VSA Chief Creative Officer Curt Schreiber was recently a guest on Greg Kihlström’s podcast, “The Agile Brand.” In this episode, Curt and Greg explore the benefits of stakeholder design and how organizations can implement it into their own business practices.

Stakeholder design emphasizes the importance of optimizing outcomes for multiple stakeholders, which could be shareholders, employees, customers or even outside groups, like nonprofits or social justice organizations. Curt has previously worked with Jon Iwata and the Yale Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management on “The New Brief,” which gathered 60 business leaders, designers and strategic thinkers to develop new ideas and processes for stakeholder design.

Curt outlines why stakeholder design has become critical to success and innovation. First, CEOs today face ever-increasing pressure to meet the needs of multiple groups but often feel underprepared to lead in this landscape. Stakeholder design can help manage optimal outcomes for these sometimes opposing demands, and support CEOs as they respond to these new expectations.

It also yields more creative solutions that drive growth. Stakeholder design naturally involves a greater set of constraints, which Curt explains are essential for encouraging outside-the-box design thinking. Its practice involves breaking down siloed departments and cross-collaboration that can spark innovative thinking.

Listen to the full podcast to hear more from Curt about how businesses can implement stakeholder design, the value of horizontal thinking over vertical thinking and why stakeholder design can help you bring value to more people than ever before.

Curt Schreiber was recently interviewed on the podcast “Bonanza Growth: Innovation, Strategy and UX for SaaS,” hosted by Behrad Mirafshar.

Behrad and Curt dove deep on how to transition from a graphic designer to creative director, how Curt has seen brands shift in response to emerging technologies, the complexity of stakeholder design and how to build a strong brand experience.

The Bonanza Growth podcast features hands-on knowledge from experts on UX design, design thinking and product innovation.

Click here to listen to the show.

Chief Creative Officer Curt Schreiber was recently a guest on the podcast “Prodity: Product by Design,” hosted by Kyle Evans.

On the show, Curt and Kyle discuss the power of constraints and negative space in design, the importance and power of reconceptualizing brand identity during periods of business transition, and how to create multistakeholder design in the modern world.

“Product by Design” features interviews with founders, leaders and experts about product management, artificial intelligence (AI), user experience design, technology, and how we can create the best product experiences for users and our businesses.

You can listen to the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Transistor.

Chief Creative Officer Curt Schreiber was published in SmartBrief. His piece, “What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Luxury Brands,” explores how B2B marketers can tap into the same tactics used by high-end consumer goods to create stronger brands and relationships. Read the intro below.

Consumer marketing tactics are frequently regarded as irrelevant by business-to-business sales operations. B2B, after all, is all about thoroughly educating customers and forming deep sales relationships. And it typically has a longer sales cycle than applies to most consumer marketing.

But there is one category of consumer products that faces very similar challenges to the B2B space and may provide a roadmap for how to create more demand: luxury.

Luxury products are outliers in the consumer marketing realm. Just like B2B products, they too require significant differentiation and relationship building. However, unlike many B2B organizations, marketers in the category heighten this relationship with strong brand-building and enhanced customer experiences—not just to acquire new customers, but to turn people into superfans who purchase repeatedly and consistently advocate for these products.

I believe these tactics can offer a wealth of opportunity to B2B marketers.

High-funnel personalization

A personalized touch is a hallmark of both luxury and B2B. Both types of buyers want to be recognized by name and expect special treatment. Whereas B2B often relies on the salesperson to personalize interactions, luxury starts this journey of meeting personal needs much higher in the funnel.

Highly specialized and personalized communications from the start go a long way toward establishing a transaction further down the line. In many ways, it takes the pressure off the salesperson of having to build the relationship from a cold start, warming the customer with a sense that the company as a whole understands them and their needs. But more importantly, it claims some of the loyalty for the brand itself.

Mystique that transforms the buyer

From the earliest marketing interactions, successful luxury elevates the perception of being a part of something bigger than one’s self—something that sets you apart from the masses. Whether it’s a cologne with a slightly odd smell or an interior with an unexpected combination of styles, or even a handbag that might be perceived as gaudy, luxury products demand your attention and impart that attention on the buyers themselves. It essentially changes the conversation from “Should I buy this?” to “How can I live without it?” The customer arrives asking the salesperson not how you fit into their life, but rather how they fit into your world.

B2B can easily employ similar tactics. From adding unexpected, custom-feeling design elements to your product to upgrading packaging for a luxury feel to inviting your customers to an exclusive event, B2B marketers have a wide range of opportunities to enhance the look, feel or other memorable element of either the product or the marketing. The result is a vibrant and enjoyable product experience that helps buyers justify their choice, motivates other employees using the product, and boosts their reputation among their peers.

Read more.