Strategy & Brand

View the 2010 Threats to Girlhood Report

Threats to Girlhood include all of the issues, mindsets, factors, trends, and circumstances that impact girls’ lifelong health, wellness, happiness, and ability to succeed. Identifying current Threats to Girlhood is an important step towards advancing the well being of girls, the possibilities for women, and the strength of communities.  The 2010 Threats to Girlhood report issued by BlackDog’s foundation Serious Play for Serious Girls provides a collective view detailing the breadth and depth of the challenges that girls face.  Good brands will use this report to guard against inflicting these challenges developed as an outcome of their actions.
Emerging research on the state of girlhood highlights the interconnection of girlhood threats. Education and poverty, body image issues and advertising, sexual abuse and self-harm, conformism and commercialism; the issues threatening our girls aren’t isolated and unrelated.  Radically reducing Threats to Girlhood will require that we, collectively, work to improve all the interconnected causes along the way, not just the side effects.

No one single parent, politician, celebrity role model, company, organization, product, publication, or advertisement is solely responsible for the development of girlhood threats. We are all, however, responsible for the ways in which we contribute to these threats or fail to contribute to their solution. Radically reducing Threats to Girlhood requires a holistic solution: an out-of-the-box and into-the-hands-of decision-makers solution that takes the whole girl, the world she lives in, and the interconnection of the threats facing her, all into account.

This report is certainly not exhaustive, but we hope it will help show the scope of the problem and the urgent need for a new perspective. Because Threats to Girlhood are continually changing, shifting, and evolving, this is an ongoing project intended to continue addressing threats and working towards solutions.

We believe that research shouldn’t be remanded to vaults and scholarly journals, so if your research helps identify a Threat to Girlhood or a solution to a girlhood threat, we hope you’ll pass it along for possible inclusion in the report. Please send your stats, facts, and insights on girlhood threats, along with a copy of the published research or report in which the insights appear, to us for review.

The philosophy and relevance behind brand development has proven to have utility across a wide and diverse range of interests. Brands distinguish organizations, churches, teams, industries, destinations, associations, events, museums, causes, institutions, politics, clusters, professions, movements, buildings, and the arts, one from another, when services offered don’t.
It should come as no surprise that the utilities sector – electric, water, and fuel are  utilizing the power of brand to humanize the service, build trust, attract employees, educate consumers, establish value, reveal what has been perceived as hidden, and  define a new engagement with consumers. Utility Companies must embrace brand or risk ceding their long established position to competitors or alternative solutions.

A utility brand is not a new method of spin, a mere communications roll-out, or another dangling carrot incentives program. A brand is a competitive advantage that defines, differentiates and strategically aligns and positions the utility to clarify credibility, reliability and value in a meaningful and powerful demonstration, one corporate decision, and one customer touch point at a time. The utility brand does not live in the marketing department but rather serves as a strategic infrastructure throughout the organization, guiding all C-level, departmental, operational, and customer service judgments, consistently delivering the promised purpose and values. A dynamic utility brand is only as powerful as it is accountable to deliver.   

Thriving brands focus on innovating solutions and connections that attest to their significant relevance and sincere commitment.  A non-traditional pilot program in Canada provoked awareness and engaged consumers by allowing energy users to fit their consumption to peak and non-peak times.  In the end, customers were empowered to shift their patterns of consumption, impacting their carbon footprint, benefiting the utility, and reducing consumer costs. This win-win approach spurred 78 percent of the consumers to vote the pilot program into stable existence, less than 20 percent wanted to revert back to the traditional pricing plan.1

When was the last time that you aligned your decision making values with the shared concerns and interests of your customers for mutual utility?

1 Ontario Energy Board Smart Price Pilot “Backgrounder: Ontario Energy Board Smart
Price Pilot.” Ontario Energy Board. July 26,2007.

Professional associations are a critical component in the US business ecology.  The ASAE Center for Association Leadership reports that: 

• There are 147,000 incorporated associations in the US
• 1,000 new associations are being formed each year
• 9 out of 10 US adults belong to one association
• 1 out 4 US adults belong to four or more associations

 Historically Professional Associations have proactively advanced the interest of professionals while establishing codes of governance that protect the public interest as well as the respective practice. Professional Associations have contributed significantly to ongoing research by harnessing the insights of members, forecasting industry trends, improving the quality of standards and practices, advocating knowledge sharing, and creating access to education locally and globally. Professional Associations establish ethical guidelines, resolve practice issues as they arise, provide mentors and provoke thought leadership. What’s more interesting and relevant is that Professional Associations act as the primary source for ongoing professional development beyond college in the US. (95% of Professional Associations support on-going education opportunities, certificate trainings, internships and mentorships).

Critical Challenge: Not all Professional Associations are created equal.

Guilty by association? Professional Associations appear to make the same promises, offer like perks in the same stuffy style on copycat websites. Professional Associations compete for limited members with limited time…and yet few organizations stand for a distinctive purpose or stand apart with a compelling perspective that connects with members and distinguishes one organization above another. Few Professional Associations have revealed the “big idea” that expresses the association’s reason for existence; the relevance, history, purpose, passion, integrity, advocacy, significance, social capital and successes in a compelling and meaningful brand story. Professional Associations that don’t want to be confused for ordinary must explicitly define or re-define their relevance, breaking from the herd to be heard.

Authentic and relevant Professional Association brands are memorable; they are differentiated by thought leadership, synergy, credibility, ingenuity, diversity, style, philosophy, design, sustainability…  when the list of distinctions is endless, the membership is boundless! 

Emotions- we don’t believe that “emotion” can or should be woven into every brand story in the hopes of “snagging” more customers.

We don’t believe that “emotions” should be, nor do we believe that they can be exploited at brand will. We don’t believe that an emotional connection to a brand will prove to be so compelling that it bypasses reason and suspends logic.

We do believe that a well-developed brand narrative should represent a dimensional, authentic, relevant and meaningful story that positions the brand to be noticed, understood and wanted.

We do believe that people and markets want products, services and brands that they identify with, relate to and see themselves as… accurate or not.

We do believe that if you are successful in creating meaningful connections, you won’t have to “manipulate” customers using evocative methods or messages.

We do believe there are causes, cohorts, events and a few, rare and exceptional organizations that have such a powerful brand story as to evoke a connection; call us to action; or put us in touch with a remembrance, a feeling, a sense of duty, a dream.

Powerful responses are enlivened when the authentic story is excavated to reveal a compelling brand that connects to a place deep, visceral and real within us.

One hot topic…. Brand.  In the blogosphere, in magazines, newspapers, books.  Turn around find another voice… brand, Brand, BRAND, Brand, BRAND! 

Trouble is, with all of these voices shouting about the importance of brand (it goes without saying, we believe it is uber critical), the truth of the message, the completeness of it, is lost.  Truncated, watered down to fit, or misunderstood in the minimalization of it.  Reduced to an easy to fit concept – the greatest common divisor becomes Brand = Marketing Plan.

Reality Check: “Brand is not just something to look at.  Brand is something to do!”™ For years, for a homogenized, TV-satiated public, brand was all about the image.  Logo’s, simple tag lines, a pithy ad pitch.  Iconic images drove the concept of brand.  Truth is, brand has as much (or more) to do with operations, R&D, hiring programs and selecting strategic partners as it does a cool image or the color blue.  A marketing plan is no longer sufficient.

Fast-forward.  Customers are savvy, communication has become multi-directional, and your next competitor, with new and improved, lurks around the bend.  Brand must come to reflect its full dimensional definition.  Brand is the totality of everything that you collectively contribute as an organization.™  As such it is the integral story line of the strategic plan, shaping mission, values and message.  Brand guides the tactical implementation of the overall mission as it is shaped and woven into operational plans – production, H/R, engineering, and yes marketing.

Brand has graduated, moved from the tactical world of campaigns, pitches and 10 second elevator spiels to the boardroom.  Today’s organizations need a relevant, authentic brand.  No longer secreted away in marketing, but understood, honored and cared for by the complete organization.

Admit it…. you thought developing a strategic brand was crafting a mission statement, a logo and a tag line.  50 years ago that may have been all that was necessary.  Today it is a complex task that touches and should be touched by all parts of your company.  

When we work with an organization the objective is to build a statistically sound and measurable dynamic Brand Alignment Strategy that defies mimicking.  Through excavation and designful analysis, we  identify that which you are and that which you can be.   From here we establish an operational process that:          

1.) Tells an authentic story   2.) in an accurate voice   3.) to be communicated across a variety of suitable mediums and channels   4.) positioning Your Company’s   5.) relevant and   6.) differentiated firm before the   7.) prioritized    8.) market segments and   9.) decision makers in thoughtfully assessed   10.) niche, existing, and relevant untapped market shares.   The   11.) cohesive, Brand Alignment Strategy is   12.) designed specifically with brand, message, medium and market segment to   13.) capture attention   14.) provoke interest, and  15.) secure clients, all the while   16.) elevating Your Company’s   17.) relevance and   18.) credibility in a 19). repeatably innovative process.

Just Plain Backwards…. that is the only way to look at how most organizations understand brand.

A brand is a guide, a way forward, the point man holding the torch, the organization following bravely on the path ahead.  A Driven Brand has a forward looking vision and a destination to pursue. History, positioning and purpose steer the course of this committed company onward and upward. Clarity guides the decision making and navigates the opportunities, circumstances and challenges along the way.

Reality is: most organizations put their most important asset in stasis.  They design a look, some “words” and leave the real strength, the “mojo”, to gather dust.  They don’t speak brand, don’t train brand, don’t refine it, review it, update it, parade it, blog it, make it or live it. 

Style Guides are a great example.  In the desire to be sure to protect the brand, strict rules on image use, color, how to put it on letter head, who can use it, who can change, etc. etc. etc. are codified, then filed.  Scribd has more than 137,000 documents posted on the term “style guide”!  The end result is reduced creativity, a dulling of the brand and to much focus on the image and not enough on substance.

Yes, you spent a bunch of money getting the azure (or turquoise, or spiced pumpkin) just so.  And a whole bunch more writing the do’s and don’ts.  Why not keep the logo and tag line you already have (psst… people already know it and recognize it) and spend the money training your staff how to work with customers … how to be creative and innovative. 

Simple question Ia): will you buy a Pepsi on the way home today because Pepsi spent millions of dollars to refresh their logo, and change all their packaging, and all of their marketing and all of their corporate stationary, ad infinitum? Will the “gravitational pull” of the new logo lead you to the cooler in the back of the store?

Simple question Ib): Would you buy a Pepsi on the way home today  if Pepsi had taken all of that money and instead used it to bring refrigeration to an underdeveloped country?  or to clean dirty waterways outside of a bottling plant? or to install a desalination plant in the middle east? or….

Just askin’…………..

Brands communicate attributes that in and of themselves aren’t really unique or all that different…after all…What’s so unusual about having values or a training program?

The differentiation is in the combination of characteristics, the ‘believability’ of the promotions and the sense that can be made of a story that relates the complexity:

The 1.) philanthropic pursuits of a 2.) sophisticated,  3.)purposed, 4.) people centric 5.) for profit 6.) green manufacturer committed to  7.) advancing health and wellness through 8.) collaborative research efforts 9.) globally 10.) across several disciplines, 11.) in the private and the 12.) public sectors that 13.) provokes new schools of thought that ultimately position the company as 14.) experts and 15.) thought leaders which propels the organization to a 16.) public role 17.) amplifying the urgency to 18.) challenge the status quo, 19.) co-create new ideologies that actually 20.) innovate solutions that 21.) invigorate the initiative to  22.) achieve the health and wellness objective and mission with their 23.) empirical research that has a 24.) further reach 25.) when the organization creates a way for the 26.) social networking community,  27.) to participate, 28.) and promote 29.) the no-risk solutions and 30.) provide real-time, feedback that the 31.) clustered synergistic efforts can 32.) monitor and 33.) evaluate 34.) across multiple disciplines and developments.

What is truly the purpose of business?  Is it purely profits?  Certainly that is the purpose of commerce, but commerce is only one part of a business’s existence.  Businesses must start finding a means of participating in the full range of the environment in which they live.

The concept of  business “giving back” is a significant component of a company’s brand.   Traditionally seen as specific to the not-for-profit,  in recent years it has gained critical mass in the “for-profit” community. Thus corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been developing as a means of explaining the concept that a business can give back to the society that it exists within.  While the definition is dynamic across industries, it is clearly evident that more and more routinely, stake holders are using corporate responsibility as one of the yardsticks by which they measure companies…. for procurement, partnering and employement opportunities.  In fact, some innovative organizations are even starting to track these efforts and present awards to organizations that best exemplify the concept.

The 2009 Brands with a Conscienceawards were announced recently by the Medinge Group, an international think-tank on branding.  http://www.medinge.org/press/2009/01/international-think-tank-announces-2009.html.  These awards look at corporate responsibility in the fullest sense of it’s definition.  Nominees are considered based upon “…principles of humanity and ethics, rather than financial worth. The Brands with a Conscience list is shaped around criteria including evidence of the human implications of the brand and considering whether the brand takes risks in line with its beliefs. ” (Medinge 2009 http://www.medinge.org/)

Like any other concept that is in it’s early youth, CSR has strong supporters and critics, and as might be expected the definition remains flexible.   The Medinge Group winners make social responsibility the center piece of their strategic plan.  From today’s perspective on relevant brands, it is certainly a critical part of an organization’s overall strategic plan, given that customers, employees and partners are bringing this to the forefront as part of their decision on where to build relationships.

There is no better time to begin.  You can take small steps by looking at the immediate environment where your organization functions.  Is there a way to give back to your community?  Are there organizations that a large part of your employees belong to or support?  Is  there an organization or independent agency in your industry that provides direction on where to give back?  You can take a bigger step by incorporating these plans in your strategic efforts, starting with defining level and ownership.  The temptation will be to assign this to Marketing or HR.  Truth is, that done correctly this is a company wide responsibility.

One final caveat… this can not be done for the sake of manipulating the customer or getting something back.  In today’s socially conscious environment, any effort that is done for gain will be seen through quickly.  Giving back is just that… giving back, done for no greater reason than it is the right thing to do.

Get Moving, there’s business to be had!

Hunker down?  Not if you are going to come out ahead.

2008 is going to be remembered for a great number of things, both good and bad.   Some brands are marking 2008 on their tombstones.   Read AP News article on the demise of some best known brands 

 And a bunch are going to mark 2009 as a critical turning point in their success.    So what should you do?  What are you doing?  Are you sitting, hunkered down, waiting?  Why?  Take action, put your teams to work, get them thinking, talk to your customers, train your employees, polish your brand, and….  ACT!

Three Steps to focus on:

1. Talk to your customers
2. Improve your products/services
3. Create a three year Brand Development Plan

Talk to your best customers, your oldest customers, those that honor your relationship.  Business is available to companies with authentic and relevant brands.   It might not be as large an opportunity as last year.  It might require some flexible pricing, or timing, or a few less bells and whistles.  Get creative.  Talk, really really talk to your customers.  Go visit them, review where they are going and offer them some insight into their market.  Arrange conference calls between their team and yours.  Do some collective idea development.

 Think about it, your customers exist in the same atmosphere you do, they have to do business to survive.  They are looking for strong, resilient partners, so call them, talk to them, engage them.  Find ways to help them and they will do business with you.

Improve your product, service or capabilities.  Put your team to work in a different way.  Put together a tiger team consisting of marketing, sales, operations and engineering and have them identify all the ways to improve a product.  Have your store staff visit a competitor and note all of the displays that work, and those that don’t, by oberving customers, then make sure yours are updated.   Train your inside staff on customer service, then they will know how to better support the outside staff.  Put your executive team on the phones with your key strategic partners and find out how and what they are doing to drive business. 

Remember, your team is looking to you for leadership, strength and direction. 

Create and put a three year brand development plan in place.  Big company or small.  B2B or B2C.  Product based or service driven.  This means every company.  At the heart of every great company is a Great Brand.  And Great Brands don’t just happen.  They are planned for.  The best plans are written down, shared through out the organization and reviewed frequently.  Writing a plan down makes it real, concrete.  It gives a company a starting place AND a place to shoot for, a goal.  Teams, Departments, Companies, Enterprises…. all work better with a plan and a goal.

Involve the whole company.  A complete Brand Development plan should have input from all functional areas.  Break the plan up into functional areas and have each area work on their portion.  Then create cross-functional teams to identify gaps and areas of disconect.  Consider having opposite teams review each others work.  Fresh eyes work wonders. 

So for 2009, what’s it going to be?  R.I.P or  O.T.T.? Now is an opportunity to bring your organization together in a way that can not be done when times are good. So get going and start building your brand.  Now is the time and when this time is over, you will have a brand and an organization ready to take advantage of up time and go Over The Top!