Whether online or offline, design truly is the pulse of every brand. 

"Great design is the best means of building an indirect relationship with your customers and creating value in their lives. It is how you will connect with them" (Source: Do you matter? How great design will make people love your company, Robert Brunner and Stewart Emery, With Russ Hall).

So, why are so many brands overlooking great design as they build + shape their brand? The answer is simple: they're stuck. These brands are stuck in space and time. Instead of being agile, adaptive, and creating movements, they're most concerned with their "bottom line". What they don't realize is that great design is interconnected, and works in support of creating + sustaining true brandvalu*. When achieved, building a loyal (strong) customer base that become brand advocates, and keep coming back for more. 

What if a brand is "stuck"...how does it become "unstuck". Easy. It all begins with uncovering a brands vision (or roadmap) for the future. More importantly, everything stems from answering one specific question: What does the brand DO better than any other brand? After this is uncovered, it's then time to approach key elements + strategies that create holistic design experiences and help these brands forever change how the game is played.

Does your brand follow trends OR does it create movements? At the end of the day, there's a huge difference between the two.

There are numerous brands out there that choose to launch a product or service around what's "trendy", or popular. If every brand (or company) within your space is choosing to launch a social site for X reason, then your brand should likely follow in their footsteps. Wrong. When this happens, we get saturation with a marketplace (in other words...everything seems the same). What your brand needs is to create connection + make impact that resonates and works; to launch a product or service that moves someone...that makes them feel. When these products or services are launched, and come to market, they create movements (otherwise known as biotic brands). They shift and shape to a markets needs, wants and desires, while often creating a need, want or desire. They're agile and adaptive. They move our souls ("They" are brands like: Apple and Virgin). Stopping at nothing to continuously innovate, while changing the game forever. There is never an "end in sight" for these brands...and there likely never will be. This is what makes them great. 

While it takes a great strategy, powerful branding and design solutions, communication vehicles that speak to your markets, and organic (sustainable) growth, it's never too late to start pioneering your space and creating movements. 

Ready for the shift?

We asked ourselves one very important question when thinking about great brands. What do great brands have that other brands don't have, or are missing? 

The simple answer to this question: GUTS.

Yes,...GUTS. It takes GUTS to launch something new, or different. Whether you're in the product or service space, it's not relevant. You could be a start up, or a cash cow, it makes no difference. At the end of the day great brands are built from GUTS. The know how, the strategy, the marketing plan, the branding solutions, are all very important, also. But, they come later. 

Why do you need GUTS to build a great brand? Well,...brands that win in any marketplace are constantly pushing the envelope, or innovating. They never settle. They're relentless in their ability to engage, connect, and turn heads. When times get tough, they're challenged and they fight back. This is why they win. This is why they're great. 

Fear not, there's hope. We're firm believers that there's always hope. If a brand recognizes what it's going to take (GUTS) to make it great, then it's already on the right track. So, take the next step...you owe it to your brand, your team, and mostly...yourself.

Why does what we say matter?  Who are we talking to?  Do people listen to what we say?  If and when people listen, do they tell others?  How can a concept, message or brand spread to the right people at the right time?  This is the future of brand marketing: viral marketing.

Referencing a recent study, "If a conversation costs 50 cents to generate, how much profit do marketers reap from the typical eight minutes a consumer spends talking about their favorite brands?

According to BzzAgent, a word-of-mouth marketing agency in Boston, that profit is 38 cents. The firm has pegged this amount as the "communication dividend" in a report titled "Calculating Your Communication Dividend", which examines the value of word-of-mouth conversations. It builds on another report (in June) that found the average cost of an eight-minute conversation to be 49 cents.  In its latest report, BzzAgent also found 87 cents to be the value per communication. The firm arrived at both numbers by mapping standard word-of-mouth calculations onto consumer recommendation and purchase behavior. For instance, a word-of-mouth campaign comprised of 10,000 members generates approximately 616,800 individual communications over two generations of consumer advocates. (The initial influencer is tagged as generation zero, and each successive advocate is assigned a number.) Using 38 cents as the base net figure, a campaign of this size would result in a net dividend of nearly $235,000 for marketers." (Source: brandweek.com)

Long story short,...there is great value in viral marketing.  The future of great concepts, messages and brands rests with the consumer.  It's ultimately up to them to determine a brand's total worth, raise awareness, build and maintain brand equity.  It's time to realize that it's not always about your ad-spend, yet, mostly about your "people-spend".

Invest in the future of brand-marketing: viral marketing. We'll show you the way.