Tag: Marketing for Good

3 Strategies to Build a Quality Brand, Live from PSFK Part 1

Posted on by admin

Recorded live from the PSFK conference, Drew speaks with two professionals that explain 3 strategies on how to build a quality brand. Both guests focus on how a brand can help people think about big ideas and create change in their own lives and in their communities.

Jordan Schenck, Head of Global Consumer Marketing at Impossible Foods, explains how a brand can spark change across multiple business platforms. She and her team are always trying to go the extra mile by creating a brand that transcends the consumer world and focuses on starting important conversations that are continuing to make the world a better place.

Amber Case is a Research Fellow at MIT and is an expert in “calm tech,” an area of research that focuses on eliminating unnecessary tech systems by keeping the element of the human touch. She wants to see every marketing professional avoid distracting systems, and get back to the heart of working for a quality brand.

Click here to listen to these inspiring conversations.

What You’ll Learn

Creatively market your mission-led brand

Jordan explains that in order to effectively market a mission-led brand, you have to go beyond spouting off your values. People are always willing to follow a quality brand, but you have to first get their attention. Your job as a marketer working for a quality brand is to get people into the headspace of getting behind a message they can support.

Help people make beneficial decisions they can feel good about

Quality brands push people towards decisions that are better for their communities, themselves, and the world we all live in. That the mindset Jordan and her team believe in at Impossible Foods. They are always trying to go beyond being a consumer brand and start bigger conversations about how the brands we follow can ultimately influence and change the world.

Know when to use AI to make your life easier, not full of distractions

Amber is a supporter of calm tech – a method of using technology that allows you to still be human and not become immersed in complicated technology systems. She explains that quality brands are well designed and built for optimal human use. Truly great products take more time, but they can help people do tasks in a more focused, efficient way. If you choose to use artificial intelligence (AI) in your company, understand that AI systems still require human insights. If not, your data will be flat and not useful.

Timeline

  • [0:01] Drew’s overview for this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite
  • [1:38] Jordan Schenck from Impossible Foods is Drew’s first guest
  • [8:27] How Impossible Foods maintains brand integrity across multiple platforms
  • [10:49] Impossible Foods is helping people make decisions they can feel good about
  • [15:04] Jordan’s key insight into marketing a product brand
  • [17:14] Amber Case, MIT Research Fellow, is Drew’s second guest
  • [22:00] AI is not about replacing humans
  • [25:29] You have to know what can and cannot be automated

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Resources & People Mentioned

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Diet Coke & Heart Health Foundation feels fake–is it?

Posted on by Drew Neisser

I gave my first webinar on Friday to about 200 PR professionals. It was a rather bizarre experience as I talked into the great cybervoid for forty five minutes without any human interaction. If it weren’t for the handful of attendees who proffered their thanks via subsequent emails, the silence would have been downright deafening. Anyway, I bring this up because during my speech entitled “What Recesision? Nine Ways to Cut Through Regardless of the Economy” I take a swing at Diet Coke’s recent “Heart Health Foundation” promotional partnership. Here’s what I said in the section called “Find a Partner”:

Stretch your dollars and enhance your brand by reaching out to non-profits organizations. Non-profits are already feeling the pinch of the slowing economy as their supporters cut back on donations. This happens in every downturn and is really painful for the non-profits who continue to perform an incredible range of socially beneficial services. Mobilize your employees and your customers behind the non-profit you truly believe in and you will be amazed at the good will and good business you will do as a result. The non-profits will be so grateful for your support that they will bend over backwards to ensure you achieve your business goals not just now but for many years to come. It may seem counterintuitive to increase your CSR (corporate social responsibility) now BUT that is exactly why it is worth considering. Your employees will undoubtedly respond with increased loyalty that should also translate into higher productivity.

Of course, as with each of my suggestions, there is a right way and a wrong way. The right way starts by making a sincere commitment like MAC cosmetics and their Viva Glam products which generate thousands of dollars in donations to the MAC Aid Fund. The connection between MAC and Aids is long-standing and sincere. If you plan to partner with a non-profit, think in terms of five and ten year horizons, not a quick hit and run. Consumers have wised up to pretenders and can see an insincere commitment a mile a way.

The wrong way starts with the cry “hey we need a charity” like the one Diet Coke seems to have made with their highly advertising (they bought on the Academy Awards) women’s heart health program. I’m still trying to figure that one out. Okay, let’s see, a lot of women drink Diet Coke and a subset of them may be concerned about their heart health. Hmm. So drink Diet Coke and we’ll donate to the Heart Health Foundation. The link between brand and the non-profit seems tenuous at best and the commitment feels paper thin.

So, here’s the truth–while the Diet Coke connection to Heart Health Foundation feels fake to me, I honestly have no clue if indeed it is. If any of you know better, let me know. Unlike the webinar, blogs are a great way to find/get the truth–you straightened me out about Aveda and can do it again here.