Everybody in marketing today is a “brand strategist”. We’ve preached the gospel of brand and branding so often all a CEO hears in the echo chamber is blah blah blah.
My experience tells me what CEOs in early growth companies would rather hear about is how can they have more impact and influence with higher value customers. Of course, the answer to that question is simple–in the minds of a customer, you must have a reputation that’s cherished…one that matters! You can’t scale otherwise.
Transforming reputations from a current state to a higher one has little to do with physical things like logo-making, taglines and media campaigns. And more to do with creating experiences people love and can’t live without.
Three attributes are essential for transforming your reputation in the marketplace from a current state to a higher one:
Insight
In our digital age, data, facts and information on the customer is ubiquitous. Marketers love data. True enough it’s valuable stuff… but CEOs leading a growing early stage business don’t want more data they want more insight.
They want to know what they don’t know, what lurks underneath the mountains of available data the marketing world generates every day. They don’t want information they want transformation. You begin with insight not data.
Guidance
For many Founder /CEOs in early growth companies, a brand transformation initiative is typically a first time event. And because the marketplace is unforgiving territory, they need to get it right the first time. When you wander out into the unknown frontier, its smart to travel with an experienced guide who knows the territory.
As a consultant, that’s my central role and responsibility when a client trusts me to guide their way through a brand challenge. In over three decades guiding hundreds of organizations though change, I’m still learning as I go.
Creativity
Innovating value for customers is totally a creative process. First, there’s raw potential and the goo of possibility… then voila– a creative idea magically appears in a founder’s mind and a disruptive business is born. The whole damn thing is nothing but a creative spark!
Creating value in the marketplace is the highest expression of human creativity. It’s everything!
This is why I still love what I do. I see the difference my own creativity has contributed to my client’s success. And as long as clients continue to see and appreciate it too, I’ll never stop doing this work.
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