Juliet D’Ambrosio, Adrenaline’s Senior Director of Strategy, keynotes at the Georgia Marketing Summit on how brands can become more human in times of challenge and change
Friday, March 20, 2020 – In demanding times, brands usually either fortify or fade away. Last week on March 11, Adrenaline’s own Juliet D’Ambrosio shared her timely and relevant insights on what really matters from brands – in both good times and bad. Focusing on our shared humanity, empathy-led branding shifts a focus away from “consumers” and “audiences” and toward brands seeing the world through another person’s lens. This empathy-led approach ultimately goes beyond transactions to build deep, lasting, and loyal relationships between brands and people.
Juliet D’Ambrosio, says “The thesis of the talk is really about the idea of that we stop seeing our audiences in terms of us and them. There is but one “us” and that is the realization that brands are reaching people. Their lives are lived in context. The empathy-led branding approach is based on that understanding of the context. It’s also based on the overwhelming science that shows that we make decisions emotionally. Even though we like to think of ourselves as logical kind of reasoning creatures, we make decisions based on how we feel about a brand.”
Delivered in the shadow of the burgeoning Coronavirus crisis, Juliet’s talk was a masterclass on brands exploring their human side, contributing to a real-world conversation about our modern lives in which brands and people build relationships together. This human approach integrates behavior and emotion into meaningful brand experiences. Watching how brands are acting and reacting during our current health crisis has been revealing. Some brands are showcasing their humanity at this moment and finding their way through alongside their people, while others are taking a decidedly more detached style.
In an upcoming Insights article, we will evaluate some brands and their decidedly empathy-led approach during the Coronavirus crisis. In a later piece, we’ll be taking a deeper dive into the principles in empathy-led branding from Juliet’s keynote address. Taking place annually, the Georgia Marketing Summit brings together hundreds of Georgia-based brands in the leading statewide event for branding and marketing. To speak with one of brand communication experts, contact us at [email protected].
Adrenaline is an end-to-end brand experience company serving the financial industry. We move brands and businesses ahead by delivering on every aspect of their experience across digital and physical channels, from strategy through implementation. Our multi-disciplinary team works with leadership to advise on purpose, position, culture, and retail growth strategies. We create brands people love and engage audiences from employees to customers with story-led design and insights-driven marketing; and we design transformative brand experiences across branch networks, leading the construction and implementation of physical spaces that drive business advantage and make the brand experience real.
