About

When a marketing agency is a branding agency

Everything is interconnected and conjoined. Marketing. Branding. Advertising. Digital engagement. All of it. Stealing Share is a marketing agency. Stealing Share is a branding agency.

We are experts (read our bios here) in stealing market share. We are experts in persuasion and influencing purchase behaviors. Any marketer who does not see the locked relationship between branding and marketing needs to find another profession.

Many marketing agencies pretend branding is part of their quiver of services. But those same agencies don’t know the difference between brand and identity. They don’t know the difference between marketing and advertising.

It starts with the brand

Great brands are persuasive. They have intrinsic meaning and make a promise to those who embrace it. They don’t make a promise of product benefit or service innovation. They make a promise of elevated identity. But not their own corporate identity… they promise an aspirational identity to the prospect and customer.

Stealing Share invented brand anthropology and revolutionized what a marketing agency is—the cognitive science of magnetic identity. Before we create a marketing strategy, we redefine your brand promise. We make that promise reflect the aspirations of the customer. We polish it to a mirror finish worthy of the Hubble telescope.

When prospects and customers find your brand, we make them covet it. Because they feel incomplete without possessing it, they will pay more for it. And they will inconvenience themselves to own it.

Brand refocusing

It is cognitive science, combined with experience and research. Just as we meld branding and marketing, we bring a new model of market research into our agency fold.

Forget your old research. Our revolutionary approach is predictive. We invented a means to quantify emotional triggers. So, our marketing research opens a new window into your market.

Brand anthropology is the science of finding humanity in your brand message. Our market research invented a way to measure it and predict outcomes.

A marketing agency with fingers on the customer’s pulse

Imagine what you can do with this powerful research learning. We don’t imagine. We create research that moves mountains and uncovers veins of diamonds. The insights are virtual diamonds — strong and indestructible gems. We build your brand promise on these.

We sweep away clutter and reveal the emotional fibers of the magnetic brand essence. This essence is your treasure. Defend it at all costs. It is transformative, rare, and powerful. It’s the soul of who you are. As a result, when your prospects see it— they never forget it.

Brand without marketing is incomplete

It’s not enough for prospects to grab your brand when they see it. They must find it to see it. This is where Stealing Share morphs from a revolutionary branding company into a transformative marketing agency.

Because we start with your brand and research your market space, the marketing strategy fits securely on the brand’s new foundation—marketing with purpose and vigor.

A marketing strategy that harnesses the innate power in the brand and takes the highest emotional intensity the research identified and makes it actionable.

Stealing Share has redefined a marketing agency. We see it as conjoined with the brand. They are conjoined twins. Separate the conjoined twins and risk the death of one or both. Twins may look similar. But their personalities define them as individuals.

Brand and marketing belong together

Brand and marketing share DNA. They are organically tied together, so you can’t separate them. Your brand and marketing strategy support each other. They cannot thrive if separated. So we don’t.

The hard truth. The lifespan of the brand and marketing strategy is short. The market rules change. Time contracts, and so you must reevaluate messaging regularly—culture transforms. The new challenger will leave you behind.

Reaching the target audience changes as new media channels emerge. Old venues fade. Each new channel demands tactics reflective of the rising road. One size never fits all. And today, there are many more sizes. It’s time for a different type of marketing agency.

Stealing Share’s marketing strategies reflect this fact.

Brand and marketing theory is not enough

We create visual imagery to complete the story. Our small elite creative team supports the brand and marketing strategy with everything needed. We create design, advertising, social media, digital elements, trade shows, brochures — everything.

But we are not an advertising agency. We are a brand and marketing agency.

Our creative group IS small and elite. We will not become your agency of record. It’s not who we are. We make all the creative work you need, and then we hand it off to your agency or your in-house creative group. You won’t want to let us go. But that’s how we work.

The most formidable job is to execute the new strategy and stay true to the brand’s promise. After that, your agency can carry on.

It’s better to plan an exit

Because our engagement is finite, we are free to tell you the truth. Even if it stings. Advertising agencies won’t do that. We have no plan to set up a long-term retainer-based relationship. We believe it to be a conflict of interest.

Like surgeons, we have a laser focus and specific skill sets. We use modern cognitive science and the smarts of today’s persuasive analyses to transform your market.

We are not for everybody

Marketing agencies are generalists. We are specialists.

We have built brands in every category—business to business, consumer products, services, destinations, and organizations. Categories are not our specialty. Our sole specialty is stealing market share.

That’s what we do. It’s who we are. If you think we might be for you, contact us and we can talk about it.

 

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