There’s a delicate balance between progress and perfection in marketing. When businesses strive for perfection, decision-by-consensus slows or stalls efforts. Innovative products, campaigns, and services never make it to market or a competitor launches their offering first, diluting your offering and investments. On the flip side, there’s a risk of moving too quickly and promising something that the business can’t deliver on or launching something that doesn’t meet customers’ needs.

We’re halfway through 2020, one of the most multi-faceted years in our lifetimes. As businesses look to the second half of the year, they’re scrambling to adapt their go-to-market approach to navigate the disruptive economic environment. They’re asking tough questions about their relevance in this new market and whether their product or service needs to change. They’re looking for new opportunities to grow. The lesson that businesses will learn this year is one that has always been true. Focus is critical for sustained growth.

On May 21st, Authentic Brand hosted the first-ever Integrator User Group event for companies powered by the Entrepreneurial Operating System®.

On June 11th, the SANCTUARY community of marketing executives gathered for a critical conversation on equity and diversity in marketing. Our community came together, ready to embrace hard, humbling, and candid conversations as a step toward healing.

We are quickly approaching mid-year, and business leaders everywhere are thinking about how they move forward in an undefined new world. Whether a business has been booming, shuttered, or stalled, the second half of 2020 is going to be monumental in separating companies that will thrive from those that will merely survive.

On May 21st, Authentic Brand hosted the first-ever Integrator User Group event for companies powered by the Entrepreneurial Operating System®.

Authentic Brand is delighted to announce the addition of Ruth Glaser as Fractional CMO and valuable member of our growing marketing mindshare and team. As Co-Founder & Former Co-CEO of Let’s Dish!, Ruth brings consumer marketing depth and entrepreneurial growth chops to Authentic Brand’s SMB clients.

The second SANCTUARY event was held yesterday, April 30, with nearly 100 marketing leaders attending to connect, encourage, learn, and grow with peers as we navigate forward in the midst of COVID-19. The event series is a collaboration between Authentic Brand, Storycore, and Marketers' Community - designed as a virtual gathering space and safe environment for candid conversations among marketing executives.

The rapidly-evolving nature of a crisis requires marketing and communication teams to stay nimble by listening carefully to their key stakeholders, adapting quickly, and leaning more purposefully into the turns. Crises are a time when showing up in the service of your customers, employees, and communities matters. Businesses must consider how they can best serve their stakeholders during these times.

Authentic Brand is pleased to welcome Kelly Klopotek as the newest member of its growing Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) team. For the past 25 years, Klopotek has successfully led both marketing and business development efforts for several prestigious law firms, and has held sales and leadership positions for multiple global companies.

Crises often put businesses in one of two scenarios. They are either suddenly thrust into survival mode or, in some cases, the disruption of the crisis creates a growth opportunity. Regardless of how a crisis impacts a business, marketing and communication teams need to be ready to strategically allocate resources in the right direction, make quick decisions, and communicate clearly and frequently.

How should brands show up in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis? Should every business take the same approach to content and messaging? And what good things could happen for brands through all of this? These are just some of the topics discussed in a recent conversation between Jennifer Zick and Justin Keller.