Turn Your Brand into a Lovemark
Brands are running out of juice, says Kevin Roberts. Love – the powerful emotional connection between companies, their people and their brands – is the key to long-term success and unwavering customer loyalty. After all, humans live by their emotions; it’s how we make decisions and run our lives. Business needs love, he emphasizes. Drawing from recognized real-world examples – Nike, Starbucks, IKEA, Coca-Cola – Roberts explores the story of Lovemarks, a concept he coined a decade ago that has since transformed the future of marketing, and explains how and why it is relevant to any endeavor (not just marketing) – and any person – that draws on the value of ideas. The ultimate goal of every business leader is to make their organization a Lovemark.
The Future of Engagement: Big Data + Big Emotion
Over the last decade, the marketing landscape has changed – and continues to change – exponentially as marketers and consumers both become more sophisticated, technologically adept, price-smart and increasingly conscious of the impact of a good reputation. This tech-led empowerment will only grow as the “Internet of Things” connects everything to everyone; it scrutinizes our daily lives down to the moment, and allows companies to access and use ever-more data – location, interests, purchasing and search histories – to tailor messages and advertisements. However, Big Data is merely rational, explains Kevin Roberts. It gives marketers an incredible ability to draw patterns, identify interest and even attempt to predict future action. It does not help create loyalty or provide understanding of human value or emotional reasoning. Roberts discusses why data doesn’t mean anything without empathy, and explores how marketers must leverage both to build “loved brands.” After all, Big Data can read the lines, but not between them.
Creative Leadership in the Age of Now
In business, reengineering and restructuring and re-everything only add incremental growth. Rigid process-driven organizations need to act more intuitively and instinctively – and be driven by ideas, not rules, believes Kevin Roberts. Creativity, he says, is today’s most important leadership quality to cope with growing complexity. However, creative leaders are not a common breed. Roberts talks about how to find them and cultivate them, and frames his model of creative leadership – the next radical order for solving problems, increasing competitiveness, accelerating brands, driving business results, and winning in an always-on world. In the Age of Now, he says, creative leaders thrive and flourish. “We live in a VUCA world and it’s the people who make it Vibrant, Unreal, Crazy and Astounding who are tasked and ready to win.”
