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

Today we’re going to talk about company culture and how to maintain and develop great employee experience in a fast-growth, global organization. We’re also going to talk about how to develop and train the best and most effective types of leaders for your organization. To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Joy Sybesma, Chief People Officer at Dataiku. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re going to talk about how enterprises who remain agile can achieve great success in building great experiences for their customers. To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Aileen Cahil, an author, speaker and customer experience expert who has worked with several Fortune 100 companies and gotten great Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, and Marketing results through a data-driven, customer-centric and agile approach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re going to talk about the value of a holistic digital experience. Too often organizations spend time optimizing a few channels to make sure that they are performing well, but they fail to look at the bigger picture. Customer experience is a key differentiator in today’s competitive marketplace, and organizations that embrace digital experience as more than the sum of its parts will get ahead and stay ahead. To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Eric Stahl, SVP of Digital Experience at Salesforce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re going to talk about the importance of being intentional with your brand’s experience, and why great company culture and customer experience are critical to success. Great customer experience is created from motivated, engaged employees who feel both valued and valuable to an organization. While that sounds straightforward, it is often easier said than done. Even for Fortune 500 brands, the transformation required to become an experience-led organization requires people, processes, and technology to all be in alignment to the benefit of both customers and employees. To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Antonia Hock, Global Head of The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, a thought leader in customer and talent experience, and who was recently named to Luxury Daily’s Top 25 Women to Watch in Luxury. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Today we’re going to talk about the importance of the employee experience and how organizations of all kinds can remain competitive in the current job market, while paying attention at all the key stages in the employee journey. To help me discuss this topic, I welcome Felipe Cofiño, VP Human Resources and Organizational Development, Signal Financial Federal Credit Union. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Today we’re going to talk about Diversity, Inclusion, and the Employee Experience. Employee experience has an increased focus at leading companies around the world. This enhanced experience has many aspects, including people, processes, and technology. Today we’re going to discuss how technology is a key component in employee experience, as well as the role that diversity and inclusion plays in EX. To help me discuss this important topic, I’m joined by Robert Ruelas, VP End User Computing, Americas, VMware. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

Today we’re going to talk about the importance of values and culture in the employee experience. As companies continue to compete for both talent and customers, experience becomes a differentiating point. Brands that don’t put their employees first will not be as competitive in a marketplace driven by experience. I'm joined by Dr. David Rodriguez, Global Chief HR Officer, Marriott International to the show to discuss this important topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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