Have you ever sat through a boring focus group? How about a forced brainstorming session where everyone looks awkwardly at their hands, or where one person monopolizes the conversation?

No brand is a static entity.

As a business naturally evolves, its people, capabilities and culture change with it. Marketing materials will have to change too—this is a given. But websites, collateral and social media graphics aren’t the only things that need to keep up. Sometimes the brand itself needs a little bit of tweaking.

The lead-up to Valentine’s Day is saturated with ads featuring couples who are deeply in love and seemingly never see each other with a hair out of place. This is great for those who are already in love, but what about those who are single? Or those whose love has more of a “night on the couch in sweatpants” feel? Or even those who’s love isn’t romantic, but for their friends or children or cats?

Last week at de Novo, we received a Halloween card from a company that shall remain nameless. At first I thought, "Great idea! We aren't into the holiday season yet, way to get out there with this now!"

Long gone are the days when you just slapped your message on a billboard and hoped the right people drove by. Companies and organizations now expect to be able to target a very defined and very specific audience with messaging tailored specifically for each audience segment.

Summary of this blog: you're writing too much. Keep it as brief as possible and then give them a link to more.

In the world of marketing, there's a cycle that happens with almost all brands that reach a certain size: as they expand, the CMO or C-level position decides that things are doing well and that they can put things on simmer.

It's not a bad strategy necessarily—especially in terms of (at least perceived) cost savings and the ability to pivot or refocus. But as brands, their offerings and their customer bases grow, they often need more marketing support to keep up with the constant churn of collateral, digital content, website updates, proposal writing, etc. 

It’s All About Consistency

Your visual identity—your logo, fonts, colors and overall style—is the face of your brand. It’s the first thing people notice about your company. And it’s the first thing they recall when thinking about your products. So it goes without saying that you want your identity—and the public’s perception of your brand—to be consistent. After all, you want customers and clients to have the same great experience with your company at every opportunity. 

We're living in a time when many of us have CNN or NPR playing constantly in the background in an effort to keep up with the daily news, the latest drama or an ongoing crises. But what does that have to do with marketing? And, is embracing politics a good idea for a brand?

Data analytics is a powerful tool for marketing, operational efficiency and understanding your business' future growth path.  Just like any other tool (a light saber, for example), it can be used for both good and evil. But while we can all agree that the flashy red light sabers are pretty cool, who wants to join the dark side?