How to Harness the Power of Brand Innovation
How do brands stay relevant and thrive in the modern pandemic-plagued, shop-from-home era? A few weeks ago, Stacy Hintermeister, CBX Vice President of Marketing, sat down with Kurt Schmidt, President of Foundry and host of the Schmidt List podcast, to discuss exactly that. Schmidt List is a podcast and YouTube show dedicated to inspiring leaders in design and tech, and you can listen to it yourself here.
The two opened the conversation by emphasizing the greater-than-ever importance of staying relevant and top of mind with customers today. Brands are facing new issues in light of COVID-19, and so they have to find new ways to connect with consumers. And how do they do that? Stacy discussed how the CBX process creates opportunities and insights to form better connections.
With every brand we work with, we look at them through a CBX-specific lens of people, culture, and brand. What is influencing people today? What is the cultural climate? What are this brand’s strengths and how do we grow and protect these? And what are the brand’s liabilities? “What we do at CBX is help uncover all of those things and make priorities for our clients to make an impact in the marketplace,” said Stacy. This holistic approach allows us to intimately understand the consumer and how to connect with them.
But brands that thrive in the modern era do more than just relate – they innovate. Every company wants to act like a start-up these days. “Innovation is so hot right now,” said Stacy; “We just can’t move fast enough – can we?” At CBX, she explained, we have tools that allow our clients of all sizes and stages to act like start-ups. As Kurt likes to say, “innovation doesn’t happen in a silo.”
Our secret? Working collaboratively in cross-functional teams. Stacy emphasized: “Everyone wants to hop on the agile bandwagon today. At CBX, we have a methodology that leverages the principles of agile… and applies those principles to the best practices of design thinking.” Applying the best of both worlds helps us to innovate cross-functionally. This interdisciplinary practice, paired with the rich perspective that comes from working across many categories and consumers, allows us to go beyond and create new ways of thinking.
In the end, it all comes down to connecting to people. When we break down and understand category codes and cultural influences, we can create design stories that speak to consumers specifically and bring brands to life. At CBX, we do that best by working as a focused team – all of us together. Stacy explained, “It limits the second guessing when everyone is in the room together.” This leads to a better and more efficient outcome – one where we build brands that are purposeful and proactive.
