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We just completed a brand refresh and I keep getting asked the same question: How do you know when its time? The answer isnt as straightforward as you might think. Brand refreshes arent just about updating logos or tweaking taglines (though thats part of it!). Theyre about ensuring your brand authentically reflects where your company is today and where its headed tomorrow. Ive been through this process many times, but I always learn something new. Heres what consistently sticks out: Many of the best brands refresh every two to three years, not because theyre broken, but because markets evolve, technology advances, and customer needs shift. The key is to ask the right five questions before you begin. 1. Is this whats best for the customer? This should be your North Star question throughout the brand refresh process. Every decision must be rooted in what delivers real value to the customer, not what simply satisfies internal preferences or fleeting trends. During our recent refresh, we kept coming back to a core concept: IT and security are at the very heart of organizational productivity. Without them, organizations would fall apart. Our customers are IT and security professionals who are up against increasing complexity every day. They need solutions that transform challenges into opportunities and empower teams to focus on innovation. This question helped our renewed mission become clear: elevating human potential by managing, automating, and protecting data and technology to empower continuous innovation. It directly addresses the pain points and daily battles, not only for our customers but also our internal IT and security teams. This isnt just a message. Its a commitment to tackling the real problems our customers face, helping both IT and security teams reclaim time and focus on what truly drives progress and growth. Its about making their work more valuable and enabling teams to focus on what truly drives progress and growth. 2. What am I really trying to sell? Be brutally honest here. Strip away the marketing speak and identify your core value proposition. For us, the answer is clear, and pretty refreshing: Were selling the unification of IT and security. Not just tools, but the actual alignment that lets teams work together instead of against each other. Our portfolio statement Manage. Automate. Protect. reflects this straightforward approach. If you cant explain your value proposition in simple terms, your customers probably cant either. 3. Does our brand match our current reality? Your brand should reflect who you are now, not who you were five years ago or who you hope to become someday. While our former brand ethos (Everywhere Work) had propelled us forward during the pandemic, the changing world and our evolving vision called for an identity evolution. We had to acknowledge that what worked five years ago, does not work today. Recognizing this, we understood the need for a transformationone that authentically represents the way we work now and the direction were heading. 4. Are we speaking our customers language? Technical audiences appreciate directness. They want to understand exactly what you do and how it helps them succeed. We know the terrain because weve navigated it ourselves, so we should be able to communicate that. Our new brand statementIT and Security. Innovation at Work.speaks directly (and concisely) to our core audience. This is not just a tagline; its a clear signal that we understand our audience and are dedicated to supporting their mission with solutions that matter. 5. Will this stand the test of time? Brand refreshes require significant investment. You want messaging that will remain relevant as your market evolves. While I believe in regularly assessing your brands fit, its crucial not to chase fleeting trends at the expense of long-term relevance. We built our refresh around enduring truths: the need for visibility across technology environments, the importance of automation in managing complexity, and the critical role of protection in enabling productivity. These foundational truths will only become more vital as technology advances. The execution matters as much as the strategy Having clear answers to these questions is just the starting point. The real work happens in execution, ensuring every touchpoint reflects your refreshed brand consistently. Weve structured our teams to deliver on our brand promise. Marketing, customer success, and renewals work as a unified organization focused on the complete customer lifecycle. This isnt just organizational efficiency; its brand integrity in action. The best brand refreshes feel inevitable once theyre complete. Your customers should think, Of course this is who they are. If youve answered these five questions honestly and executed them thoughtfully, thats exactly the response youll get, and youve set the stage for that unmistakable clarity and connection. Melissa Puls is chief marketing officer and SVP customer success and renewals at Ivanti.
Category:
E-Commerce
In a world overloaded with noise from competitor campaigns and industry hype, its easy for brands to get distracted by chasing the next shiny thing. But what if the real game changer isnt out there in the market? What if its quietly waiting in plain sightin your customers? The truth is, when customers buy products, they place trust in that brand. Winning that trust is more than a marketing stunt or a flashy campaign. Its a relentless, unapologetic obsession with understanding who the customers are, what they truly need, and how to earn their loyalty every single day. This is the only strategy proven to build lasting growth and relevance. At AT&T, weve learned that customer obsession is the North Star guiding every decision, every innovation, every interaction. This commitment has reshaped how we think, operate, and grownot overnight, but over years of listening and learning. Customer obsession and trust drives sales Why does customer obsession work? McKinsey found that companies excelling in customer experience achieved more than double the revenue growth of those that continually miss the mark. It also fosters trust, and consumers spend more at companies they trust. A 2024 PwC survey found that 46% of consumers purchased more from companies they trust, and 28% said they paid a premium. Customer obsession drives retention, deepens relevance, and ignites advocacy, the kind of loyalty that no campaign can buy. Being customer-obsessed requires durable insights and full company alignmentfrom legal to finance, field technicians to operations. It means balancing the cold, thin data, the metrics and KPIs, with thick data, the rich, contextual insights that reveal the human story behind the numbers. Put simply, its mixing IQ with emotional intelligence to truly understand your customers. Obsessing over customers also means owning your mistakes quickly, and proactively making them right before being asked. That transparency and accountability builds customer trust. As we all know, no company is perfect. The difference is in how a brand responds when it falls short of customers expectations. A long-term mindset Ill be honest: This is a multi-year journey, not a quick fix. It demands patience, resilience, and a long-term mindset. Some organizations resist, fearing customer-centric investments will cut into bottom lines. Others mistakenly believe theyre already there. Customer obsession isnt a choice between people and profitit’s what creates the momentum that sustains both. Heres an example of what it can look like in practice. This year, we launched the AT&T Guaranteea first-of-its-kind promise to deliver the connectivity our customers depend on, the deals they want, and the prompt service they deserve. If we dont get it right, we proactively fix it. Not with apologies, but with action. The AT&T Guarantee is a reflection of the culture were building, one where frontline teams are empowered, executives are accountable, and customer trust is earned every day. This didnt happen overnight. We took the time to understand our customers needs and then invested millions of dollars to build and fine-tune the capabilities to make this possible. Since launching it, weve seen measurable improvements in satisfaction and loyalty. Its proof that obsessing over customers isnt just the right thing to do, its also good for business. A sustainable advantage My challenge to leaders is this: Listen carefully to your customers and go deep into the why questions. Be willing to disrupt your own status quo to meet their evolving needs. Obsession means culture change. It means aligning your entire organization around your customers, and holding yourself accountable when they say you dont get it right. When everything changes at lightning speed, customer obsession is the only sustainable advantage. Because your customers arent just buyers; theyre your partners, your advocates, and ultimately, your future. Kellyn Smith Kenny is chief marketing and growth officer at AT&T.
Category:
E-Commerce
A growing number of car owners are finding themselves underwater on their auto loans, according to new data from the auto shopping website Edmunds.com. In short, that means what they owe is larger than what the cars are actually worth. Edmunds reported that underwater trade-ins are at their highest record since the first quarter of 2021, during the pandemic, when 31.9% of new-car trade-ins were upside down. The latest data from Edmunds for the second quarter of 2025 revealed that more than 1 in 4 new vehicle trade-ins are underwater. Simply put, that means 26.6% of trade-ins for new cars had negative equity, up from 26.1% in Q1 2025 and 23.9% in Q2 2024. The most recent data showed many Americans with upside-down car loans owed, on average, $6,754 in Q2 2025up from $6,255 for the same period last year, but still slightly lower than for the first three months of this year, when it was $6,880. “Consumers being underwater on their car loans isn’t a new trend, but the stakes are higher than ever in today’s financial landscape,” Ivan Drury, director of insights for Edmunds, said in a statement. Drury added that “affordability pressuresfrom elevated vehicle prices to higher interest ratesare compounding the negative effects of decisions like trading in too early or rolling debt into a new loan. “And as buyers take on new loans with much higher interest rates than those from just a few years ago, even potential tax deductions can’t meaningfully offset the thousands more they’ll pay in interest,” he said. That tax deduction, which is tucked away in President Donald Trumps massive 940-page tax bill that was signed into law July 4, allows many people, for the first time, to deduct interest on their vehicle loans; and it is available whether or not taxpayers itemize deductions. However, the vehicles must be new and assembled in the U.S., and the loans issued no sooner than this year. For more consumer information on underwater car loans, Edmunds offers advice in this guide. Shoppers can also use Edmunds’s appraisal tool to determine their car’s current value.
Category:
E-Commerce
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