Keynotes and Workshops for 2020: The State Of Meaning In Business.

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The state of meaninglessness in business.

We're all painfully aware of this situation as there are many gaps we come to contact with in our daily work that make the value we so tirelessly work for disappear. The large-scale state of meaninglessness in the global market today is rising due to the last two decades of globalisation, homogenised production and consumption, an absolute overproduction and overabundance of products and services, excess of information, data and technology messaging, advertising, you name it. This mindless consumerism has brought us to the point of exhaustion – not just mental, financial, psychological, but also the spiritual exhaustion.

We don't seem to understand that the more we churn out, the less it means. That's why the tide today is turning towards sustainability, authenticity and diversity. When we have less, we have more gratitude. Things mean more to us and we are able to reconnect with our souls, our authentic spirit and our unique essence. It's then when things truly come to life.

But, the meaning crisis we are witnessing in business today isn't only because we are drowning in the excess of material goods and information that leads us to the brink of collapse as a culture and society, it is also because organisations themselves had been built on a matrix that perpetuates this state of meaninglessness. We still manage brands and organisations in silos, based on hard facts where intuition, culture, meaning and humanity are seen as nice-to-have, instead of an absolute core of the business itself and the reason to be in business in the first place: to provide value to people. There are many gaps tied to meaning and value that we need to bridge to move forward to a more meaningful future...

These gaps we can find in business today are occurring mainly between what organisations say and what they actually do, between the shiny new brand promises and purposes that organisations create versus the ownable differentiated symbolic meaning that your customers actually care about, between the imagined world of a brand and the world of culture and society outside of your organisation, and lastly between what you intended to say, but somehow it wasn't met with the actual consumer perception because the real-world context tends to sway, twist and distort your perfectly crafted messaging with its own nature.

All of these are the reasons why brands and organisations are losing their value today. Thankfully, there is a cure: cultural and contextual thinking. All it all starts and ends with your own ability to understand and navigate how meaning is created, how it's produced, how it's shared and how it's consumed by your audiences. This is true no matter the business that you're in because meaning is the fundamental value that your customers consume in any sector – it's what we relate to based on our own personal values and beliefs – be it in telco, banking, consumer goods, utility companies, online services, media, DTC brands or luxury.

We care about what brands represent to us, how they add value to our own lives and how they enable us to creatively enhance and express our own identity. In short, it's all about personal relevance. This is the new consumer paradigm we are venturing into in 2020.

Which is why starting 2020, I have partnered up with the lovely team at Speakers Associates in the UK, who will now help me book my keynote talks, workshops and consulting engagements across Europe and beyond to get this message across at scale.

Knowledge is power. If you understand where the value is and how it's created in the world full of cultural complexity and disruption where meaning has become the biggest scarcity, the more value you can create in your own business, brand and for your customers.

Keynotes and workshops for 2020

This year, I will be offering six new talks aimed at a deeper understanding of how brands link to culture, how to create new value and relevance for the Next-Gen consumers, what is the newly emerging consumer paradigm all about and how it affects your business, how to close the deepening and widening gap of meaning between brands, businesses on one hand and culture and society on the other, and how the luxury brands – known for their superior symbolic value – can create new value in the 21st century by tapping into their authentic essence while being culturally relevant to their new and diverse global audiences.

Here's a short summary of my featured talks.

Talk 1. The Future Of Behaviour: The NextGen Consumer

The NextGen consumer embraces meaning and relevance above all. Personal relevance is becoming the alpha and omega for brands to create to help consumers creatively express their own authentic identities. We are seeing the marketplace shift from buying to being, from ownership to usership and from aspiration to identity. This new cultural dynamic is turning the old brand model on its head. These shifts in consumer preferences, values and behaviours have large-scale implications for brands and how they need to design their future strategies, communication and experiences to attract The New Consumer in this fluid age.

???? This talk will help you find the answers to what it is that people crave today, why they behave this way and what you can do to align your brand’s future with these shifts in cultural values and human behaviour.

Talk 2. The Future Of Brands: Lead With Meaning, Not Purpose

Brands are in the business of meaning exchange, not the purpose. People buy what brands mean to them, not brands and products alone. They don’t buy your WHY, they buy their own WHY: personal relevance. That’s why understanding how people create meaning – culturally, cognitively and symbolically – and how this meaning shapes your customers’ perception needs to be at the forefront of your future brand strategy. While purpose externalises brand value to the neverland of lofty promises that are seldom delivered to the customer, meaning helps you craft an ownable and differentiated symbolic territory for your brand to occupy in people’s minds in the realm of the here and now.

???? This talk will explain how to manage brand value and equity and why meaning is the strategy for the next decade. For more information on this topic, read my latest article for Branding Strategy Insider called Vision 2020: Lead With Meaning.

Talk 3. Brand Trust, Authenticity, Meaning & Cultural Relevance

Brand trust is at an all-time low as brands are misstepping their social mark and making gestures that are culturally irrelevant. Cultural irrelevance is one of the biggest reasons why brands struggle to grow and retain their value today. As the Culture is the new product for brands, knowing how to navigate the codes of culture strategically in the global marketplace full of complexity and disruption is paramount to the future success of brands and organisations. Learning how to create an authentic meaning connected to your brand’s essence that is aligned with your customers’ values, as well as their cultural values, is the key to managing brands that are relevant, valuable and profitable in today’s quickly changing world.

???? This talk will help you understand the vital role of authenticity, meaning and cultural relevance for increasing brand trust and your credibility.

Talk 4. Closing The Gap Between Organisations & Society

Organisations and brands are misaligned with the society and the world of people. This makes their strategies, communication, behaviours and actions in the real world largely irrelevant, which in turn makes their lose value and stunts their long-term growth. For all the data measurement, technology and efficiency, we have lost the human touch. We live in a world of friction, silos, fragmentation and noise, where things make little to no sense. The four key disconnects (meaning gaps) in business today are between brands/organisations and the Culture, the Context in which they operate, Trust and Credibility they fail to foster due to lack of integrity between corporate values & actions, and Social Impact led by a purpose that lacks grounding in the real world of people. When organisations close these gaps and learn to better mirror the pace of evolution in culture and society, they can become more meaning-driven, human-led and create real value and growth.

???? This talk or workshop will help you identify these four key gaps in your organisation and give you practical ways how to fix them to create a more meaningful brand and organisation. For more information, read my article for Branding Strategy Insider called Why Global Brands Fall Into The Gap Of Meaning.

Talk 5. The Future Of Luxury: How Cultural Shifts Affect Brands

The world of luxury is quickly changing today. The recent global social, economic and political events have rewritten the rules of luxury for good. Traditional luxury brands are finding it difficult to adjust to this altered reality as their new normal. But all is not lost. Luxury brands can respond to these new threats and challenges by learning how to navigate the invisible streams of Culture strategically. Luxury is all about meaning: it has a superior symbolic value that far surpasses the functional value of its products, brands and services. This makes it incredibly sensitive to culture change.

???? This talk, based on The Luxury Report 2019, will explain the five key cultural shifts redefining the global face of luxury today and the five strategic actions that luxury leaders can take to capitalise on the shifting streams of culture to create new value, meaning and cultural relevance, rather than being passively affected by these shifts.

Talk 6. The New Meaning Of Luxury: Rise Of The Authentic Self

Culture is a powerful agent of change. As the culture shifts, it redefines what things mean along with it. One of those concepts is Luxury. Luxury in the 21st century has become synonymous with much different things than were viewed as a luxury in the past. What was scarce throughout history is now abundant and what was abundant is now scarce. We are moving away from the ostentatious and status-seeking symbols of luxury, opulence and excess as we learn to embrace minimalism, authenticity and connect back to our human essence to truly live and feel in the moment. The luxury brands across industries – be it personal luxury, experiential luxury, hospitality, wellbeing and leisure sectors or spatial design, architecture and sensory retail – need to adopt the new visual and symbolic language of luxury to be seen as relevant, engaging and attractive to The New Luxury Consumer.

???? This talk will help you understand what the new meaning of luxury is and why embracing the Authentic Self is the highest form of luxury.

Interested in these topics, but from a slightly different angle?

If you're interested in the themes I am speaking about, but from a slightly different angle, please let me know. We can tailor the talk together to match the theme of your next event.

For more information and bookings:

For more information about availabilities and bookings, please contact my agent Cosimo Turroturro at [email protected].

You can also see the details and my bio on my new Speakers Associates profile here: https://www.speakersassociates.com/speaker/martina-olbertova

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Still here?

Listen to our new podcast conversation with the great Sean Pillot de Chenecey on the state of meaning in business today, why meaning is the core value of brands and organisations, how to craft it consciously as a part of business strategy, on Simon Sinek and the Brand Purpose conundrum, the importance of culture in creating personal relevance for your customers in the 21st century, luxury and my upcoming book and plans for 2020.

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THE SPEAKERS SHOW PODCAST | FEBRUARY 2020

??? : On The State Of Meaning(lessness) In Business Today

Check out the latest podcast on the current state of meaning in business to get the extra context on how I think, what I talk about and why and how I can help you tackle the meaning and relevance related challenges at your own brand, business and organisation.

Listen here: https://www.speakersassociates.com/article/fireside-chat-with-martina-olbertova