No Time For Timidity: Brand Strategy in B2B with Tara Cloak

Are you finding it harder and harder to cut through the marketing noise? More channels. More content. More options. How can businesses stand out and connect with people who need their help? What’s certain is that it’s no time to be timid when it comes to brand strategy.

Tara Cloak is Strategy Director at HB, a 25-year-old independent B2B marketing and creative agency working with clients including Microsoft, CBRE and Grant Thornton. She came to brand strategy through design, driven by a conviction that creative work without strategic intent doesn't have meaning. When a former marketing director colleague told her that design was just "colouring in", she set out to combine the magic and logic in everything she does.

In this conversation, Tara draws on HB's own recent rebrand - trying to escape the pigeonhole of their own success. She argues that the most important brand work happens long before and long after the guidelines are handed over. If you're a leader, marketer or entrepreneur rethinking your brand strategy and trying to stand out, this episode is for you.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• Why "I need a new website" is almost never the real problem
• What Veuve Clicquot reveals about the most dangerous decision in any rebrand
• Why a ‘big reveal’ is usually the wrong approach to internal alignment
• Brand results may take years to show up in tracking data, so what are the early signals to look for?
• The one question to ask at your next board meeting that tells you whether your brand is in good health

Links:

HB: https://uk-hb.com/

Connect with Tara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taracloak/

Chapters:

0:00:59 - From ‘colouring in’ to brand strategy

0:07:07 - The Driving Idea: what guidelines can't do

0:09:01 - When your people are your brand - and why that's a risk

0:12:08 - Logic and magic: what the research process actually looks like

0:13:52 - Why you should talk to your client's clients

0:18:22 - Why clients rebrand - and whether they should

0:21:55 - Familiarity breeds contempt

0:23:47 - The hidden work: change management

0:26:14 - Limit the ta-da moments

0:29:03 - AI and the end of production value

0:31:37 - What makes a rebrand meaningful

0:32:08 - Rebranding the rebranders: did it work?

0:33:17 - The metric Tara actually trusts

0:35:36 - Brands live in brains

0:36:31 - The boardroom test

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Thanks for listening.

Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. Listen to more episode via https://pod.link/1783648578.

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