Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in branding and marketing but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kevin Perlmutter, Founder of Limbic Brand Evolution, located in Metuchen, NJ, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I help brands be more desirable. I founded Limbic Brand Evolution - Brand Strategy & Neuromarketing Consultancy - to help CMO's, brand & business leaders strengthen customer relationships and grow their business by answering this fundamental question: "Why should people care about your brand?" Together, we spark a brand desire with emotional intelligence.

Tell us about yourself

I launched Limbic Brand Evolution in 2019 after over two decades of helping brands evolve while at other companies. In 2007, after many years early in my career at ad agencies, I recognized a big change emerging in consumer behavior thanks to the mobile internet and a vast increase in online reviews. Suddenly, consumers had a loud voice. Brands could no longer rely on advertising to make promises about their brand. They now had to deliver great experiences. I left advertising to join Interbrand, a leading global brand consultancy. There I became a leader in the strategy group and launched Interbrand's first ever global customer experience practice – creating the playbook, training strategists across the Interbrand network, authoring articles, and speaking at conferences.

In 2014 I made another big move, and I joined a sonic branding music studio, where I served as Chief Strategist & Chief Innovation Officer. There I led business evolution, strategy, innovation, new offering development, and research. This includes the creation of an award-winning neuroscience-based research capability, in collaboration with an outside research company, to assess the subconscious impact of emotion on brand and human behavior. I learned the value of creating brand experiences based on how you want people to feel.

Today, I'm fascinated by the science of emotion and its well-documented power, and I can't understand why so many Brand Leaders ignore emotion and the competitive edge it can give them. I launched Limbic Brand Evolution to bring together brand strategy, neuromarketing, and customer experience into one strategy offering that puts emotional insight at the center. I created the Limbic Sparks® approach to brand strategy that gets to the heart of what people care about the most to guide brand evolution.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Having the guts and drive to start a business from nothing is one of my big accomplishments. The bigger accomplishment, however, is creating Limbic - a brand that is differentiated and desirable. This comes from truly understanding audience needs and what they care about the most, to design an offering and style of service that they feel compelled to bring into their world. This is what I have been doing successfully and how I help my clients do this for their businesses. A further and supporting accomplishment is continuously discovering and sharing insights both in my articles for Brandingmag as a regular contributor and through my Let's Talk Limbic Sparks podcast, where I talk with brand leaders who are turning emotional insights into a competitive advantage for the brands that they serve.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

The hardest thing about being a business owner is having the stamina to evolve forward continuously based on emerging insights. The world around us is constantly changing, and people's needs and priorities are changing as well. It's important to recognize that leaders of desired brands are more successful because they understand and address what people care most about. Whether I'm running my own business or helping a client run theirs, I prioritize being curious, being inspired by outside perspectives, and being open to new ideas and approaches that will help me better understand and serve my current and potential clients.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Find the intersection of what you can do very well and what people need.
  2. Focus your marketing not on what you do but on why people should care.
  3. Continuously seek new insights to inform how your brand should evolve to make people's lives better.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.limbicbrandevolution.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinperlmutter
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinperlmutter/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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