The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX

A discussion about customer journey orchestration and its power in creating great customer experiences with special guest Tim Claytor, SVP Partnerships at Kitewheel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am joined by Charlie Oliver, Founder & CEO of Tech 2025. Technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, automation and many others promise better data, better access, and better ways of reaching customers. But what about the customers’ perspective? How will these technologies help customers solve their challenges more easily and offer a better customer experience with products and services they regularly interact with? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A discussion about organizational culture and employee experience with special guest Traci Schweikert, VP Human Resources of POLITICO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I talk a bit about my new book, The Agile Consumer, which discusses the continually evolving brand-consumer relationship. As consumers have more choice, options, and agency to make purchasing decisions, their power increases in the dynamic. This also means that brands need to find new ways to reach and provide meaningful solutions to their challenges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I feel it’s important to address one other key aspect of brands that is part of the “new normal.” It’s not enough to simply make a great product, or offer an amazing service. It’s also not enough to simply engage with our audiences on a regular basis. There needs to be something more, and truly successful brands have tapped into this. Just as an agile brand must establish a bi-directional relationship with individual consumers to be successful, there must also be a symbiotic relationship with the world at large. This can play out in ways that impact society, the environment, or other areas that have a large cultural impact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the third of four episodes related to brands and storytelling. The best way to make your brand’s story memorable is to relate it to your audience. What is challenging in this is that, in a continually changing world, any of the following may be true: ● Your audience’s tastes change over time. ● You are appealing to multiple audiences, often with different values. ● Your company is going through transformation whether through acquisitions or changes in the market. ● Your products or services are evolving over time. With all of the changes, different focus areas, and competing or conflicting tastes, you have your work cut out for you. Fortunately, by focusing on the essence of what makes your brand unique you can cut through the clutter and find a way to relate to your audiences. You may be able to filter your brand’s values through a slightly different lens for each audience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the second of four episodes related to brands and storytelling. It’s time to stop thinking in the broadcast mode of marketing. Simply saying something isn’t enough. Claiming to be the best, the fastest, or the friendliest means nothing without proof, and the proof isn’t just statistics, but meaningful interactions that build relationships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the first of four episodes related to brands and storytelling. Think about the last time a friend or colleague told you about a brand or product they like. Chances are, one of the things that stood out was something they learned while reading about the product, reading its history, or maybe even using the product. People like to share something new or unexpected about brands they love with their friends, family and colleagues. Giving them something they can use to teach others motivates them to embrace and remember the information. In the act of teaching someone else, they also build greater affinity for your brand or product. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 5 of how to create an agile brand. To create a holistic customer experience, it’s important to use those channels as a means of two-way communication, rather than to deliver one-way messaging directed at consumers. Instead, engage in a dialogue with your customers, and even if you’re not actively communicating with them, listen to what they have to say. As I’ve often told potential and current clients who were reluctant to fully engage or participate in social media, people are talking about you whether you are present on the platform or not. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 4 of how to create an agile brand. We need to stop thinking only in terms of the individual channels we reach customers through. Instead, we have to think of our customers in terms of their overall experience with our brand. As noted, customers are becoming more and more “device agnostic” and you could even say they are “channel agnostic” as well. Whether they choose to visit a store, or shop on their phone, text, tweet or even make a good old-fashioned phone call depends on many external factors brands can’t anticipate. To combat this, we must make our communications, marketing, commerce and customer service agile and channel-agnostic as well. This is what creates a great customer experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 3 of how to create an agile brand. It’s also not enough to just be adaptive. Without culture and processes for easy collaboration both internally and with external partners, being truly agile will not be possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every day, threat actors are working to penetrate your organization’s perimeter and access unauthorized, sensitive and confidential information. No organization is immune. Early detection is critical. Identity is at the core of security. Organizations that can seamlessly manage and maintain user access to business information and data will not only decrease the likelihood of a breach—and the financial, reputation and brand equity threats that accompany compromised data—but they will also eliminate service disruption, establishing a competitive advantage over their less-protected peers. In this episode of The Agile World, brought to you by TEKsystems, we discuss the critical importance of an identity access management (IAM) program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 2 of how to create an agile brand. When thinking about evolution versus revolution, you need to know when to take which approach for your own brand. You may need to take each of these tacks at different times. Generally speaking, you don’t want to continually take a revolutionary approach because you run the risk of alienating loyal customers. They may follow you through one reinvention, but too drastic change too often may not inspire the loyalty which is also critical to a successful brand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 1 of how to create an agile brand. While it seems that it’s only in the age of technology that everyone complains about being too busy and things moving too quickly, this isn’t the case. As early as 500 BC, Heraclitus said: “the only thing that is constant is change.” You need to find ways to take advantage of change and use it for your advantage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just as past generations had their own unique relationship to brands, this dynamic will continue to evolve over time. Let’s take a look at a few aspects of branding as they relate to the generations which will shape our economy and society over the decades to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I go through the principles of an agile brand: • Our highest priority is to add value to people’s lives through meaningful interactions and tangible benefits that brands offer to customers. • We believe brands play an important role in society, and when they are managed properly, they can add value to people’s lives. • We believe change can be a force for good and branding and marketing need to change to best serve their customers and society. • We believe the future is bright and technology can be a force for good in the right hands and with the right motives. • We believe that to make a great brand is to tie a core set of values to the products and services delivered. • We also believe the world is in continual motion, and the ideas and thinking we currently share are subject to continual evolution as the practice of branding evolves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Netflix is a great example of a brand that has continued to disrupt, innovate and remain agile over time. From its beginnings up against the behemoth Blockbuster, to its current disruption of traditional television and home entertainment, I trace its roots and how it has stayed agile after all these years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I go through the Agile Brand Manifesto and talk about valuing continual improvement over maintaining status quo.

I go through the Agile Brand Manifesto and talk about valuing staying true to company values over doing what you can to generate profits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I go through the Agile Brand Manifesto and talk about valuing dialogue with customers over broadcasting one-way marketing messages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I go through the Agile Brand Manifesto and talk about valuing long-term customers over short-term sales. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last part of a multi-episode discussion of what changed to cause the need for agile brands. Data is readily available and plentiful, which empowers businesses to make quicker decisions that are informed by real-time information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This special episode is generously brought to you by TEKSystems. Competitive advantage is the name of the game. In a marketplace where disruption is constant, enterprises are eager to use technology that transforms, modernizes and differentiates their brand. Applications are the gateway to delivering continuous improvement of products and services to customers. Through microservice architectures, organizations can delight customers by delivering solutions better and faster. But many organizations face challenges overcoming their current legacy, monolith environments. In this episode of The Agile World, we discuss the power of microservices for developing new applications and distilling legacy apps and systems. Join TEKsystems Managing Vice President of Technology Products & Services Rick Madan for this special episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fifth part of a multi-episode discussion of what changed to cause the need for agile brands. Customers are device-agnostic, always-connected, and want personalized relationships with brands. Successful brands understand that customers want what they want, when and where they want it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fourth part of a multi-episode discussion of what changed to cause the need for agile brands. Exponential technologies using AI and Machine Learning allow us to truly personalize and customize experiences. Agile brands know and adopt this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Third part of a multi-episode discussion of what changed to cause the need for agile brands. Continual market disruption has created a need for a more agile approach to branding, marketing, and the operations of an organization.

Second part of a multi-episode discussion of what changed to cause the need for agile brands. Unlike the “Mad Men” days of advertising, it’s not enough to send one-way messages. Successful brands don’t talk at people, they engage with them. A modern brand offers a multi-channel customer experience that is a persistent two-way exchange, more like a relationship than a one-off experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First part of a multi-episode discussion of what changed to cause the need for agile brands. Social media, in its broadest sense, has transformed commerce, marketing, media relations, and our relationships with both brands and our colleagues, friends, and family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our last episode on the subject of what sets agile brands apart. Agile brands have a two-way relationship with their customers, particularly their best and most loyal ones. What does this mean? Brand development and marketing still belong to the company doing the marketing. However, being agile means giving a little bit away in order to get more in return. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Continuing our discussion of what sets agile brands apart. “The customer is always right” is a cliché we’ve all heard countless times. It’s vital to listen to our customers so we can understand what they are saying, and why they believe they are right. This process of listening and reacting has been made both easier and infinitely more complicated by the rise of social media, review sites, social media “influencers”, and company websites that solicit feedback. To be nimble and react to what your current and prospective customers say, what your competitors do, and what your critics write, you must be prepared to listen, analyze and adjust what you’re doing at a moment’s notice. So, keep in mind the point above about using data throughout your processes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many companies got on the “big data” bandwagon early, driving it on a path of growth that IDC predicts will reach in excess of $200 billion by 2020. Many realized that with big data came a lot of tough decisions about which data to look at, and how to sift through it all. Everything from financial and sales data, to website analytics, to real-time social media listening tools can clutter any database and reporting tool. This creates overload and confusion, often resulting in marketing and sales reports based on what data is easy to obtain and make sense of, rather than what data is valuable to understand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all hear about engagement, but what does it really mean? To many digital marketers, it’s a metric to be reported. Consumers rarely view engagement in the same way, or think of it all. In an era where advertising and marketing are so pervasive, customers aren’t seeking engagement with brands. In fact, most people who do not work in the marketing world rarely, if ever, think about something like brand engagement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While some things need to stay the same in a brand, a truly Agile one needs to evolve over time. There are two ways to look at how an audience changes over the life of a brand. First, you can look at audience shifts in terms of how an audience’s preferences and behaviors change over time. This could be measured in everything from how they interact with your brand (e.g., a shift in mobile device usage, or increased adoption of social media for customer service) to their buying behaviors or other preferences. The second way you can look at audience shifts is in how different audiences may find your products and services useful over time. You may go to market assuming that your product solves a specific audience’s problems, but then find that you are instead being very successful with a completely different audience. What do you do? Depending on your strategic approach, you may decide to embrace this new audience, or you may shift your messaging and strategies to focus more on a different demographic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Once when I was speaking on the topic of agile marketing at a conference, someone asked a question that should be addressed here: Doesn’t it go against the fundamentals of branding to be so agile, and adapt to change so easily? What about the core things that make up a brand? For this reason, we need to think of the Agile Brand as being nuanced. Earlier in the show, we described “timelessness” as one of the key aspects of a great brand. It’s important to make sure we don’t confuse matters. While much of our discussion of the agile brand has centered on creating a continually evolving entity, we should also be clear that there are certain brand elements which should not be readily modified. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This special episode is generously brought to you by TEKSystems. Every organization has a not-so-secret weapon: data. It’s incredibly valuable information generated from every aspect of the enterprise, including research and development, sales and marketing, supply chain and customer service. Every activity in every facet of the business provides data. And it goes well beyond the organization’s four walls. For organizations planning to stick around, harnessing the power of data is a business imperative because of the opportunity it holds: competitive differentiation. Unfortunately, many struggle to use data to their advantage. In this episode of The Agile World, we discuss how organizations can set themselves up for success with data. Join Jennifer Kling and Ram Palaniappan of TEKsystems for this special episode. Thanks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having discussed what agile is and means, let’s talk more specifically about the current state of branding, and what I’ve defined as the Agile Brand. Agility is built on principles of sprints and optimization discussed in the previous chapter, and on the fundamentals of branding. There are five key things agile brands do which sets them apart: 1. Have an open dialogue with customers. 2. Tell stories that are genuine. 3. Use data to drive deeper insights and greater growth. 4. Think holistically about the customer experience. 5. Stay nimble by always listening. 6. Let go in order to have deeper relationships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building on the last episode that discussed agile methodology, this episode explores agile marketing in greater depth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Although this topic could take up an entire podcast on its own, this episode briefly discusses what agile methodology is, and how it applies to marketing and branding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fourth and current stage of the evolution of brands. As more and more brands have adopted the experience approach, it has become clearer that a one-off moment in time is not enough to cement brand loyalty. This takes us to the current stage in the evolution of brands: brand as relationship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The third stage in the evolution of brands. With increased competition, and consumer preference for more tailored products and services, brands were forced to differentiate themselves beyond occupying an idea. They needed to insert themselves into key life moments and become part of our experience. Apple’s brand experience extends all the way from the initial sale (either in one of its branded stores or its online presence), through the packaging you open to first use your product, through the ease of setup, through usage of the product every day. And if you have problems, you can go to the Apple Store to ask questions. In more recent times, brands have used experience to cut through the clutter of marketing and advertising, which creates deeper engagement with customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second stage in the evolution of brands. With increasing competition from mass production, mass advertising, and mass media in general, the need for brands to be more than an object came along. At this point, it wasn’t enough to simply have a logo that was recognizable and a product that was available in stores. Brands now needed to compete for mindshare. As consumers and marketers have grown more sophisticated, it is not enough to simply be known. Companies and products must stake out a claim on an area of the popular imagination and exist as an “idea.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first stage in the evolution of brands. Our use of logos to represent companies, organizations, or individuals is based on a long history that originates with the very beginning of written communication. The moment we used a drawing, an image, a symbol to represent something else, we’ve been essentially branding things. From cave paintings to hieroglyphics, to the first logo representing a company, we’ve been using graphic representations to give meaning to ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I discuss how I first fell in love with the concept of branding, at a rather young age, and through my appreciation for cars. Auto branding taught me hierarchy, positioning, and many more things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In order for a brand to be strong, it must remain relevant or find a way to be culturally relevant in the moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This special episode is generously brought to you by TEKSystems. After decades of struggling to fully understand consumers, they now hold the key to complete enlightenment: customer data. Armed with smartphones, tablets and laptops, many consumers relinquish their personal data so that brands can provide them with unique, personalized experiences. Many brands have already figured out the digital customer experience. They brilliantly convert consumer insight into content and stylized offers that fit customers’ needs, in real time. But their success didn’t come after waving a magic wand. They first figured out how to make sense of all their customer data by aligning their processes with technology. This foundational work included putting the right people in charge, forming customer personas, creating relevant KPIs and figuring out which content management system and other technologies best integrate with all of that. Join TEKsystems Managing Director of Digital Solutions Burk Buechler for this special episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Our audience is everyone.” If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that sentence after asking a marketer or executive, I’d be a very rich man. Instead, in order for a brand to be successful, it must focus its efforts on defining its ideal audiences, even if it ultimately wants to appeal to a broad set of potential customers. I use Apple as an example of this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices