Greg Hoffman: Former Nike CMO Reveals The Perfect Branding & Marketing Strategies

An insightful debate and conversation on this episode of Disruptors as Rob talks to one of the leading experts in branding, Greg Hoffman. They talk about all about creativity, why the art of branding is becoming lost and what it took for Greg to move through the ranks from an intern to becoming the CMO of one of the biggest fashion and sport brands in the world. Tiny.cc/robsubs KEY TAKEAWAYS A brand is more than a product. It’s something that has power and leaves a lasting impression. There are transactional brands and relationships brands. Nike is a relationship brand as they have managed to evoke emotion with their customers, by investing into the art side of branding and marketing. As we have learnt more about marketing and data, we have moved into less innovative and less personal marketing. Greg believes we are losing the ‘art side’ of branding and focusing too much on the science. Emotion by design is when you commit within your brand and business to cultivate creativity. This means investing in creating teams, creative collaboration and fostering a creative culture. Creativity is simply the creation of an idea, this is where innovation is born. Apple are often used as a great example of branding. What Greg believes they managed to do early on is to grow a brand that showed consumers what their products would help them to achieve. They made their products tie in with aspiration and invited people to be a part of something bigger. Merging a personal brand of a founder with a business, such as Steve Jobs and Apple and Elon Musk and Tesla, is incredibly powerful. The founder sets the tone and vision for the brand externally and also provides absolute clarity on the vision of the company internally and this is a further strength for the business and brand alike. You must know the rules before you break them. Understanding the fundamentals of branding is where you must start. Get this right and then you can begin to explore what more you can do. Greg had equal passion for graphic design and sport. When he landed an internship a Nike he felt he had been given a great chance. Just 7 years in he was managing the people he first interned for. Over time he was given more and more responsibility for anything surrounding branding leading to eventually becoming CMO. Ensure you are expressing all aspects of your brand at all times. It’s important to show all characteristics we as humans have, through our brands. This is the new era of branding. It’s hard to be truly disruptive and innovative without upsetting some people. If you want to be a disruptive brand then you need to be willing to be polarising in some cases. People won’t always understand what you are trying to do, but, what you must ask yourself too, is whether you are improving people’s lives. BEST MOMENTS “A brand Is not only a product…a brand is something that creates an impression in one’s mind” “[Emotion by design] It’s a celebration of the power of creativity” “If we’re to move this world forward in a better way, brands will need to play a role” “You’re the only one like yourself in the room” VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter https://robmoore.com/podbooks rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979 disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com