We all want a world where heart-centered business practices are the norm, right? Well, not really. Unfortunately, we live in a business culture that continues to worship the four horsemen of desire: winning, power, status and wealth.
Nathan Hendricks, Chief Creative Officer of the world's largest employee-owned brand design agency, has spent a decade creating for some of the world's biggest brands. From working alongside Fortune 50's to startups, he's come to find what drives desire and has developed a model for better understanding human behavior.
In Nathan’s provocative and informative Love Summit keynote next month, you’ll be introduced to a model of human motivation that has the potential to turn even the most craven capitalist into a force for the common good.
Check out Nathan's pre-Love Summit Q&A below.
Nathan, tell us about LPK and your role there.
I’m Chief Creative Officer for LPK’s five global offices.
LPK is a brand strategy and innovation consultancy, purpose-built to create the now, near and next for brands. We’re independent, global and obsessed with helping brands move the needle with meaning.
For over 30 years, we’ve specialized in the strategy, design and innovations that help businesses pilot a powerful promise into the emergent culture—where we believe change happens and marketing delivers ROI. We’ve done it for brands like Beautyrest, Jim Beam and P&G.
What makes LPK a heart-centered business?
It’s really important for a company to have a soul. As the marketing industry shape-shifts and society sees huge change—some of it very tumultuous—we’ve clung to the values that built us. We’re heart-centered because it’s the right thing to do—and it also pays off in business metrics.
I often talk about the distinction between a large-market city and a small-market city. In a larger market, like New York or Paris or Shanghai, you can get away more with being socially neutral. There’s more business out there and you can choose when to engage. But in a smaller market, like Cincinnati or Milan or Dublin, you need to have a deeper reserve of empathy. It’s what attracts the talent we value and the clients we love—and that’s ultimately who we are.
I should also add that the world is getting smaller. And as the world gets smaller, being good to people will become more relevant to bigger markets. It's a competitive advantage.
Tell us about the power branding and marketing has to better the world.
Like it or not, we live in a world of consumption. We’re exposed to six times more mediated content than our parents saw at our age. Marketing has overtaken everything—newspapers, magazines, TV, other cultural domains—and there are just a ton of lousy brands out there. As branding experts, we have an interest in elevating the quality of what we send out the door. But also, for humanity’s sake, we feel an obligation to serve up more meaning.
At LPK, we use desires thinking to align brands closer to human truth. Back when I was doing focus groups a lot, earlier in my design career, I got interested in desires. We each possess 16 of them—defined by our motives, pleasures and fears—and they can act as a compass for human decision-making. It’s a methodology that makes for more meaningful, compelling brands—our effort to better the world.
Cincinnati has more marketers per capita than any city in the world; how do you see this as significant to the Love Summit business and leadership conference?
It’s true, we’re in Marketing Mecca—and I think the culture will have a positive effect on the people who travel here for the conference. Love Summit attendees are thinking in terms of heart-centered business practices—the next crucial step is applying those principles to the brand. I think of the brand as the user interface for businesses; it’s the thing that allows people to find your business and have an actual dialogue with it.
Branding is how any business communicates to the world. And Cincinnati is the ideal setting for that discussion.
What are you most looking forward to at the Love Summit this October?
There’s a lot of talk about purpose-driven brands—and ironically, most of it by the commercial ventures that create them. There’s nothing wrong with making money, but it seems like the industry tries to edit that storyline.
I’m looking forward to a more honest dialogue on this. The collision of love and business carries an inherent friction. They’re dueling ideas, and so they present a tension that is super interesting to watch. At Love Summit, the outcome of that collision might not be what you expect—but it will certainly be fresh, creative and valuable.
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Nathan Hendricks believes there is no excuse for a lousy brand. As chief creative officer at LPK, he brings nearly three decades of experience across virtually every category, merging diverse disciplines to approach brands with innovative methodologies, such as desires thinking. Across offices in Cincinnati, London, Geneva, Singapore and Guangzhou, he has developed winning creative for a long and varied roster of clients, including Gillette, Titleist, Pringles, Beam Suntory, AB InBev, Herbal Essences, Olay and Coleman. In every effort, Hendricks challenges his teams to uphold LPK’s vision: that every brand should make a powerful and positive difference for the people it serves. A candid cultural commentator, he’s never afraid to tell it like it is. His industry insights and design methodologies have been quoted in publications like Fast Company, Quartz, AdAge, DMI, HOW Magazine and UX Magazine, among others. Hendricks holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from The Ohio State University, where he majored in visual communications and cultivated an affection for beer.
#LoveSummit2017 business & leadership conference tickets available at lovesummit2017.eventbrite.com.