As branding has evolved, the need for brands to tell unique and authentic stories that portray their mission and values has grown continually stronger. Jay Baer says, “If your stories are all about your products and services, that’s not storytelling. It’s a brochure. Give yourself permission to make the story bigger.”

Banking trends have evolved rapidly over the past two decades. As a result, banks are working harder than ever to keep up with the demands and preferences of their customers. These advancements include offerings that make banking more accessible, create the ability to bank more freely, and have a more tailored experience that is personalized to their needs. It is difficult to say what new developments will occur in the decades to come that will continue to shape the optimal customer experience. What is known, however, is that these advancements have changed the banking customer experience forever.

There has never been more pressure for organizations to differentiate themselves and create loyal customers. With a growing desire by consumers to both have increasingly personalized experiences, and to share the values and culture of the companies they both buy from and work for, brands need to evolve in order to thrive. Agile brands will balance the need for control over their messaging, products and services with the need to connect with their customers in more meaningful ways.

In most professions, being “busy” is actually a good thing, because it means you are needed, and there are enough customers or clients to keep the lights on. But there’s a more toxic form of busy that keeps great work from happening, deadlines from being met, and work relationships from thriving. To help, let’s define a vocabulary that makes this easier. Being busy means that you’re running around from task to task, continually feeling overwhelmed, late to meetings, and overdue on assignments and tasks. Let’s treat that as the negative way of looking at things.

Jeff Bezos famously said, “your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” It’s true that a company or organization cannot control people’s opinions, feelings, perceptions or reactions to everything it does. A strong brand can help provide a common way for people to think and talk about your company, product, or services. Let’s explore a few ways that your brand is more than the sum of its parts.

I wrote my new book, The Agile Brand, based on the idea that modern brands need a more fluid and two-way relationship with their customers. In order to do this, however, it requires that organizations adopt an agile mindset. 

Playing a piece of music well takes a lot of coordination, skill at playing the instruments involved and an underlying sense of rhythm to tie it all together. Richard Wagner, the famous conductor and composer, once said, “The whole duty of a conductor is comprised in his ability always to indicate the right tempo.” While the conductor can’t play all the instruments in a symphony themselves, they are critical to making sure the right notes are played at the right time.

Let’s face it. There are just too many stimuli today, from the constant barrage of advertising on every device, medium and channel, to push notifications on your smartphone, to your flooding email inbox, and, well, you get the picture. Consumers with information overload need a way to make quick, informed decisions and choose the right product or service.

The promise of artificial intelligence (AI) is its ability to be used as a tool to allow us to do things better, faster and (in some cases) cheaper than other existing methods. This is a major reason why AI has made inroads in many industries, including marketing and advertising.

Brands are being continually forced to keep up with the latest trends in order to stay relevant and successful.

Successful brands have been using social media listening in order to stay ahead of their competition for years.