Creating Loyal Brands : Themes Of The Week...

So much content, so little time...

A weekly round-up of the themes and posts I found particularly interesting or useful.

Creation was in the air this week,  with conversations around creating emotionally engaging experiences, creating change by creating movements, and creating insight from data.

Turning data into insight...
We may increasingly be able to quantify everything, but data only becomes useful when it tells a story.

Coffee & Empathy: Why data without a soul is meaningless argued that every company needs to learn how to combine data, emotion, and empathy to create the insights and stories that can engage customers.
A Data Scientist's Real Job: Storytelling outlined the path to transforming data into actionable business insights, by asking the questions and telling the stories.
When Data Visualization Works - And When It Doesn't explored how visualizing data is only enlightening if the information itself is interpretable, relevant, and novel.
While How do you measure the return on a relationship? warned of the dangers of trying to quantify every aspect of your social presence, and recommended a broader monitoring of its effects across digital assets, brand strength and reputation, in order to capture the bigger story.

The heart of the matter...
Customer and User Experience have become hot topics, but it's how these make customers feel that drive loyalty and word-of-mouth.

Developing a Devotion for Emotion showed how companies can harness the power of emotion to deliver engaging experiences.
How Does Your Store Make You Feel? explored how combining the rational elements of a shopping trip with the company's behaviors can evoke a strong, positive feeling among customers.
The Next Wave In Branding: Merging Experiences Across Markets argued that an effective experience strategy should express the long-lasting human experience a brand aims to deliver for and with customers.
While Everything Speaks outlined the approach Disney takes to this phrase, that eloquently sums up the importance of every customer interaction.

Get up, stand up...
In today's connected world, several posts explored the need to create movements, in order to achieve effective change. 

Forget About Influence And Change Management, It's Time To Lead A Revolution argued that as the role of enterprises shifts from organizing work to focusing passion and purpose, change has to be achieved by mobilizing networks to create a movement.
Millennials spur capitalism with a conscience looked at how organizations are embracing social kindness as a part of their guiding principles, encouraged by the expectations of the Millennial generation.
Creating Social Change with Social Media used the example of #GivingTuesday to explore how social media can be used to create a movement.
While Present Shock And Why Our Now-Fixation Has Changed Everything From Advertising To Politics argued that it's our obsession with the here and now, with facts rather than stories, that's forcing brands to act in ways that actually make the world a better place.

Finally, if you're interested in galactic matters, How Samsung Became the World's No.1 Smartphone Maker provided a fascinating look inside.

Enjoy...