Many say a brand is a company’s personality and overall symbol of what it stands for. In a very intuitive article in Forbes, brand is simplified as follows:
Your “brand” is what your prospect thinks of when he or she hears your brand name. It’s everything the public thinks it knows about your name brand offering—both factual (e.g. It comes in a robin’s-egg-blue box), and emotional (e.g. It’s romantic). Your brand name exists objectively. People can see it. It’s fixed. But your brand exists only in someone’s mind.
So what happens to a company’s sales and overall competitiveness if prospects (and even its own employees) begin to associate the company name with negative words such as old-fashioned, legacy, or out-of-touch?
We discuss how companies can turn to innovation to Activate Brand Awareness in our latest Insight Series report.
Download cost-free: Activate Brand Awareness.
Case study #5 examines how companies promote their innovation and their activities in the innovation ecosystem as a way to boost external (and internal) consideration.
Overall, the report provides a thought-provoking look at how companies collaborate with innovative startups and the worldwide innovation ecosystem to support business needs.
In our latest report, we discuss how a company’s brand needs to be nurtured.
In focus, we present how Ericsson, Amazon Web Services, Gold Corp Mining, Merck, Vodafone, and Saudi Electricity Company focused on their brand.
These smart companies sought channels to promote that they are indeed modern, innovative businesses.
Ericssson is a leading provider of Information and Communication Technology that manages almost half of the world’s mobile traffic through their networks. It has been serving its customers for over 140 years. It sought a channel to promote its cutting edge research and showcase that it is a modern company.
Similary, Amazon Web Services, Gold Corp Mining, Merck, Vodafone, and Saudi Electricity chose to present their cases to the entire innovation community by speaking at the World Incubation Summit 2018 held in Toronto, Canada.
These insightful companies place innovation at the forefront.
They shared their approach to innovation in an open dialogue. We see that the aim is to bring brands to life and form long-term attachments with customers through emotional connections. Corporations seek brand activation through different activities such as promotions, events, and free products.
Download Activate Brand Awareness for a closer look.
Over one-third of the UBI Global member business incubator and accelerator programs benchmarked reported at least one corporate partner. It is through these partnerships that corporations access startup talent and secure their future competitive advantage.
Corporations strive to protect their core brand identity and seek various channels and activities.
Leveraging the innovation ecosystem and getting involved with its players is a way to activate brand awareness. Some effective ways include:
UBI Global is dedicated to enabling worldwide collaborations that impact innovation through international events, innovation insights, management tools, research and consulting services, and more. Our network is comprised of over 1200 incubators and accelerators located in over 90 countries.
In sum, these members represent over 20,000 startups worldwide!
As a well-connected thought leader in the worldwide innovation landscape, we invite you to partake in our knowledge:
Download Activate Brand Awareness.
Innovation is a key focus for businesses looking to stay competitive. Why? Because a company and its legions of executives, managers, and even researchers sometimes run out of ideas.
A fresh perspective is needed. This is especially true when it comes to managing- and reimagining– its current offerings.
Products and services must stay in step with consumer demands, and companies must foresee and stay ahead of disruptions.
This often means recruiting outside help. Activate Product Development by turning to business incubators and their startups to address this approach.
In Case Study #6 in our latest report, Activate Product Development, we discuss how both Coca-Cola and Telefónica both looked outwards to source innovative ideas and fortify their business prognoses.
Overall, the report provides a thought-provoking look at how large organizations are embracing young, innovative startups through impactful collaborations in order to support key needs.
Most corporations do not know who the players are in their local innovation ecosystem. They often do not know how to become part of the innovation ecosystem.
Because of these challenges, it becomes easy to feel “stuck” and panic-stricken when searching for startups to help with brainstorming, co-creation, and product development.
Developing new products with internal efforts no longer gives corporations the means to stay at the forefront of the market. External product development through a business incubation program and the right client startup is the new corporate venture innovation strategy.
Coca-Cola regularly collaborates with the startup community to develop new ventures as a team. This type of co-creation helped it fix a widespread problem in its supply chain: how to ensure its products were refreshed on store shelves around the world. It discovered just the team to tackle this puzzle.
Every big, established company struggles when it comes to leveraging new, disruptive technologies and/or business models to drive growth. Most struggle with the speed and flexibility they need to integrate new solutions without disrupting their core.
-David Butler, Coca-Cola’s VP of Innovation
Similarly, one of the largest private telecom corporations in the world, Telefónica was struggling to convince retail stores to upgrade their current broadband deals. They turned to a startup’s new marketing application to complement their offer.
Both Coca-Cola and Telefónica turned to collaboration with startups to activate their product development. We think that’s smart!
Download our latest report for more insights into how corporations turn to the innovation ecosystem for inspiration and more: Activate Product Development.
Interest from corporations into the world of business incubators and accelerators- and their associated startups- is evident. Corporations want to be innovative and want to locate those startups that can fit with their own visions. This desire is taken to the next level by obtaining a map of the global innovation ecosystem- and an experienced, well-connected guide.
Sitting in a unique position as being part-research and consulting firm, part-association, and part venture capital-matchmaker, UBI Global helps corporations connect with on-target incubators and startups in the worldwide innovation ecosystem.
UBI Global’s member network of more than 1200 business incubators and accelerators from over 90 different countries represents over 20,000 startups worldwide.
Keeping its pulse on the global innovation landscape is made easier with its international events, insights, tools, consulting, and more!
With the latest installment of our Insight Series, we share our knowledge and offer practical advice and encouragement to those corporations looking to get innovative.
Download for free: Activate Product Development.
Reach would-be customers. Gain their loyalty. Achieve growth. Sounds simple.
In reality, many companies get stuck on the first step. They deploy many tactics to reach potential customers, many of them digital. What can a company do to reach more potential customers when it feels it has done all it can to “spread the word” online (and even off)? This is where Activate Customer Reach comes in.
It is an important aspect of the discussion in our latest installment of our Insight Series. Easy Ways to Gain New Audiences – Activate Customer Reach is available for download cost-free. The report discusses seven cases of how corporations got innovative in their thinking, focus, and activities.
We see that companies look to uncover new potential customer segments. In doing so they explore new channels to reach new people. In our Lessons in Corporate Innovation report, we focus on three forward-thinking companies who targeted startups as an untapped potential customer segment. And why not? These startups are the multinational companies of the future!
Case study #4 of the report shines the spotlight on Hubspot, Turkish Airlines, and D’Alessio Law Firm who realized that by partnering with UBI Global, they could more easily reach a brand new set of potential customers.
By crafting offers to startups, these companies could achieve a win-win with these business leaders of the future.
Hubspot, Turkish Airlines, and D’Allessio Law Firm sponsored UBI Global studies and attended and supported its international events.
In short, these forward-thinking companies collaborated with UBI Global to tap into the innovation ecosystem. Smart!
These companies recognized they needed to find new customers. They sought to publicize their solutions to UBI Global’s international network of business incubators and accelerators. Their aim: Reach these elusive startups and turn them, filled with growing ranks of employees, into customers for life.
Actors in the innovation ecosystem often form strategic partnerships and develop collaborations. This is because there are so many players from the startups themselves to incubators and accelerators, government program leaders, venture capitalists, corporate research directors and others.
What’s more, activity is buzzing all over the world while interest in being part of “the next big thing” continues to grow. Turn to our Innovation Landscape From A to Z for an overview of the complex worldwide innovation ecosystem.
UBI Global believes in impactful collaborations where partners help each other grow. And especially in the case of expanding customer reach, allies amplify their effects by working together to share their channels.
In the name of this approach, UBI Global has formed a strategic partnership with Hubspot who offers digital platforms to support inbound marketing, lead nurturing, and sales. Hubspot, though UBI Global, offers member business incubators and accelerators a way to support their ambitious startups: discounted products, free services, and more.
Similar partnerships have been formed with Turkish Airlines, who sponsored a report to gain increased visibility of its travel services.
Another example of smart thinking: D’Allesio Law Firm, was a guest speaker at the World Incubation Summit in Toronto, Canada. They immediately recognized the event as a channel to introduce their legal services to startups. In specific, they help startups recruit foreign talent by obtaining the required country-specific work visas.
Download for free: Easy Ways to Gain New Audiences – Activate Customer Reach
The World Incubation Summit 2019 is taking place in Doha, Qatar this November 4 through 7, and here are the reasons we found most compelling when choosing the location for this year’s summit. In Doha, the global innovation community will gather for networking, education, and the announcement of the top-ranked programs according to The World Benchmark Study 2019-2020. After you read this article, you will understand why we are going to Doha for the World Incubation Summit 2019.
Though small, Qatar has a very strong economy and is considered one of the best places in the world to do business. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and has rich deposits of petroleum as well. Embargoed by neighboring countries since June 2017, Qatar has had to overcome world opinion to show its robust economy was a good place to invest.
Qatar responded to these challenges by ramping up domestic production of the country’s food and consumer goods supplies to be less reliant on imports. The country has also been working to strengthen economic ties with the rest of the world. The result is that Qatar’s economy is expanding faster than most of its neighbors, with the Qatar stock market the world’s second-best performing market in 2018. WIS’19 sponsor Qatar Development Bank is playing a big role in developing the local innovation ecosystem, hence the invitation to hold the summit in the city.
International corporations by the dozen are locating to the country’s free zone, advancing their developments with startups in the local Qatar ecosystem. Driven by technology, the Qatar Foundation has also established a unique Education City, opening the pipeline of local student talent to become researchers and entrepreneurs.
Because there are nine world-class universities and three established research institutes are located within Education City, the innovation ecosystem is booming. These entities are supporting startups and corporations along with The European Innovation Academy, venture seed capital fund 500 Startups, and other iconic innovation leaders. Qatar-based talent is solving real world, Qatar based problems, and meeting market demand.
Setting up to be on the world’s stage as host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup has resulted in Doha becoming one of the most technologically advanced countries in the MENA region. Featuring the first commercially available 5G network in the world, Ooredoo’s network is an important breakthrough not just for Qatar but worldwide. Leaders in technology development include Qatar Foundation and Qatar Science and Technology Park, to name a few.
UBI Global’s CEO, Ali Amin, believes in innovation as a vehicle for democracy. By inviting the global innovation ecosystem and professionals from all parts of the world to join us in Qatar, we are opening the doors to knowledge about the country and how innovation occurs in the local ecosystem.
Attendees of The World Incubation Summit will experience a different culture in the context of innovation, in an environment that encourages discussion of common challenges and opportunities. UBI Global’s mission is to enable innovation through impactful collaborations worldwide, and the next stop on this journey has led us to the emerging and vibrant ecosystem of Doha, Qatar.
Qatar’s culture is heavily influenced by traditional nomadic, desert-dwelling Bedouin culture and in part by their proximity to the sea. Sea-based activities feature strongly in literature, folklore, poetry, and songs passed down orally from generation to generation. Songs telling stories related to pearl hunting are among the most popular folk music subjects in Qatar.
Sports are very popular in Doha and Qatar in general, where the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held for the first time in any Arab nation. Other popular sports besides football include athletics, basketball, volleyball, and camel racing, which is a traditional Bedouin sport. Falconry is also practiced widely in Qatar, with hunting season extending from October to April.
Qatar Museums, established in 2000, connects all the collections and museums in the country. There are two leading museums: the Museum of Islamic Art and the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. The Qatari Fine Arts Society has for decades promoted the works of Qatari artists and young art industry disruptors.
Heavily influenced by Iranian and Indian cuisine, Qatar cuisine also features traditional Arab and Levantine food staples. Seafood and dates figure prominently in traditional Qatari food, which is why Doha has a food scene that revolves around:
The rich culture, vibrant economy, and dynamic innovation ecosystem make Doha, Qatar the perfect location for the World Incubation Summit 2019. Experiencing this exciting culture of innovation for yourself by attending WIS’19 should be high on your educational priorities list for the year. Join us as we gather, tour, and network in one of the most vibrant economic growth areas on earth – Doha, Qatar this November 4-7.