Hey everyone, this is Rudy Fernandez from Creative Outhouse. In this episode we talked about creating a brand framework with Ed Farley. He knows a bit about that since he's lead branding for global brands like Anheuser Busch and Humana, United Way and Edelman Financial, four totally different industries. But the approach to create a strong global brand remains the same and eat, whether it's beer or insurance or financial services. He talks about creating a brand framework and how to balance the art and science when you're building your story. Check it out. Welcome to Marketing Upheaval.
Rudy: Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Ed Farley, the global brand strategist who has been head of branding for huge brands like United Way, Humana and Anheuser Busch and has managed brands that extend across the US and around the world. And we're going to talk about that and what it takes to do that. Well, thanks for joining me, Ed, really excited to have you on the podcast.
Ed Farley: Hey, it's great to be here. Thanks.
Rudy: So you've seen marketing from a big global point of view. And obviously, you've seen these brands evolve over time. Often we talk about what's changed in marketing. But there are some things that have to stay true in terms of branding. And given your your scope and your understanding of branding. What do you think some things are, some elements that ought not change in order to have a strong brand?
Ed: It's an interesting question, because for industries, as you had mentioned, I constantly needed to walk around and in re-educate folks with whom I work on what is brand strategy, right? It's not branding, it's a strategy but doesn't need to change is the idea that you need a strategy to inform great work, great messaging, great consumer experience. And that's really all about a disciplined approach to create a brand strategy. And so what I would encourage everyone to do is think about how that strategy gets created and what kind of rigor and discipline goes into that strategy.
Rudy: When you say, you have to maintain that rigor to go into brand strategy, what are the some of the steps to make that happen?
Ed: A lot of people are talking about purpose-driven brand strategy. And that's important because reality of that is that in today's global marketplace, we've shifted from business to consumer marketing to consumer to business B to C to B to C to B. And so brands are now engaged in daily conversations with consumers who demand experiences on their own terms, and influence others to buy or not to buy. It has an impact on products and services and sales channel partners. And we've really got to remember that it all begins with a story, a story that has meaning and it resonates with audiences with whom you want to do business. You've got to establish the context of your brand strategy. And that requires some evaluation. The first type of evaluation that I would suggest is to understand your own perspective. Understand your own legacy, your history, get your stakeholder and leadership input into your brand strategy, understand your unified ambition, and your mission and vision and values....
To see the rest of the transcript, images and show notes, visit: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/12/11/ed-farley-global-brand-transformation-strategist/