 |
|
|
|||||
Nothing strikes fear in a leader’s heart more than an upcoming announcement. Yet big changes and announcements are the turning point for many organizations. Whether its layoffs, acquisitions, launches, or reorganizations, the pressure to get it right is real. Company performance, team morale, retention, and public image are all on the line. Unfortunately, most leaders rely on advisers and experts when it comes to how, when, and what to communicate. Well-meaning attorneys, publicists, or CFOs typically water down the message, and the company ends up with something that is factual but uninspiring. Oftentimes, that message is also ambiguous with no plan, next steps, or information on how. This isnt helpful for building morale, or to arm employees with the right information to move forward. To do so, leaders need to strike the right balance of information and inspiration. Heres how. Step 1: start with the information When change is underway, humans fill a void of information with any number of presumptions and speculation. As our head of culture reminds me often, People just want to know how it affects them. Shes right. Its critical for leaders to share as much information as possible, as soon as possible. Our agency navigated this recently. A longtime client, partner, and friend acquired our business. It was a great acquisition situation, and one we had worked on for years. Yet, we knew for most of our team it would come as a big surpriseand surprise can turn negative in our minds. This is probably bad. Im losing my job. This is going to be terrible. To prepare and help ensure that they understood how this would affect them, we created a list of questions we knew would be top of mind and tried our best to answer them in our initial announcement. We were also upfront about questions we knew we couldnt answer yet. Lastly, we told them when they could expect more information. Step 2: share ‘why’ with care to build confidence Everyone wants to work for an inspirational leader. In seasons of change, inspiration comes from understanding the why. It also comes from leaders who truly care and are able to share their decision-making process with vulnerability and understanding. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I always tried to explain what we were doing and why. We came back to the office sooner than some would have liked and later than others could understand. I knew we had to acknowledge that. Heres what I had said to our team: We know some are wondering why the office is still closed and it may feel too cautious to you. Others are still concerned with safety. Were trying to make the right decision for everyone and for our business. We also know we need to stay at maximum capacity right now because so many of our changemaker clients are in need of our support. So heres what were going to do. . . . Acknowledging that I understood how it might feel and that I took their concerns into account allowed me to build confidence and trust with the team. It also helped everyone understand why. Step 3: Tailor the message to your people In communications, we talk at length about tailoring the message to your audienceto your people. The same principle applies when youre communicating change to your employees. Those in creative industries often lean more into inspiration while those in technical fields typically need more information. I was speaking with a marketing director for a biotech company about our mutual experiences introducing employee ownership to our teams. Her experience with a company of scientists was very different from mine at a creative agency. I told her that we took our team to Disney World for our announcement, while she noted that her team would have considered that fluff and preferred a different approach. There is no right or wrong here. The key is knowing your people and what they need to navigate a transition successfully. Your employees response is also highly dependent on organizational culturewhich comes from day-to-day interactions and operations. Consistent, candid, clear information builds trust. Once youve established that, you can lean into more and more inspirational messaging. Without trust, deeply inspirational messaging can seem manipulative and inauthentic. Step 4: Dont be afraid to showcase vulnerability While you should never make a company announcement about you, a dose of honesty can go a long way. Shortly after our acquisition, I was speaking privately with our team and they wanted to know how I felt. I could hear leadership experts in my mind: Instill confidence. But we all know nothing is 100% wonderful or perfect. So instead I told them, Im 95% sure this is a great decision. And I laughed as I said, The other 5% is just because you can never know. I watched as they smiled and knew they really believed me, because it was true. Were all looking for truth and can smell talking points from a mile away. Step 5: know when to mix Information and inspiration Great leaders inform and inspire, but exceptional leaders know just how to mix the two. I remember a leader of a billion-dollar global organization who stood in front of her large team. This year we are going to double revenue, she said. Her team cheered. They were highly engaged in the global good their work provided for others, and they respected their leader. She fed into the enthusiasm and continued her pep talk. As the meeting time wrapped up, everyone anxiously awaited for details, but got none. She ended with, Alright, lets do this! No plan or next steps, no information, no how. She lost credibility that day in a big way. Instead of the start of a new level of growth, it became the end of trust and ultimately her role in the organization. Exceptional leaders know that people need both the why and the howthe inspiration and the informationand mix both to meet the needs of their teams. These are the leaders that we love to follow, and work hard for.
Category:
E-Commerce
As the 30th season of Major League Soccer (MLS) kicked off last month, the league unveiled an interesting new design addition: Each of its 30 teams sported a custom Apple TV logo on the left sleeve of its uniform featuring the colors and graphic elements of the teams identity incorporated within the familiar Apple icon. For example, the Chicago Fire version includes the six-pointed star from the citys flag and the teams crest, while Atlanta Uniteds is filled with the characteristic five red and black stripes that adorn the clubs shirt. This effort, part of MLSs 10-year deal with Apple to stream the leagues matches, represents an innovative step forward in its approach to co-branding. Branding has come a long way from the days of the corporate identity manual strictly dictating how a logo could be used. Although todays brand guidelines, such as the set released earlier this year by Cash App, often still admonish Do not alter the logo and Do not use with unapproved colors, there are now caveats: As the Cash App document puts it, All of the above rules can be disregarded when creating illustrative treatments of the logo for marketing/promotional purposes. In this context, we encourage experimentation and favor expression over restraint. [Images: Apple] So its not surprising that Apple might allow for so many new variations of its logo. But unlike the flexible logo approach pioneered by MTV, or even the identity systems used by MLS and Major League Baseball, in which each team gets a version of the league logo in its own colors (the MLS version sits right above the Apple TV logo on the left sleeve), these latest co-branded little apples are notable in that they represent the outcome of a sort of logo alchemy in which the design components of altogether separate organizations have been recombined into new forms, in a novel way of visually denoting partnerships between brands. They are like the fanciful and unofficial logo mash-ups that one can find online suddenly made real. Over history, various sorts of graphically symbolic expressions of partnership or collaboration between different entities have been employed. A friendship between two nations, for example, might simply be represented by a depiction of their two flags crossed at the staffs. In European heraldry, alliances between families through marriage could be expressed by quartering a heraldic shielddividing it into four parts, with the symbols of each family occupying two parts apiece. This explains why the state flag of Maryland is such a glorious mess; it is the banner of arms of Lord Baltimore, with the colors of the Calvert family in the first and fourth quarters, and those of the Crossland family in the second and third. Recent years have seen the emergence of collaborations between brands that are frequently expressed by placing an x between the two brand names or logos, as in Nike x Supreme, with the x often standing for the word by. The x not only recalls the alliance implied by crossed flagstaffs, but it levels up from mere addition to the more synergistically powerful mathematical operation of multiplication. Other contemporary brand collabs, though, employ division, displaying the logos of the partners separated by a thin vertical line (as Apple Watch did with Nike). Sometimes, though, certain brands and logos are not suited well to sitting next to each other. For instance, when the University of Utah, whose school color is red, named Pepsi its official beverage provider in 2017, it came with the stipulation that Pepsi downplay its signature blue color, which is similar to that of Utahs rival, Brigham Young University. Its this sort of graphic discrepancy that undermines to some degree Apples audacious co-branding with MLS. The relatively small size of the teams Apple TV logos and the resulting limitations on the graphic imagery that can be used with themas well as the fact that they are often the same color as the shirt on which they appearcan make them difficult to see. But, perhaps as with the Maryland flag, the point is ultimately not aesthetic but relational. By creating these 30 junior versions of its logo, Apple is signaling camaraderie with MLS fans in hopes of engendering their goodwill.
Category:
E-Commerce
Building a high-growth business is all about timing and making the right moves at the right moments. Whether it’s knowing when to expand into new retail spaces or recognizing a buzzy product that can skyrocket your brand, the journey is full of strategic decisions and challenges. As founders scale their businesses, they must navigate everything from cash flow management to mastering social media. Each of these elements plays a crucial role in determining how a business can not only grow but thrive in a competitive market. This past weekend at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW, Danielle Guizio, owner and designer of Guizio; Kat Hantas, cofounder of tequila brand 21Seeds; and Stacey Tank, CEO of Bespoke Beauty Brands (owner of KimChi Chic Beauty and Jason Wu Beauty) shared their secrets behind their fast-growing companies. Leverage social media smartly Guizio emphasized the transformative power of social media. I look at social media as if it’s our new age billboard and our resume,” she said. “So anything you’re putting on social media, it’s who you want to present to the viewers and to the consumers and also in a business sense as well. Hantas agreed, highlighting how 21Seeds strategically used Pinterest to connect with their target consumer. We wanted to find [the consumer] where she was to discover us and then make sure that we were available in distribution in retail, Hantas said. We also had the benefit of other women. The beauty of women is when they find something they like, they want to tell people about it. Jessica Alba found the brand; Katie Couric found the brandand then they started posting about us on social media. Tank further supported this idea, pointing to the growing influence of social commerce platforms. My confidence to transact as a consumer is so much higher because I can also be entertained by that content,” Tank said. “TikTok Shop went from nothing [when it launched in September 2023] to tens of billions of dollars in 18 to 24 months. It’s bigger than Nordstrom. It’s bigger than Ikea. It’s bigger than Kohl’s in the U.S. And I think there’s no turning back now. Think about Cash Management and Customer Satisfaction Tank stressed the critical role of cash flow management in growing a business. I say cash is queen,” she said. “We all want to retain equity and not take on debt. So you have to know how much cash you have. Beyond financials, Tank explained the need for businesses to stay customer-focused.You have to keep your customer right at the center and make things they’re going to love,” she said. “There’s a creative tension with startups where they say you have to put things out into the world before they’re ready. And I hear that, but whatever you put in the market, it has to delight your consumers if they’re willing to spend their hard earned money and try your product.” Take your time to grow fast Guizio provided insight into managing production and understanding factory capabilities. For example, the factory she uses to make her corsets isn’t the same as the one that makes her spandex stretch skirts. It may take more of an effort in managing production, but to Guizio it’s all about making that investment for long-term growth. What’s also key is taking the time to understand your consumer. “I put in the work this past year traveling to China to Japan to Alabama to Dallas, really understanding [my customer] from top to bottom, understanding her essence, her aura,” Guizio said. “We’re living in a generation where, especially on Instagram, we’re seeing brands come to life and succeed extremely fast, even within two years,” added Guizio who started her company 10 years ago. “But I took my time and I did everything very strategically. I do feel like there is an aspect, an element of just taking your time and understanding your business and really understanding your consumer.” Be your own PR Hantas shared her advice on the importance of being your own brand advocate. As founders of small companies that are scaling quickly, you have got to connect all the dots,” Hantas said. “You get a placement in a magazine or anything, you got to send it around everywhere. Send it to your buyers, your prospective buyers, your retail partners. You got to send it to potential investors, actual investors. You have to be your own PR agent and connect all those dots. It’s fake it till you make it, make everything seem bigger than it is.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||