Follow the Feeling

Follow the Feeling

by Kai D. Wright
Released August 2019
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119600497

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Book description

Elevate your brand, rise above the crowd, and build tribe

In Follow the Feeling, strategy advisor Kai D. Wright answers a critical question plaguing entrepreneurs, brand strategists, marketers, and leaders: how do you grow your brand in a noisy world? Analyzing 1,500 fast-growing companies from Alibaba to Zara, the Columbia University lecturer and Ogilvy global consulting partner unpacks five branding secrets. Starting with behavioral economic principles and ending with a new systems-based approach to brand building, Wright offers readers one metric that trumps the hundreds entangling brand value, feelings.

Follow the Feeling will show you how to best build and position your brand so you can stand out from competitors, build a tribe, and engineer a positive feeling across five important branding territories—lexicon, audio cues, visual stimuli, experience, and culture. Sharing real-world lessons and practical advice he has gained helping everyone from Sean Diddy Combs and Meghan Trainor to Bank of America and HP develop and implement shareable, culturally-infectious branding strategies. Through storytelling, global research, and practical tips, this valuable book will help you and your organization:

  • Efficiently create and deploy a comprehensive brand strategy across the organization
  • Quickly launch new brands or reboot existing brands for growth
  • Build tribes from audiences, consumers, clients, and partners
  • Lean into the convergence of communication, culture, digital, and technology

Regardless of industry or sector, branding is essential for companies, non-profits, and even individuals. Follow the Feeling: Brand Building in a Noisy World is a must-have resource for anyone from C-Suite executives to aspiring entrepreneurs seeking to unleash the full potential of their brand. And in this world of ever-increasing metrics paired with waning attentiveness, the most important signal of brand health is how you, through your brand, make people feel.

Table of contents

  1. COVER
  2. PREFACE
    1. NOTES
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  4. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  5. INTRODUCTION
    1. FORMING A WORLDVIEW
    2. A CASE FOR CHANGE
    3. FEELINGS AREN'T THINGS TO GLOSS OVER
    4. NOTES
  6. 1 INSIDE OUT
    1. A RED-HOT INDUSTRY
    2. A FEW THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
    3. NOTE
  7. 2 GOING HAYWIRE
    1. “MOST OF THE TIME WE COAST”
    2. THE VIRALITY COEFFICIENT
    3. NOTES
  8. 3 RESONANCE VERSUS SHARE OF VOICE
    1. A LESSON IN AUDIENCE PHYSICS
    2. THE ECONOMY OF COMMUNITY
    3. ARE WE SPEAKING ON THE SAME WAVELENGTH?
    4. AVOIDING DISSONANCE BEGINS IN THE BRIEFING
    5. NOTES
  9. 4 CREATIVITY APPLIED STRATEGICALLY
    1. THE CRACKS IN THE AXIOMS
    2. EMOTIONAL HORSEPOWER DRIVES MANY A DECISION
    3. INFLUENCE RULES THE DAY, BUT WE CAN RULE INFLUENCE
    4. SURVIVING BRAND QUICKSAND
    5. A SYSTEM BUILT FOR BRAND “VALUE”
    6. EVERY HERO NEEDS A VILLAIN
    7. NOTES
  10. 5 COMMUNICATION AS A SYSTEM
    1. COMMUNICATION AS A “SYSTEM”
    2. WIRED TO THINK, FEEL, AND DO
    3. FINDING THE RIGHT TRIGGERS AND TRAPS
    4. A FIGHT FOR EQUALITY
    5. NOTES
  11. 6 LEXICON TRIGGERS
    1. LIMITS OF WORDS
    2. CONTEXT
    3. THE INVISIBLE HAND: COMMUNITY
    4. SHIFTING FROM TARGET AUDIENCE TO COMMUNITY
    5. A TALE OF TWO WORDS
    6. NICHE WINS
    7. BRANDING LANGUAGE
    8. A PLANNING PROCESS MINDSET SHIFT
    9. THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF BEING A “HOUSEHOLD NAME”
    10. ANCHORS AND NORMATIVE MESSAGING
    11. CUTTING ANCHORS LOOSE
    12. CONCLUSION
    13. NOTES
  12. 7 AUDIO CUES
    1. EVERY BRAND LONGS TO BE HEARD
    2. AUDIO'S ROLE: HARDLY NEW, BUT CERTAINLY EVOLVING
    3. SOUND AS A MOOD SHIFTER
    4. IS AUDIO THE MOST SALIENT PART OF “MEMORY”?
    5. OUR FIREWALL WORKS LIKE THIS: “TUNING OUT”
    6. HOW BRANDS LEARN FROM TELEVISION THEME SONGS
    7. OWNING A SONIC CUE—DECLINE OF THE JINGLE
    8. TRANSLATING SOUNDS
    9. RESULTS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND
    10. SOUND AND PRODUCT DESIGN
    11. VOICE
    12. THIS COULD GIVE YOU A HEADACHE
    13. REPETITION IS MARKETING MYTHOLOGY
    14. CONCLUSION
    15. NOTES
  13. 8 VISUAL STIMULI
    1. WORDS ARE FINITE, IMAGES ARE LIMITLESS
    2. SAY IT WITH PURPOSE
    3. COLOR
    4. SHAPE
    5. BECOMING MORE VISUAL SEARCHERS, LEARNERS, AND SHARERS
    6. THE JOURNEY TO BRANDS BEING CONTENT
    7. WELCOME TO THE NEWEST COMMUNICATION CLUB MEMBERS
    8. THE NEW MOVING IMAGE
    9. TRACKING EVOLUTION ONE DICTIONARY AT A TIME
    10. CONCLUSION
    11. NOTES
  14. 9 EXPERIENCE DRIVERS
    1. CREATE A CROSS-FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM
    2. BUSINESS MODELS BUILT ON EXPERIENCE
    3. EVOLUTION OF “BRAND”
    4. OMNICHANNEL ATTRIBUTES
    5. GREAT STRATEGY COMES FROM UNCONVENTIONAL PLACES
    6. THE GOAL OF EXPERIENCE
    7. CONCLUSION
    8. NOTES
  15. 10 CULTURAL CONNECTIONS
    1. THE MYTH OF “SAFETY IN SIZE”
    2. COMMUNICATION'S ROLE IN CULTURE
    3. GETTING OUT OF YOUR SEAT, AND INTO THE FIELD
    4. WHO'S THE VILLAIN IN YOUR BRAND STORY?
    5. FINDING YOUR NORTH STAR
    6. BUILDING A NARRATIVE
    7. AN AGE WHERE POV MATTERS
    8. OWNING YOUR NARRATIVE
    9. UNDERCOVER BOSS
    10. AIMING FOR SUCCESS IN ACTION AND COMMITMENT
    11. FINDING YOUR BRAND'S NORTH STAR
    12. NOTES
  16. 11 FOLLOWING THE FEELING
    1. ACHIEVING BRAND LIFT-OFF
    2. NOTES
  17. INDEX
  18. END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

Product information

  • Title: Follow the Feeling
  • Author(s): Kai D. Wright
  • Release date: August 2019
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119600497