Category: customer experience

What does is mean to “help brands be their best inner selves” once the brand positioning is set?

There is an important overlap between brand strategy, culture, and team management. Once a new brand positioning is established, it’s only as good as the structures and people who integrate and practice it. A fully functioning brand needs to work on the outside, for your customers, and on the inside, for your people. 

Here are 3 somewhat non-traditional ways you can support internal problem-solving, energy and vibes, and creativity inside your organization, whether it’s just you or you + many:

Host a horrible, terrible, very worst ideas summit.
When seeking new solutions to hard problems, an invitation to bring bad ideas to the party might enable the most internally critical people (and therefore quiet ones) to share an infant solution, which can, with a supportive team, grow into a better, better grown-up one.

Throw a framing party.
What? A framing party reminds people that every interaction comes with a message that tells a story and can influence outcomes. When we work more formally, we have briefs, check-ins, and other support to help us stay aligned and on mission. Still, when it comes to our independent day-to-day actions, we are nearly unconscious, and if we have had a bad morning or some unexpected personal event, we bring the residue of that experience with us. Most of us have felt it from others.  Like a skunk run over on the road, it’s hard to get that smell out of your nose or that feeling coming off your coworker out of your head, but we do it too. The sign on the door for this problem would read, “You are responsible for the energy you bring into this room.” It’s a wake-up call that we unconsciously walk around, holding and dispersing energy. Ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish the next time you walk through a door. What frame of mind will support you and others? Giving yourself a brief moment of thought and reframing between events can vastly change how you show up and the outcome of your presence. 

Pause for better ideas.
I am frequently asked by people where and how creative ideas arise. The belief seems to be that they are brought on by things like sunsets and balconies with glasses of wine – no, no, no – wine increases my silliness and volume but not my ideas. The ideas come after a pause. The process starts with a problem to solve and a brief, then curiosity and questions, then input, which takes many forms and can be but is not limited to research, information sharing, interviews, site visits, exploration, and then, full of information, like that moment after consuming a big meal, I want to rest. And it is this rest period that is the magic. When your brain has been primed by the brief and fed full of information, it can work in the background while you do everyday life things like chores, driving, showering, cleaning, and walking here and there. And then, after a bit, ideas emerge. I capture them on napkins, voice memos, paper notebooks, and scraps. Stickies are great, but moleskins are better. It feels like magic, but it’s how our brains work, every brain, not just mine. (see how Dali, Einstein & Aristotle leveraged the concept here) Resting is a necessary part of the equation. Yay, micronaps.

What tricks and tips have you found work to inspire yourself and your team? 

 

Yay change! Your DIY Brand Audit Starts Here.

“Change is the only constant.” Said Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher. His wardrobe might not still work today but his thinking is spot on. This guide is intended to help you embrace change and leverage your knowledge and goals into a more powerful and effective marketing plan.

Take some time (we recommend 45-90 minutes daily over 3 to 5 days), grab a few team members or just a cup of coffee and your favorite writing tool or machine, find someplace quiet, shut the door and start. Starting is the hardest part. When you’re done, you will know how often you want to repeat this and some necessary next steps.

Ps: When we work with clients on this process, it is a multi-day experience of discovery, thinking, brainstorming, creative message ideation, execution planning, and more. Give yourself time to think, to ponder. Break your thinking into a few sessions. This is where the best ideas and insights are born. Most importantly, have fun.

Wins & Losses.

What did you do this year that rocked? What didn’t so much? What can you learn? If you want to dive deeper here, perform a  SWOT analysis, considering Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats – to inform your thinking below.

Your Customer.

How have the changes in the landscape over the last year/quarter/month changed your customers’ challenges?

Your Value Proposition & Your Purpose. 

Which of the customer problems above do you help solve? Is your solution still as relevant as it was the last time you made an assessment? Do you have new data points, customer input, or feedback to consider?

What is your purpose? Where do your purpose and your customer’s problem(s) intersect? This is your sweet spot. Make sure that your sweet spot is concisely incorporated into your value proposition.

Brand Landscape.

Where do you fit or not fit (for you disrupters) in today’s landscape? In your industry landscape? Do you have more or fewer competitors? Who are they? What are they up to? How is your offering (solutions, process, bouncy castle in lobby) differentiated from your competition?

Messaging Plan.

In Brand Landscape above, have any competitors pivoted? In what ways might this inform your positioning and messaging plan?

Create a list of messaging themes from your “customers problems” list that speaks to how you solve those problems. Think about how you’ve solved client problems like this and how you’d like to evolve your process.

Consider how you will get this message out. First, list your communication platforms, then create a plan that assigns messaging themes (based on customer problems and how you solve them) to every platform. You might be tempted to copy and paste each message into each platform for the same posting period. Try to refrain from doing this. If you are tired and need a break (this is tiring), start again tomorrow. Your goal is to drill down into your primary messages, state 3-5 subpoints for each, varying your message for each platform, all pointing at the same problem/solution story.

Voice & Storytelling.

Is the way you speak to your customer still relevant? Given shifts in the economic, political, and cultural environment, are there new opportunities to show sensitivity? How might this shift your use of words or imagery? Or the context in which you present your product or service?

Uncle.

I love doing this, can you tell?  There is much more to dive into and sub-dives to suit up for,  but this is a good start.

During January 2023, book a complimentary 30-minute session to discuss your concerns, goals, and ideas for getting there.

Book a 30-minute session here. 

Maintaining an on-brand message during a crisis.

Due to unavoidable built-in wiring that comes installed free in all humans, we will each at some point during a time of crisis, be overcome by the part of our nervous system that in an effort to protect us, shuts down everything we don’t need in an emergency. Despite how much we might wish to use them, while in “fight or flight” mode, triggered by stress, panic, or surprise, our brains will be momentarily closed for decision making.

With a few slow, deep breaths, your brain will kick back into gear. And with it your ability to think wisely about how to proceed with creating the necessary messaging to communicate with your teams, partners, vendors, and most importantly, customers.

Four things to keep in mind while you navigate communication during a pandemic, that will serve you always:

 

Empathy: We are all experiencing a loss of some sort. Keep this in mind while you frame your intended message.

Information: There are so many rumors and so many rules, it is hard to keep the facts from the assumptions right now. Stick to what you know, keep it as brief as possible, share the most crucial information each type of audience needs from you, in the simplest form.

Optimism: We are bombarded by bad news on a normal day, let alone during a pandemic. Unfortunately, this causes more stress on the nervous system and consequently more stress on the immune system. Incorporating positivity and forward-looking optimism into your message is one way to support the health and wellness of your tribes, at no cost to you.

Consistency: When you know someone well and have a sense of comfort and fondness in your established relationship it is shocking when one day that person shows up with a totally different hairstyle or accent, or tone of voice. The same is true for your brand. In any message you are sharing, stay true to your aesthetic – the visual side of your brand, your color palette (or lack of one), and the language you use to communicate. The more you look and sound like yourself while sharing information, the more normalcy, comfort, and possibility for connection you bring.

For more information about how to create compelling and on-brand messages during a crisis or anytime, send us an email at hello@seedagency.com We’d love to help.

Our approach to creating relatable brands for our clients.

Q:

Does our logo look tired? Can you tell us how we should update it? Is the orange still relevant? Is the typeface dated? Is the icon working?

A:

If we answered these questions before asking many more first, we would be referencing our ideas of what is valuable, relevant, and interesting. Those answers would be about us, not about you, your customer or the true value you represent and therefore, they would be wrong.

If that was our process, we recommend you fire us.

Your questions need answers that come from looking more deeply at who you want to have a conversation with. Who do you serve? How do you serve them? What is the most important way that your service improves their life? How are you serving them vs. the competition? What insights and additional questions come from asking these questions? And so on.

The answers can reveal which services your customers need and value, and which may need to change, a little or a lot, to better meet customer’s true needs and practices as well as revealing clues as to the best way to speak to your customer so that they can hear you.

The world changes with ever-increasing speed. Thus, the way you talk to people, the reasons you think they work with you or buy from you and the narratives and media channels you use all benefit from consistent, periodic evaluations.

Pop Quiz

Who is using your product? What are their 3 biggest stressors daily? 

Why and how do your customers choose and use you?

What are you doing now that positively impacts your customers lives that your competitors are not?

And how is that message reaching your customer? 

If you haven’t considered these questions in a while, we can help you through the process.

And from there, we can talk about the color of your logo.

At Seed Agency, we help clients navigate their brands through an ever-changing landscape of customers, behaviors, media platforms and data. If you need a partner in better navigating toward your own north star, we are here to help.