented a behind-the-scenes look at the creative strategy driving the firm’s new brand campaign. We were intrigued to see how her experience of the challenges in developing a specialty financial services brand…
There is a lot of content out there on customer experience. It can be a bit overwhelming to try and wade through all of it. In an effort to save marketing executives some time (and frustration), here is a short list (and concise summaries) of some of the articles we believe you will find most…