All brands ask the question, How do we want people to feel about ourselves? The most successful ones, however, ask a different question: How do we want people to feel about themselves when they engage with our brand, our products and services?
This insight came from Greg Hoffman, speaking this week on Emotion by Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike, at CSP’s 2024 Outlook Leadership conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
To be their best, companies must take risks, never playing it safe and playing to win, said Hoffman, Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike’s former chief marketing officer and the author of “Emotion by Design.”
“Guess who loses out when we don’t take risks?” he asked. “How can you expect to take your customers someplace new if you won’t go there first?”
Companies must let spontaneity reveal opportunity, he said, asking, “Are you leaving space for improvisation? Do you have an organization and culture that allows improvisation?”
Innovation happens “in the intersection where the magic happens, not just in area of expertise,” he added. “When you mix expertise with mixed-life experiences, you open your aperture to the world and can see farther and deeper.”
Art and Science
At the end of day, there are limits to what one can do to a product, Hoffman said.
“Where I worked, every innovation launch was an opportunity to invite the consumer to something audacious,” he said. “Not just a basketball shoe, but an invitation to play like the late, great Kobe Bryant. It wasn’t just a soccer cleat or football shoe. It was a super car.”
To achieve this sort of messaging consistently from branding standpoint is both an art and science, Hoffman said, noting it requires both right and left brain thinkers multiplying each others’ expertise.
“The point is to achieve that balance of rational and emotional value within your products and services.”
“If you’re like me, I’m more on the right side, more creatively inclined, and I take the long and winding road to get to a solution, but I’m only as strong as my counterparts on the left side who might need to use a lot of data analysis and go down the more linear path,” Hoffman said. “The point is to achieve that balance of rational and emotional value within your products and services.”
The good news today is companies have more capabilities, tools and platforms than they could ever imagine to analyze marketplace dynamics to measure super behavior and desire in real time, he continued, “But the reality is you could also argue that we’ve lost that balance, that maybe we’re a little less creative, a little less innovative, and the process may be a little bit less personal.”
Hoffman also stressed the following points:
Be empathetic, seeing what others see, finding what others don’t.
“This is central to every great product design or story or campaign,” he said. “The beginning of the process starts with the team happening to look beyond simple assumptions and observations, peeling back the layers to find the deep insight or truth that you can then reveal in a profound way.”
Hoffman also said to avoid just reporting the news. “Are you revealing a deeper truth in a way that moves people?” he asked. “What does this look like in a product development?”
Be Curious
It’s also important to be curious, he said.
“Exercise your curiosity so it becomes second nature,” Hoffman said. “Get outside of ourselves and look beyond what’s in front of you. Use your own category for inspiration.”
Hoffman added that complacency is the enemy of creativity and innovation and “prevents us from leading from the front.” He added: “Are you looking for inspiration beyond your world? Curiosity is the bedrock for innovation.”
Hoffman also encouraged the audience to dare to be remembered.
“Reveal your soul. Can your audience feel your humanity?”
“If you show up as a brand and you’re speaking the same way at the same time, with the same characteristics, it most likely will be boring or, even worse, annoying. Make sure you know what you want to express.”
He added, “Reveal your soul. Can your audience feel your humanity?”
The reality in reaching one’s audience, he said, is that 95% of one’s customers are only engaging through your written voice. So words matter.”
Define Who You Are
“You can never stop investing in your brand’s story and voice because it’s a sea of sameness out there, and customers know that,” Hoffman said. “So, define who you are and how you want to express yourself. If you let them feel your humanity, they will vote on your behalf.”
Finally, Hoffman talked about collaboration. “Creativity is a team sport, and that includes everyone on that team,” he said.
Even if a team member can’t draw a straight line, that doesn’t mean they’re not creative, he said.
“Creativity by definition is both the conceiving of an idea and applying an idea,” he said. “I’ve led hundreds of brainstorm sessions throughout my career and I’ve never said, ‘Hey, can all the non-creative people leave the room,’ and then shut the door. No, that’s the whole point: You want that intersection of unique perspectives and experiences.
“I believe the brands that feel the most human will be the most successful.”
“We’re under extra pressure today, and we have been for a while because at the end of the day, I can’t think of a customer out there that wants to be served in an anonymous way.”
Today, companies must operate at the consumer’s speed, Hoffman said, “because if we’re not there when they need us the most, then they’ll go and engage with another brand.”
He added, “Be human, create emotion, leave your legacy. I believe the brands that feel the most human will be the most successful.
“Brands able to tell stories, be empathetic, create art and, most of all, leave legacies, will be the brands that win, so let’s leave a legacy we can be proud of.”
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