Calvin Stovall

What do brands like Starbucks, The Beatles and Al’s Breakfast have in common? They all have successfully achieved iconic status. Iconic brands have a purpose beyond money and provide a brand experience that stands out from the crowd and serves as a shining symbol of excellence to which other brands aspire. There’s a common myth that becoming an iconic brand is reserved for Fortune 500 companies with large marketing budgets. But that assumption is wrong! Even if you’re a 14-seat, diner/institution in Dinkytown (Minneapolis) any company, regardless of size and location, can achieve iconic status. Create competitive advantage by leveraging the four components of The ICONIC Framework™. During this session, attendees will not only be introduced to strategies and tactics that can help transition companies into iconic status, but also address the criticality of employee engagement and customer experience in building a brand that stands the test of time.

What is it about a great song that makes you want to hear it over and over again? Why do we crave a hook that loops within the same song? And how does a song end up getting stuck in your head? Research shows that more than 90 percent of the time spent listening to music people are actually hearing tracks they’ve listened to before. Repetition is an astounding prevalent feature of music, and it’s the same for business. Purchase repetition and sharing experiences is prevalent to the success of any iconic brand. How does your brand hit all the right notes and get stuck in the minds of customers so that they want to buy from you repeatedly and share their experience with others? During this session, attendees will learn how iconic brands like Disney, The Rolling Stones and Amoeba Music, the iconic Hollywood record store have mastered the power of repetition and hooks by continually delivering a consistent customer experience to drive repetitious purchase behavior amongst its fan base for decades.

Harley-Davidson, Soul Train and Mitchell & Ness, a Philadelphia sporting goods store that has been stitching and repairing jerseys since 1904 — the list of iconic brands is large but not when you consider the millions of businesses worldwide that never reach that special status. Ultimately, the power of your brand lies in your ability to make an emotional connection with your customers. Research shows that 80% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience. Even as companies have spent millions of dollars introducing new brands and protecting established ones, customers have become less loyal. The world’s throwaway mindset is why many brands rise and fall so quickly. When customers aren’t given anything meaningful to invest in, they don’t. What can businesses today learn from some of the world’s most iconic brands to make your customers love you more? During this presentation, attendees will learn how to leverage the strategies and tactics iconic brands have known for decades to win the hearts and minds of their customers for a lifetime.

Leaders of iconic brands like Virgin, Chick-fil-a and Story, a permanent retail shop in Chelsea NY which completely changes every 4-6 weeks, relentlessly focus on, and understand the vital link between inspired leadership and customer experience. The experience economy we live in today requires an authentic leader who can promote a customer-centered culture and paint a vivid and real picture of the brand vision for employees and customers alike. This includes the benefits your brand delivers, the promises you make, and how you follow-through after delivering upon those promises. Research shows that 70% of a brand’s perception is driven by its employees. Leaders of iconic brands understand words and actions matter more than ever before. As remarkable as these iconic leaders’ achievements may appear, the underpinnings of their successes can be modeled by any organization. During this presentation, attendees will learn practical lessons of how iconic leaders inspire employees to accomplish more than they’ve ever imagined and help companies create loyalty beyond reason.