Discover the hard work needed to report the facts in the latest video series from The New York Times marketing team. All photos in this video were taken by Bryan Denton while he was covering Iraqi counterterrorism forces for The New York Times in Bartella, Iraq, in 2016. The video is directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Below, a second film from the series: All photos in this video were taken by Tyler Hicks while he was covering the refugee crisis for The New York Times in Lesbos, Greece, in 2015. The video is directed by Darren Aronofsky.

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  “Entrepreneurs are misfits to the core. They forge ahead, making their own path, and always, always, question the status quo” -MAXIMILLIAN DEGENEREZ Have you ever asked yourself, “What is the common thread among successful entrepreneurs?” According to Dave Lukas, a successful entrepreneur himself, “This special trait or special separator is what…

Brand culture is the culture that a company cultivates in order to powerfully, consistently and competitively deliver its brand to market. It’s how people work together to bring the brand alive for customers. But brand cultures are more than an expression of the brand itself; they are, by necessity, an expression of the people who work for that brand and the decisions and ways of working and behaving that they agree to work within.

The challenge for any brand is when what it stands for as a brand no longer aligns with what the people working for the brand do. It’s all very well to talk about building or changing a powerful brand culture, but first you need to understand the culture you’re changing. Each is different because each revolves around a different ethos. In this, the first of a two part series, I look at what defines, and what it takes to shift, a brand culture today.

It’s tempting to believe that culture is a formula. You derive a purpose, apply goals, set values, agree on behaviors and then inculcate these ideas (with varying degrees of success) over the next 12 – 18 months. While every brand culture should indeed be driven by these elements, the type of culture your brand functions within is its own human dynamic. Shifting that to something new is very difficult, essentially because you are going against the very nature of ‘how things get done around here’. Success is much more likely if you are able to recognize the predominant nature of the brand culture you are working with, and to leverage that to the brand’s advantage.

Here are the first four of eight different brand cultures I’ve encountered and some thoughts on what it takes to successfully achieve enduring change in each of these environments.

1. Performance Culture – sales and achievement focused. An environment that is highly motivated by targets, competitiveness and individualism, complicated significantly by incentives and bonuses that often reward those who excel at the direct expense of those who aren’t at the top. These cultures are ambitious, hard-working and relentless. They can include professional firms (particularly those with an eat-what-you-kill rewards system) as well as businesses that are sales-based. How you change the culture depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to instill a greater sense of engagement, for example, lift and broaden the targets but at the same time shift the incentive system to one that is more team focused and change the bonuses to reflect what is achieved by everyone. Just as importantly, bring in strong mentorship and training programs to help those who are steady but not necessarily top performers to feel fulfilled, supported and included. It’s very important when changing these cultures to remind everyone involved of the quid pro quo – that they are stronger for being part of the brand, and the brand is stronger for having them, but equally no-one is indispensable.

2. Restless Culture – always moving and evolving. These brands are all about staying ahead of what’s happening in their sector(s). They’re highly market aware, innovative, very competitive and obsessed by the need to continue to meet customer expectations. Amazon’s Day 1 ethos is a perfect expression of this type of culture. Companies with these types of culture are often in fast-moving and/or converging sectors, such as tech, media or entertainment. Driven by the need to be relevant, they are market drivers. These cultures are impatient and have a powerful sense of momentum. It’s not unusual for them to also be highly competitive within their teams, looking to achieve the next breakthrough that will see one group stand out as the organizational lodestar. Critical to engaging these cultures and helping them work together (even co-operate) is a collective vision of the future of the brand to which all can contribute. Given their high propensity for change, change itself is not hard to implement. In fact, one of the key challenges is to remind the culture to value what customers value, and to retain the brand’s inherent goodness while at the same time pressing forward.

3. Freeform Culture – flexible, organic, undefined. As brands bring in more consultants and freelancers to help them deliver on demand, the very sense of a brand culture can become much more fluid. I sometimes refer to this as the gig economy culture. It’s characterized by project teams that are loyal to the deliverables they are responsible for, but don’t feel much sense of belonging beyond that. These cultures are common in sectors like IT where there is a deep casual workforce. Equally, it’s a risk of the collaborative economy – so, places like Uber and Airbnb – where thousands of people represent the brand but are not necessarily directly employed by the brand. At its worst, this can lead to a culture that is incoherent, myopic and inconsistent because it is resourced by people who feel no affinity for the brand. They’re just here to fulfill a contract or deliver a task. I think this is one of the hardest brand cultures to marshall because of the sheer variety and volatility of the brand population. The key challenge is to ensure everyone, at different levels of involvement, feels they are getting the right returns for what they are putting in. A great question to ask is: What will they get (that they wouldn’t get otherwise) from their time with us? How can involvement with your brand advance each person’s career or credentials for example? Can you provide them with access to a valuable network or offer them the chance to develop a needed skill? And how do you build a sense of loyalty and two-way gratitude into the arrangement that helps people rally around a brand they may only be part of for a short time?

4. Learn Fast Culture – demand driven, responsive, second mover. Just as not every brand can be a market leader, so some cultures choose to take their cues from what happens around them. At their best, these brands build on what others initiate, bringing in perspectives, features and improvements that add (exponentially) to the value of what was first proposed. Companies with these types of cultures include retailers, manufacturers and those in fast turnaround sectors such as telecommunications. These brands work best when they have a problem to solve and a defined window within which to forge an answer. At their best, they are agile, creative, analytical and highly synchronized. For people in these cultures, the thrill of the chase is what gets them up in the morning. These cultures need an antagonist to duel with, and goals built around a defined set of deliverables that take what’s available to the next level. Confidence and can-do are critical. They must always believe that they have the wherewithal to take things to the next level. They need to find ways to celebrate speed and the ability to counter-punch, while not burning out nor feeling like all they can do is react. Rather than referencing everything they do as an improvement, it can be more stimulating to frame these brands as next-generation: as change-makers that will move things on for the customer and lift the industry in the process. To do that effectively, people need to be encouraged to experiment, fail fast and continue to learn.

Next Time: brand cultures driven by a need to change the world; start up brands evolving into grown up cultures; brands with powerful leaders; and brands that need to keep pushing down costs in order to thrive.

The Blake Project Can Help: Please email us for more about our brand culture expertise.

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Rachael Leigh Cook explains that the war on drugs is a war on people in a remake of her iconic “Your Brain On Drugs” ad.

Our nation’s drug war is leading us to lock up more people than ever.
Those charged with a non violent drug crime face fines and incarceration. More people are arrested for drugs than for rape, murder and robbery combined. And minorities are being railroaded into this system at much higher rates than their white counterparts even though drug use between both groups is about the same.

At Green Point Creative we believe our nation’s drug policy needs a serious reevaluation, so we are using our skills in strategy, creativity and world class production to generate content that seeks to educate and inspire change. Whether through print, TV, radio or social media, we employ every medium to best suit the message that needs to be told.

THE CREDITS:
Creative Agency: Green Point Creative, New York
Creative Director: Howard Bowler Managing Director: Jon Mackey Production Manager: Mary Valentino
Production: Motiv Creative, New York
Director Ryan Kleier
Shoot: The Shed, New York
Makeup/Hair: Abby Hayden
Sound: Chris Viall
Gaffer: Andreas Roalsvig
Director of Photography: Matt McClain 1st Assistant Camera: Matt Donovan Production Assistant: Josh Lee
Animation/Post Production: Edit 1, New York
Producer: Dan Fuerst
Animation Creative Director: Michael Zimbard Art Producer: Diane Boston
Illustrator: Kevin Kobasic
2D Animation: Erica Jaffin Matt Trudell
Music/Audio Post: HOBO Audio, New York
Mix/Sound Design: Chris Stangroom/Diego Jimenez Music: Oscar Convers/Julian Angel
Social Media Consultant
Lawrence Lac

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It seems that on a weekly basis, some major brand takes an action that sparks great outrage, especially on social networks. Sometimes the offense is so substantial it becomes global news like dragging a bloodied passenger off a major airline. But often the offense is less apparent – fashion ads that may not seem diverse enough, a beauty campaign that is misinterpreted to have racist overtones. The fickleness of outrage should have brands worried in a polarized information climate that rarely rewards contextualizing or critical thinking.

The emotion of outrage is complex and has three components: 1) It’s negative; 2) It’s strong and powerful (highly charged); 3) It occurs when people experience a violation of a moral boundary. But, as we have shown, there are many cases where people are looking for reasons to be offended, often on behalf of others! For them, no moral boundary has been crossed. Hilton Barbour has coined the term “Outrage Orchestra” to refer to these highly vocal groups that have been weaponized by social networks and stand ready to pounce on any brand mistake or gaffe.

Expressing outrage over something that one does not feel has two social benefits. First, it shows affiliation. It’s also a signal to others. James Bartholomew calls this virtue signaling. He says, “One of the crucial aspects of virtue signaling is that it does not require actually doing anything virtuous. It does not involve delivering lunches to elderly neighbors or staying together with a spouse for the sake of the children. It takes no effort or sacrifice at all.” Social platforms are perfectly suited for this.

Just last week, Nivea was forced to pull their “White is Purity” ad. Observing the crisis that recently befell United Airlines, Shareen Pathak at Digiday remarked, “For United, like most brands operating today, [mitigating the crisis] means an internal reshuffle: Bring your policy, counsel and marketing teams into one place. If not, you’ll have an existential crisis to show for it. And as we know, brands don’t exactly operate in a nimble way. Neither are employees always incentivized to collaborate.” The deep and fundamental transformation happening to brands extends to all a brand’s internal organizations.

A culture of outrage has changed the rules for brands. While it’s relatively easy to pull an ad campaign (even costs associated with Pepsi’s controversial campaign wouldn’t show as more than a rounding error on quarterly earnings), several percentage points on the stock price is harder to explain away. Nell Minnow, Vice-Chair of Corporate Governance at ValueEdge advisors, thinks companies, which are particularly vulnerable to social controversies, should outline such risks and response strategies in financial filings. “They need to let their investors know that they’re prepared to deal with it promptly and effectively to prevent a material deterioration of the stock price. It’s very much like cyberattacks — it’s a relatively recent phenomenon that every company has to be prepared to deal with.”

Brands are built and managed by people, therefore human error is always a possibility. Thankfully, there are ways for brands to mitigate gaffes and outrage; here are four of them.

1. Start performing audience ethnography to understand pains, motivations, and state of mind. Then marry this research to current trends to forecast topics that may be sensitive. Use this ongoing collection and analysis to inform how you craft the story you want to tell as well as to highlight possible situations that may easily be misunderstood. Pepsi, Nivea and Beach Body could have avoided controversy had they invested in cultural and contextual data.

2. Race, Gender, Social Class and Patriotism are four topics (there are more) which need to be considered carefully. For brands that already trade in these topics, a familiarity of position among consumers should provide relative stability in a charged social climate. We don’t question Patagonia’s all-in advocacy for the environment as it is a core component of their brand purpose. But if a brand hasn’t waded into these topics, it needs to get clear on why it has suddenly decided to incorporate these storylines, because consumers will ask, likely with skepticism.

3. Virtue hustling from brands has got to stop. Consumers don’t want to hear it, and the message may be too far out for them to make the connection between the virtue and the brand as they know it. Audi made a double faux-pas when they dabbled in gender and used it to virtue signal. Both backfired. Not only did the girl-power story seem a reach, they had no women on their board of directors. There are plenty of brands who live their values without needing to tell the world how great they are. “Doing the right thing” can no longer be used as a marketing tactic.

4. It’s time to get serious about cross-functional agile teams. If brands want to master the post-PR world, then the silos and behaviors that limit timely and responsive dialog must come down. It was reported that some of the delay in United’s response was due to HR needing to approve messages. This sort of rigidity is no longer viable.

The reality is, many people are deluged with information. A lot of this information reveals parts of our society that can be improved. But the information overload often leads to what psychologists call ‘narcotizing dysfunction’ wherein all the chattering and commentary over an issue substitutes for real action. Smart brands will work to channel this energy into meaningful action and in the process provide new opportunities for growing customer love.

Don’t Let The Future Leave Your Brand Behind. Join Us At The Un-Conference – Marketing’s Only Problem Solving Event. May 1st – 3rd, 2017 West Hollywood, California

The Blake Project Can Help: Accelerate Brand Growth Through Powerful Emotional Connections

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Many say we Danes are one of the world’s happiest nations. So what’s our secret? Living life the Danish way, of course: enjoying a work-life balance, nature and craft and spending time together feeling hygge. Or, could it be that we brew the best beer in the world? Probably.

Mads Mikkelsen stars as a “modern day Danish philosopher” in this new ad that positions Carlsberg as an icon of Danish lifestyle.

CREATIVE CREDITS:
Ad Agency: Fold7, London
Chief creative: Ryan Newey
Executive creative director: Simon Learman
Creative team: Lucy Aston, and Ben Ducker
Group account director: Lara Woods
Account manager: Jamie Herman
Agency producers: Imogen Bell, and Felicity Cruickshank
Media: OMD
Director: Martin Krejci
Production company: Stink Films
Producer: Charlotte Woodhead
Editor: Tim Allen
Grade: Jean-Clément Soret
Post-production: MPC
Audio Post-production: Factory

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The more your brand enables, entices, and enriches customers, evoking their positive emotions and building their trust, love, and respect, the more highly admired it will be. An admired brand offers the greatest opportunity for enduring and profitable growth. When your brand is seen as lacking in even one of the three components of brand admiration, it will not be regarded as strongly admired. Apple sets the standard for brand admiration. It is clearly one of the most successful brands in recent history and it has become an admired brand by providing benefits that enable, entice, and enrich customers.

First, Apple is a clear leader in providing enablement benefits. Its technology, while not simple, makes learning and using Apple products easy. Its famous one-touch solution and intuitive interface took what was otherwise an intimidating product category and made it user friendly. Apple products “speak” to one another by virtue of their common operating system, making it easy for consumers to move seamlessly from one Apple product (e.g., a Mac) to another (e.g., an iPhone).

Second, Apple products are different from other technological products in their enticement benefits—specifically, through their design. Indeed, for Steve Jobs visual design elements were on equal footing with technological advances in product development. The design of the buttons and screen and even the partially bitten apple logo itself makes customers gravitate toward Apple’s products. The visual simplicity and clean lines of Apple retail stores make for a warm and inviting environment where customers can play with any Apple product on the market.

Finally, Apple offers strong enrichment benefits. It speaks to consumers’ sense of self, asking them to Think different. Apple products were a status marker at one time, with people defining themselves as Mac, rather than PC, users. Users saw themselves as cool, and they felt proud of being Apple fans. Mac users felt more open minded, younger, and hipper. Apple’s Think different campaign showcased iconoclastic thinkers (e.g., Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Muhammad Ali, and John Lennon). It inspired consumers to think that they, too, could one day change the world. No other products have become so embedded and respected in every aspect of our daily lives as have Apple products.

Nonadmired Brands

Customers consider nonadmired brands differently. These brands might be called decent, noble, boring, confusing, faddish, pompous, or even despised. These brands are lacking in their ability to offer one or more of the enablement, enticement, and enrichment benefits. They just can’t command the trust, love, and respect that admired brands do. Despised brands are the opposite of admired ones. Customers aren’t just indifferent to them; they actively avoid them or speak poorly of them. We’re not suggesting that a brand that’s not admired can’t be pro table. Even a despised brand can be profitable in the short term with great manufacturing and other operational efficiencies, particularly if customers have no other choice but to buy it. But it’s unlikely to survive the test of time, grow into new markets, and have strong equity unless it delivers on the things that are important to customers and make them happy.

Key Takeaways

1. Across highly diverse industries, admired brands are similar in their ability to provide enabling, enticing, and enriching benefits that yield positive customer emotions and build brand trust, love, and esteem.
2. Such brands have been able to build, strengthen, and leverage their admiration over the long term by their continual efforts to best themselves and their competitors in the benefits (and hence value) they provide to customers.
3. Benefits that enable customers to solve their problems and conserve their scarce resources leave customers feeling 
empowered, in control, secure, confident, and relieved. Customers trust brands that they can consistently rely on to solve their problems and conserve their resources.

Benefits that entice customers stimulate their senses, their minds, and/or their hearts. The brand’s benefits leave customers feeling gratified, engaged, entertained, upbeat, and/or warmhearted. The more the brand provides these benefits, the more customers will come to love the brand.

Benefits that enrich customers respect their beliefs and hopes for a better future. They can also symbolize aspects of who one is, the status or respect one commands from others, and the groups of which one is a part. The brand’s benefits make customers feel inspired, proud, connected, validated, and influential. Customers respect brands whose beliefs and hopes are congruent with their own. They respect brands that help them connect with others who support them.

Brands that have emphasized these benefits relentlessly over time have managed to thrive over decades, generations, and even a century or more.

What About Your Brand?

1. Is your brand focused on a specific type of benefit, or on enablement, enticement, and enrichment benefits? How well is it performing on each benefit type? If you think it’s difficult to differentiate your brand from others, take heed of the lessons from brands such as Nike and Caterpillar.
2. If your brand is fully differentiated from competing brands, does this differentiation have anything to do with types of benefits and the emotions that result from their provision? How would your brand stack up relative to competitors if you tried to differentiate it with the 3Es in mind? (
Enablement Benefits, Enticement Benefits, Enrichment Benefits)
3. How would customers describe your brand? Is it admired? Is it faddish? Is it decent?

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: C. Whan Park, Deborah MacInnis and Andreas Eisingerich, excerpted from their book, Brand Admiration with permission from Wiley Publishing.

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In this episode of the Unconventionals podcast, host Mike O’Toole sits down with Linda Boff, GE’s Chief Marketing Officer, to talk marketing and brand; learn where GE is placing its bets in social platforms, content marketing, and brand strategy.

By Alex Parkinson The Excellence in New Communications (EINC) Awards ceremony, presented by the Society for New Communications Research of The Conference Board (SNCR), will be held on Monday, May 22, 2017 in New York City. Join us for this free event and help us celebrate those companies that are showing leadership in the use […]

In this episode of The Unconventionals, host Mike O’Toole talks with Organovo CEO Keith Murphy about bioprinting and its big implications for human health.