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

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