Feel like doing something insane? Check in with The Adventurists.
The Rickshaw Run is one of several adventures conceived by an organization called The Adventurists. Check out their site, and you’ll be introduced to adventures that range from galloping across Mongolia on a horse to racing across South America on a converted motorcycle. If you have ever considered doing something that will take you out of your comfort zone, one of these adventures may just be the ticket. And it’s always nice to do some good for others in the process. The real objective of the “adventures” is to raise money for charities, and so far they have raised over $4.5 million that goes to help people all over the world.

The Rickshaw Run is the stupidest thing you can do in two weeks.
As soon as I heard about The Rickshaw Run I was hooked. Let’s face it, the premise of this adventure is pretty extraordinary. Some would simply say “crazy”. The Adventurists website describes it as “The stupidest thing you can do in two weeks”. That description alone was enough for me to sign up, but the fact that the race helps raise funds for charity was the deciding factor…and one of the key reasons why Liquid Agency decided to sponsor the adventure. We put together two teams each with its own rickshaw – we called one Liquid Love and the other Liquid Lust…and we set out in a race that involved 70 teams with 180 people from 19 different countries.

Rickshaws are both completely unreliable and utterly indestructible.
The race involves driving a rickshaw across the length of India – from the southernmost point to a destination as far North as you can go. For those not familiar with a rickshaw it is a three wheeled vehicle powered by a motor that would be better suited for a residential lawnmower. In India rickshaws are mostly used as taxis for short trips in cities. They are definitely not designed to be driven practically non-stop for 3,500 miles through all sorts of terrain….which explains why we ended up meeting so many mechanics during the voyage. Our vehicles broke down innumerable times…however they also survived rolling down ravines and collisions with huge trucks.

A truly epic adventure that taught us about life and teamwork.
We started the race in Fort Kochin (way south). Unfortunately one of our teammates had to cancel at the last minute, leaving us with three people on two rickshaws…and one of the other teammates arrived a day late – meaning that we were well behind before we even started. Along the way we had to dodge people, cows, motorcycles and trucks all of which share the road with no apparent idea of why there are such things as lanes and street lights. The road conditions are best described as “unbelievably horrible” due to traffic, potholes, detours, rain, dust, speed bumps and lack of lights. And the vehicles broke down at the most inopportune times with mufflers, carburetors, starters and other parts failing on a daily basis. We were not always successful in avoiding collisions…but luckily no one was seriously hurt.

The Indian people were gracious and generous to a fault.
The one thing that we all appreciated was the nature of the Indian people we met during our voyage. Every time we broke down people would stop to make sure we were OK, and often they would roll up their sleeves and start to fix the engine. Most folks were confused by why three Americans were driving rickshaws…and when we explained the distance we were trying to cover race, they would just shale their head in disbelief and tell us we were crazy. Often they wanted to take pictures with us…flashing bright smiles, and making us feel like rock stars. We were invited to their homes, weddings, religious ceremonies – and even a cock fight. We were sincerely touched by the generosity and kindness of everyone we met.

Take a look at the site…and buy some of our goodies.
Please feel free to visit the site where you will find a day-by-day account of the adventure along with a couple of funny videos and a selection of pictures capturing some of what we saw. Also, we invite you to consider donating to the charities. Although we have reached the minimum requirements that had been set for the race, we are very much hoping that you would continue to contribute to these worthy charities. Lastly, we still have quite a bit of shirts, yoga mats that we designed to celebrate the adventure…by purchasing some of these items you will help us make sure that our warehouse is a little cleaner) and all of the money goes directly to charity.

Author: Liquid Agency
Category: Brands & Blogs,Brands in general

Dallas was an exciting place to be last week.
First, there was the tornado – and with it came an amazing thunderstorm, winds strong enough to uproot trees and send furniture flying, and hale the size of baseballs. All of which created havoc at the airports, where hundreds of flights were canceled and thousands of passengers experienced long delays. Next, the Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder to reach the NBA finals, sending the entire city into a frenzy of celebration. It sure was a big week for Dallas! Of course, Alfredo Muccino, Liquid’s Chief Creative Officer, was not going to let these little distractions take away from his duties…so he proceeded with his program and unwaveringly delivered his presentation at the POPAI Design Trends program.

POPAI’s Design Trends Conference.
Sponsored by POPAI, the Global Association for Marketing at Retail, Design Trends is an annual conference designed to inspire and educate POPAI’s members about the latest ideas about retail merchandising. The conference was held at the Hyatt Regency, where Richard Winter, the new president of POPAI welcomed creative directors and designers, as well as a number of retailers all of whom braved the stormy weather to listen to a variety of speakers and get a chance to mingle with peers from other parts of the country. The conference also included a Retail Tour that brought the attendees to Central Market, Cowboy Cool and Walmart Market – three very different and quite unique retail experiences.

Alfredo Muccino was the featured speaker.
Alfredo opened up the conference with a presentation outlining what he sees as the most relevant directions in design. Alfredo’s presentation was titled “Design Trends” – although he made it a point to say that “Design is not a trend!”. His presentation addressed the practice of “design” in general and his analysis of trends encompassed more than just retail…but he also made sure to include practical examples of how these trends influence store design and merchandising. One of the trends that he feels are most notable is  what he calls “Authenticraving”…which he describes as a movement towards more tangible and authentic solutions as opposed to the digitally rendered approach that has become so prevalent in recent years. Also, he noted that design needs to take into account “culture” as a “design influence”…and must include “innovation” as the key ingredient.

The psychology of shopping.
Dr. Hugh Phillips, one of the founders of Phillips, Foster & Boucher (a firm specializing in in-store research and strategy) gave an entertaining and very interesting presentation outlining the psychology of shopping. Dr. Phillips is originally from the UK but now lives in Canada and works all over the world, helping brands and retailers understand how shoppers behave. According to Dr. Phillips the great majority of shopping behavior is unconscious or subconscious – and went ahead to demonstrate this through some interactive exercises. His often humorous delivery notwithstanding, Hugh explained what people recognize and how they respond…and outlined the key psychological factors that drive behavior at the point of purchase.

The really, really bad client.
If you have been on the agency side, at some point in your career you’ve all met the really bad client. This was the premise of Kris Matheson’s presentation…but at the end, he provided some very practical advice on how to end up with great work. Kris is the energetic and passionate Director of Sales and Marketing at Artisan Complete – an exceptionally design-driven point of purchase manufacturer based in Canada. His presentation was very well designed (despite his claims that it was not)…and offered some great suggestions to help overcome poorly crafted briefs and the insane demands that we often have to endure in the process of trying to do good work. Kris also manages the blog for Artisan Complete and he posted a great article immediately after the event.

Want to learn more about the latest design trends?
If you are interested in learning more about “Technoaddiction”, “Authenticraving”, “E-Motionitis”, or some of the other movements that Alfredo has identified as being the trends to watch, let us know and we will share his presentation with you. Please email us at marketing@liquidagency.com and we’ll follow up with you shortly.

Author: Liquid Agency
Category: Brands in general

DMI Conference brings together design leaders from all over.
Besides Marty Neumeier, the conference featured some of the most influential design advocates in Europe and beyond, including: Sam Lucente, former Director of Design at HP, D&AD CEO Tim O’Kennedy, red dot President Dr. Peter Zec, and Hanne Österberg from Droog. The presentations and workshops were held at the historic Felix Meritis building (shown below), which houses the European Centre for Arts, Culture, and Science, and was attended by corporate executives and creative leaders from all over the world — including several of us from Liquid Agency who descended on the city from the US, UK and Chile. We came together to learn about the latest thinking on the role of design in business. In particular, this year’s conference focused on how to bring the conversation about the value of design back into the corporate boardroom by getting senior executives to understand that product design, brand design, service design and business design deliver economic, social and sustainable value to businesses of every size.

Pictures shown above courtesy of Gilles Colette. Click here to see more of Colette’s images of the conference!

Brian McIntire from Think Brownstone Inc. composed some very cool written and visual notes from the breakouts and exercises. See images below.

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Marty Neumeier stressed the need for a culture of innovation.
Marty Neumeier gave an exciting presentation on the importance of building a culture of innovation within organizations, stressing that it’s the key to achieving long-term success. Ultimately, in order to achieve innovation quarter-after-quarter, companies must create an internal culture were design and innovation are part of the DNA. (See our article on brand innovation from the Liquid Brand Summit 2011).

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Companies that take design seriously enjoy serious benefits.
In some organizations, design is not even identified as an internal business practice (it’s outsourced). And in the majority of companies where design exists, the team reports to middle management. However, there are companies that take design seriously and elevate its role in the corporate structure — these are the company’s that enjoy positive results. It goes without saying, the more a business believes in the value of design; the greater the results they achieve.

Take Apple, for example, where Englishman Jonathan Ives heads the design department and reports directly to Steve Jobs. Apple is well known for taking design seriously . . . and of course, Apple is one of the world’s most successful companies. A coincidence? Perhaps not. By the way, at Apple, design goes beyond the aesthetics of a product’s industrial form. Jonathan is as passionate about the “form” of Apple’s products as their “function,” the quality of their execution and of the customer experience. Apple cares about functionality well beyond the mechanical aspects, focusing a great deal of its efforts on designing of the user experience, ensuring that every aspect is amazing from the software and the content to the retail distribution channels. Apple celebrates design, delivers it well, and the results show up in the products and in the sales figures and profit margins.

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Design helps create differentiation, sales and profits.
Design does more than provoke a response — it can justify premium pricing, enable differentiation, create demand, and drive sales (and profits). During the conference, HP presented many positive messages about the value of design:

“We knew that high-end laptops generate a lot more profit than low-end, where there is hardly any margin. Our design team created the ‘WOW!’ factor on premium laptops by designing in all sorts of added-value features and extra touches — and sales of our high-end laptops soared. This helped to generate over $450 million profit for us, and design now runs our research and development function.”

But CEOs and senior executives seem not to be as interested in talking about design. They want profit, and they want it now. “Tell the CEO [about] the figures that can be earned or saved [in the long run],” explained another key speaker — focus the conversation on the results that design can generate, not on the design itself.

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Great design is associated with great quality and superior engineering.
One of the most interesting speakers was Peter Zec, president of red dot and The Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, one of the oldest and most highly reputed design institutions in Europe and the institute behind the globally recognized “red dot Design Award.”

Mr. Zec talked proudly about the enormous success of German exporting, explaining, “German export is the envy of the world. It accounts for a large part of the German economy, unlike in the rest of Europe. But take a look at the German businesses that export the most, and you’ll see that none of them sell on price — and sometimes they are the most expensive. These are premium products, but we don’t talk about German design; it’s simply a part of the engineering.”

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Design is a brand’s value driver.
Tim O’Kennedy, the CEO of D&AD which is an organization whose purpose is to inform, educate and inspire those who work in and around the creative industries, gave a spirited presentation in which he elaborated on the concept of brand.

“Branding,” said O’Kennedy, “is all about seeing a truth and finding the DNA behind the brief. Sometimes we find that a brand workshop can reach in and create an understanding about the client that they don’t even know about themselves.”

According to Mark Shaw, who runs Liquid’s European office in the UK, O’Kennedy made a point of noting that “design is a brand’s value driver and a brand without design is nothing.”

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Design is good for business, but business should invest in design.
The overriding message of this year’s DMI European conference is that design builds better business, but getting business to invest in design is still a hard-fought battle where too CEOs and corporate executives who all too often see it as an after-thought — opposed to a foundational component of any successful business strategy. Consequently too many businesses are not allocating funds and resources in design and thus properly investing this crucial area. And, brands are failing to integrate design into their organizational structure at a higher level.

At Liquid, we believe that design is the deliberate practice of changing something for the better  — and using core brand values to drive that transformation. This is an essential component in the ongoing branding process, as it builds and strengthens the culture of innovation that is key to sustainable success. Companies that embrace design and weave it into their DNA will have a positive outcome for business, for their communities, and for humanity in general.

We welcome your thoughts on the matter.
Please feel free to comment and share this article with anyone that has an opinion about the role of design.

Learn more about the companies that helped made this conference a success!

Check out their websites listed below.

> www.dmi.org
> www.dandad.org
> www.droog.com
> en.red-dot.org

Author: Liquid Agency
Category: Brands in general

San Jose: A city that offers more than just technology.

San Jose has earned a widespread reputation as a center for technology and innovation, and all too many people don’t realize that the Capital of Silicon Valley has also grown to include a thriving underground music scene, a prolific community of artists and writers, an emerging food culture, and lots of downright interesting people. Daniel Garcia, a photographer who lives and works here, decided it was time to celebrate San Jose’s culture, and started Content Magazine to shine a light on the many talented and creative people of San Jose. And one of the first people he featured in the magazine was our very own Alfredo Muccino.

A life that is about design, art and travel.

Daniel met Alfredo at the home he designed for himself and his family in Willow Glen, and asked him about his life, his career and his art. The result of the interview is a very nicely written in-depth article that reveals the many different facets of Alfredo’s background and interests. Alfredo described how he grew up in different countries and how these experiences influenced him as a person and as an artist. Daniel also got Alfredo to talk about his career and the work that he is passionate about doing. Here’s one of Alfredo’s quotes from the article: “Design- ing something is changing something for the better. Not just giving it a new paint job. I mean better for humanity. That’s truly what the objective is. Deliberately change something for the betterment of humanity. If you honestly do that, amazing things can happen.”

The rest of the article makes for good reading.

If you are interested in learning more about what makes our Chief Creative Officer get up in the morning and what he is passionate about, you should read the rest of the article. Here’s a link. And, please try not to make fun of Alfredo’s chipped blackened nails, he simply forgot to touch them up before the photoshoot!

Get Content.

There are many ways that you can enjoy this publication. Here are a few links that will help you keep up with what makes San Jose cool.
> Read it online.
> Order a print version.
> Download a PDF.
> Enjoy it on your iPad.
> Subscribe through an RSS feed.

Author: Liquid Agency
Category: Brands in general

Companies like Zappos and Apple are well known for being innovative. Employees at these companies are passionate about their jobs, committed to their brands…and ultimately help churn out one innovative product or service after another. Coincidence? Perhaps not. Actually, the importance of building a vibrant corporate culture is quickly becoming a hot topic in boardrooms all over the country…even all over the globe. Business leaders are realizing that people make the difference in their ability to be competitive and innovative. But how does this happen? How do you mobilize an entire organization to make powerful innovation-inspiring business decisions quarter after quarter? Make it your culture. Culture change isn’t easy, but the enormous return on making an investment in it is no less than shocking. Join the discussion on June 8 and learn why culture is the best tool for creating value.

This webinar will provide great insights into culture change.
We invite you to attend a webinar by Josh Levine, our Director of Internal Branding and get some valuable insights into what it takes to build and maintain a culture of innovation within your company. Sponsored by Microsoft and delivered through DMI (The Design Management’s Institute) as part of their Design Lecture Series, the webinar will take place on June 8 at 1:00PM EST. Learn more.

As a friend of Liquid you can take advantage of a special discounted rate.
Liquid Agency has negotiated a special discounted rate, which we are making available to any of our clients, partners and vendors. If you are not a DMI member, the rate is $125, but by using the following form you will be able to attend for only $85 – which is the same rate you would get if you are a DMI member. Download the form here.

About Josh Levine:

For more than a decade, brand strategist and noted industry expert Josh Levine has helped global brands engage consumers and empower employees. As Director of Internal Branding at Liquid, he helps organizations live their brand by designing and building culture-change programs.

Learn more about Josh Levine and his role at Liquid here.

Author: Liquid Agency
Category: Brand Relevance,Brand Strategy,Brands & Blogs,Brands in general

Yes it’s finally here, the Best Practices Report from this year’s Liquid Brand Summit, held in March at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto.

The Summit brings together the most influential thinkers and decision makers in the technology market to discuss relevant and timely topics about branding and marketing — with the objective of arriving at the best practices of tomorrow. Throughout the day, attendees participated in 10 sessions — with topics ranging from brand advocacy to building brand culture to managing social media — exchanging in an open dialog on the challenges they face and how they meet them.

We’ve gone through the notes from that day, done even more research on each topic and compiled a summary of the findings and best practices for each of the sessions. Get your copy of this year’s Liquid Brand Summit Best Practices Report. DOWNLOAD NOW!

We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments and reactions to the Report here.

Once again, thanks to all the outstanding session leaders, speakers and attendees who helped make this day a valuable experience for everyone. We’re looking forward to having you all back again next spring.

Even more to come.
Watch for future articles we’ll be posting on this blog each month that take and even more in–depth look at each of the session topics from the Summit.

VIDEO: An interview with Robert Richman.
We also did a series of video interviews at the Summit with several session leaders, starting with Building Brand Culture, an interview with Robert Richman, product manager for Zappos Insights. Here’s what he had to say.

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About Robert Richman:
Robert Richman lives in Las Vegas, where he works for Zappos Insights, an off-shoot of Zappos.com that was started by CEO Tony Hsieh to show other companies how to create a workplace people love and a service customers rave about. Robert began his career in 1996 creating sites for U.S. Senators and co-founding the web strategy company Articulated Impact. He co-wrote the business plan for a new online venture from the Tony Robbins companies and has developed digital media strategies for The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard Magazine, and The National Leadership Institute. When Tony met Rob, he asked him to re-launch the Zappos Insights program – then a small web site with a staff of one. Rob has grown the program to a 12-person company, offering a range of experiences and services to educate companies about culture and to give insight into “what” and “how” Zappos.com has built such an amazing culture and brand.

Author: Alfredo Muccino
Category: Brands & Blogs,Brands in general

The growth of the social web has meant one thing to a lot of people: information overload. So much so that folks are regularly sharing content without consuming it — we’ve all been guilty of this at one time or another. You get a headlined Tweet or Facebook post from a particular writer or brand X and you pass it along, never bothering to click through and actually read or view the content.

David Spark makes some interesting observations about this in a recent Mashable article titled “Why Sharing Online Content Might Be Too Easy”:

None of this “sharing without consumption” behavior surprised me, but I thought these users were in the minority, and that it would never be pronounced enough to be noticeable. That was until I saw one of my own posted videos receive more shares than views. It was a low discrepancy, 52 shares and 48 views, and I didn’t see any bot-like behavior. Still, it was clear to me that sharers were more interested in being seen as someone sharing my video, entitled “How do you get everyone to watch your video,” rather than actually watching it.

My situation is not an anomaly. SocMetrics, an influencer identification service, was able to uncover 100 more similar cases of shares exceeding views.

So how does a brand rise above the content clutter and stand out? How do marketers get their customers to actually read an article or view a video? Rob Fuggetta, CEO for Zuberance, a company that helps brands leverage word–of–mouth, says look to your brand advocates — energize those folks and encourage them to share your brand’s content.

“There’s a trend that has been taken place whereby consumers don’t trust marketers and advertising, but they do trust their peers and friends,” says Fuggetta. “What traditional media channels and advertisers continue to face is a loss of trust between brand creator and consumer. That’s why brands need to be building relationships with brand advocates to act as marketing partnership with friends.”

Before rallying your advocates, though, you’ve got to first identify who they are. And surprisingly, a brand’s best advocates are not always the customers who buy the most. They are the customers whose word–of–mouth brings the most profitable new customers to your door, regardless of how much they themselves buy. Identify those people by sending inquiries to your CRM database on their likelihood to recommend your brand on a scale of 0 to 10 (Fuggetta calls this the “ultimate question”) with 0 being low and 10 being high. Those who answer 9 or 10 are the ones you want to energize.

You can also scan the social web for evidence of brand advocacy – like testimonials on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks.

Once you’ve identified your advocates, give them what they need to go out and spread the word. Keep in mind, though, that not all brand advocates are alike. Some are willing to create content, while others may prefer to share offers and still others may only be willing to give a testimonial. Brands, therefore, need to develop some kind of learning system that helps them figure out what their advocates are willing to do. And by all means, don’t annoy people by asking them to do something multiple times they haven’t responded to in the past.

Also, find ways to identify with your advocates and build a strong sense of community. Reinforce their brand experience and reward engagement by showing genuine appreciation for the work they do on your behalf. This gives them a stake in the brand and will encourage advocates to share on your behalf. And — at least in theory — that sharing gives you a better chance of actually getting others to read or view your content. After all, wouldn’t you be much more likely to click through something a friend or colleague sends versus what’s coming directly from a marketer?

We’d love to hear from you. Share your thoughts and comments on how to get people to actually engage with branded content.

Author: Alfredo Muccino
Category: Brand Advocates,Brand Management,Brand Strategy,Brands in general,Digital Branding,Social Media and Branding

Branding isn’t something you do once and forget about. Companies that truly transform their brand do it from the inside out . . . in an ongoing process that drives authentic and continuous change. By embracing change, brands are able to create a culture of innovation — and innovation, after all, is key to sustainable success.

With this in mind, we talked branding with some of the session leaders from this year’s held this past March. These folks are respected in their industry and are transforming their brands and continuously re–inventing them through things like brand advocacy, brand culture, social media, design innovation, and the art of telling your brand story — to name just a few.

CHECK OUT SOME OF THOSE INTERVIEWS BELOW:

Brand Culture
We discussed brand culture with Robert Richman of Zappos Insights, an off-shoot of Zappos.com that was started by CEO Tony Hsieh to show other companies how to create a workplace people love and a service customers rave about.

Video interview with Robert Richman on Brand Culture.

Creating Online Brand Culture
Q&A with Robert about building brand culture from the inside out.

Insights from the Liquid Brand Summit: The Secret to a Great Brand Culture
This article captures the findings from a discussion on brand culture that was facilitated by Robert Richman of Zappos Insights at the Liquid Brand Summit 2011.

Brand Relevancy
Making a Brand Relevant . . . Again.
Rosabel Tao of MySpace talks about the challenges involved in making a brand relevant again.

Rosabel is an accomplished corporate communications strategist with two decades of experience creating integrated, multi-disciplinary communications programs and building communications organizations from the ground up. She’s worked with a broad portfolio of companies in a full range of growth stages-from global brands to start-ups, including of Bank of America, Microsoft, HP, Levi Strauss, Safeway and Spot Runner.

Branding and Retail
Retail: The New Experience Centers?
Q&A with Boost Mobile’s Caralene Robinson

Boost Mobile’s Brand and Marketing Director, Caralene Robinson, shared some thoughts on how brands are turning shoppers into buyers with new retail-experience centers.

Brand Advocacy
Turning Customers Into Brand Advocates
Q&A with method Co–Founder Eric Ryan

Incredibly engaging and interesting, method Co-Founder Eric Ryan shares with us some insights on how his company has been so successful in turning customers into brand advocates.

Branding and Customer Relationships
Know Thy customer.
Q&A with Tyson Andrus, Senior Marketing Machine for SkullCandy, on the importance of understanding who your customer is.

When it comes to extreme-sports style, few companies have the street cred of Skullcandy, which is known for making the sickest headphones, earbuds, and iPod docks around. Tyson Andrus sits at the helm of the company’s Channel Marketing division where he leverages the brand’s authentic action-sports DNA with strategic retailer partners to drive growth that has landed the company on the “Inc 500” list three years running.

Brand Storytelling
A Conversation About the Importance of Brand Story
Q&A with Nike Design Director Chuck Eichten

Chuck knows a story . . . and the importance of telling it. We talked with him about how he does that at Nike and why it’s so important for every brand to find, create and share their stories.

Other Interesting Stuff
Liquid Brand Impact Report 2011
Liquid and Socratic release the results of annual Brand Impact study.

Who are the biggest brands in the technology sector? Find out from Liquid’s annual research report done in partnership with Socratic Technologies. The Brand Impact Report is derived from a quantitative study of more than 200 technology brands in 40 business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) categories.

We’ll be posting more interviews, including several video interviews and the full Liquid Brand Summit Best Practices Report 2011 in the weeks to come. Watch for them. You can also download the reports from year’s past by clicking here.

Author: Alfredo Muccino
Category: Brands in general

Building Brand Culture

Part of a series of Best Practices from the Liquid Brand Summit 2011

This article captures the findings from a session about Brand Culture facilitated by Robert Richman from Zappos Insights at the Liquid Brand Summit 2011. The Brand Summit brought together more than 100 professionals to discuss the latest ideas about branding and marketing. More articles will follow.

TOPIC:

Building Brand Culture.
Today’s leading brands large and small have one thing in common: they have a strong culture. Growing companies often ask themselves: how can we grow and sustain the culture that makes us successful? Amazon recently purchased Zappos.com. Why? One key reason: because of their culture and potential to innovate the customer experience on the web and “WOW” them. What are the ingredients for the kind of brand culture that will fuel your company’s sales, create customer loyalty and attract the right people to work with? Here are some of the findings from the discussion facilitated by Robert Richman on this topic.

TOP BEST PRACTICE:

People are your greatest asset.
When it comes to creating culture, people are your greatest asset. Companies exist in a world today where everyone — employees, customers and partners — talks about who and what they are, all the time. That’s why people and what they think and feel matter now more than ever before. The look of a company’s advertising, design of the web site, coolness of its mobile apps are all important, but not as important as the voice and the actions of its people. Building a strong brand culture, then, starts with the people. The culture isn’t “owned” by the marketing team, it’s owned by the entire company — from the CEO to the customer service rep and everyone in between. And companies that nurture a distinct brand culture in the workplace will become a distinctive brand in the marketplace. Focus on developing your people and relationships and everything else will follow.

OTHER FINDINGS:

Marry marketing and HR.
Because people are the starting point, the connection between the leadership in marketing and the leadership in HR is pivotal to brand culture success. The two have to work in concert to ensure the entire company is in alignment and pulling in the same direction.

Hire to your culture.
Hire people to your culture rather than trying to fit your culture to an individual. Even if you have to pass up a rock star sales person who could affect the bottom line, it’s more important in the long run to protect the integrity of the brand culture by making sure the people who come on board are ones who truly fit in.

Teach them and they will lead.
If people are to propagate brand culture, they have to first understand the vision, history, philosophy and values of the company. To do this, some brands today are implementing new-hire training programs that are as long as four-weeks. Even then, the training doesn’t stop at the hiring door. An ongoing program that keeps people aligned and focused on the brand’s values is crucial to sustaining culture in the long term.

Alignment trumps values.
The core values that speak to what a company is are meaningless unless they’re put into practice and everyone is on the same page. Unfortunately, most companies post their values on a plaque that hangs forgotten in the hall. What good is that? If management doesn’t commit to the values and they aren’t resonating with employees, they might as well be thrown away. Culture grows when companies find ways to bring life to their core values in every aspect of what they do. What’s most important, though, is the alignment of those values throughout the company, from the CEO through the ranks. Strong culture comes about when there is a through–line, a common understanding and drive that runs through all departments.

Go forth and co–create.
Companies that have strong culture, build it from the ground up. When people co-create the brand culture, they have a stake it in. The culture becomes more authentic. sticky.

Embrace frustration.
When it comes to building brand culture, frustration is powerful. Why? Because frustration shows that someone — an employee, customer or partner — sees the potential for what’s possible but they’re feeling dissatisfaction because the company isn’t achieving it. Companies that embrace frustration can use it to gauge how aligned their teams really are and then take action to bring the focus back to the brand culture.

VIDEO:

An interview with Robert Richman.
Immediately after the summit, we had an opportunity to sit with Robert Richman and ask him a few more questions on the topic of Brand Culture. Here’s what he had to say.

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About Robert Richman:
Robert Richman lives in Las Vegas, where he works for Zappos Insights, an off-shoot of Zappos.com  that was started by CEO Tony Hsieh to show other companies how to create a workplace people love and a service customers rave about. Robert began his career in 1996 creating sites for U.S. Senators and co-founding the web strategy company Articulated Impact. He co-wrote the business plan for a new online venture from the Tony Robbins companies and has developed digital media strategies for The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard Magazine, and The National Leadership Institute. When Tony met Rob, he asked him to re-launch the Zappos Insights program – then a small web site with a staff of one. Rob has grown the program to a 12-person company, offering a range of experiences and services to educate companies about culture and to give insight into “what” and “how” Zappos.com has built such an amazing culture and brand.

Author: Alfredo Muccino
Category: Brand Relevance,Brands & Blogs,Brands in general

Spring has sprung and so have we . . . if you haven’t heard, 2011 is shaping up to be quite a banner year for Liquid. Not only are we celebrating our 10–year anniversary, we also recently announced the opening of our first European office and we’ve been honored with dozens of design awards in the first three months of the year, including a much coveted “red dot” Product Design Award and a REBRAND 100 Global Award of Distinction. You can read about those in recent blog posts we’ve published.

We won a red dot award!
Aviat Networks is a winner!

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Olive wins an American Package Design Award.
In addition, we also won an American Package Design Award for Olive, a company that makes High Definition Digital Music Servers. We’ve been very involved with Olive since the beginning, and we’re very proud of the success that the brand is enjoying.

You can read a case study on our work for Olive here.

Produced by Graphic Design USA, the Package Design Awards are given to packaging, point–of–purchase (p-o-p) and related projects that are visually attractive—but more importantly—are designed to advance the brand and forge an emotional connection with the purchaser.

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More awards.
In addition to all the aforementioned awards, we’ve also won a HOW Logo Design Award for Tunerfish – an annual competition that brings forward some of the best and most clever logos. And to our delight, we’ve won numerous ADDY awards this year for the following:

Silver Addy / Logo: Tunerfish
Silver Addy / Logo: Local.com
Silver Addy / Logo: Cylenergy
Silver Addy / Logo: Careerbliss
Silver Addy / Logo: San Jose Parks Foundation
Silver Addy / Sales Promotion (POP): Adidas Mega
Silver Addy / Sales Promotion (POP): Hitachi

Yes, we’ve been busy, but don’t think we’re done just yet. As far as we can see, it’s only April, and that means things are just starting warm up  — and so are we.

Author: Alfredo Muccino
Category: Brands & Blogs,Brands in general