3 Ways Brand Influence is Changing Marketing
Branding and marketing have long been intertwined. Often interchangeable and sorely misunderstood, branding is about the feeling you create within your audience's mind and the strategy you build to support that feeling, whereas marketing is how you grow that feeling through tactics and measurable outcomes. The brand is the show and marketing is the promoter. They coexist to support each other but they are not the same.
6 Ways to Humanize Your Brand Experience
It may seem obvious, impossible to ignore even, the emotional element that’s been infused into marketing and advertising over, I don’t know, the last 20 years? The tear jerking commercials, the touchy-feely taglines, and all the feel good brand partnerships that seem to flood your TV, social feeds, and web browsers; all designed to make you feel something, to connect with a brand. It’s not trickery, it’s simply where we are. A product or service is no longer the main differentiator, it’s how brands make people feel that keep them coming back. Customers are looking for an enjoyable experience on top of what they already expect from a business. They long to connect with something/someone that’s worth their time, their effort, and their money, all of which is integral to your business’ growth. Consumers are making buying decisions and judging brands with the same level of scrutiny as they would a personal connection, and while that does make our jobs more difficult, it’s a great way to force brands to own who they really are.
Why Companies Need to Immerse Their People in Their Brand
I read an article the other day from Fast Company titled “This is why no one wants to be a middle manager anymore.” This appropriately titled article accurately addresses the challenges of stress and anxiety, mental burnout, and the seemingly overall dissatisfaction and missed marks of these mid-tier employees. Can you blame them?! Aren’t we all feeling high stress and anxiety levels, some version of burnout and an overall dissatisfaction with the state of things these days? This is a humanity issue, not just an employee or, in the case of this article, a middle manager issue. We are all feeling the pressure of immense change around us, from social culture issues and pandemics to shifts in workplace dynamics and everyone battling with “this is not where I saw myself” thinking. So needless to say, companies and/or brand ecosystems are feeling it too.