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.

This week's conversations included how some brands make a strong connection, the relationship between organizational culture and brand experience, as well as looking for inspiration from leading brand examples in different media.

Crazy in love...
Several posts sought to explain how certain brands develop a strong connection with consumers.

Why Do We Love Brands? looked at brands from a consumer point of view, arguing that a strong brand serves to open a door to what a person could be from who they currently are.
Higher Purpose Branding: 14 Brands Are Doing It Right concluded that strong brands go beyond functional benefits to generate self-expressive, emotional or social benefits.
Love It? Hate It? Beyonce Does H&M explored how successful brands use cultural ideas to become embedded in consumer culture.
While The Truth About Loyalty... showed how brands have to stay true to their core values and beliefs, to earn the loyalty of their customers.

Of culture and experience...
With today's hyper-connected world, there's a close relationship between the experience a brand offers, and organizational culture.

From moments to journeys: A paradigm shift in customer experience excellence highlighted the need to focus on the entire journey a customer makes in fulfilling a need with a brand, and the challenges this poses to the way organizations operate.
Why Brand Culture Should Be A CMO's Best Friend... showed how an organizational culture that lives the brand is the key enabler for meeting changing customer expectations.
Organizing Your Organizational Culture highlighted the importance of commitment and emotion to building an effective organizational culture.
While The Next Phase of Social Business is the Collaborative Economy argued that brands will need to extend their view of the customer journey, to care about the relationship between customers, as they trade and rent products between themselves.

Leading by example...
With so much change in marketing at the moment, several posts highlighted case studies for inspiration and guidance.

Amanda Palmer: Proof That Social Media Is The Future Of Business highlighted how one artist has used social media to build an intense connection with fans, and create a sustainable business model.
The Most Popular Branded Boards on Pinterest and Inspiring Content Marketing Case Studies provided some instructive examples.
Top 25 Engaged Brands on Twitter: An Interview with Henry Min, Founder of Nestivity offered some useful insight.
Nike's Instagram Campaign Lets Users Design, Share And Buy Custom Kicks highlighted an excellent example of how to use this mobile photo-sharing platform to engage.
While 8 Marketers Doing Big Data Right provided some practical examples of brands using data-driven insights to create growth.

Finally, if you want something more to chew on, How the Internet of Things Changes Everything provided much food for thought.

Enjoy...