One of the interesting aspects of the Rethink Music conference back in April was hearing MOG CEO David Hyman and (separately) Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy discuss the present and future of online music subscription services.

MOG is all about access. Outside of the usual holdouts, MOG’s catalog contains just about everything, including most of the releases on our Static Motor imprint. For fans, it makes for an intelligent (Echo Nest-driven) music discovery experience that seamlessly blends the mainstream and the independent. And for Last.fm junkies, one can easily scrobble their MOG plays. For artists, getting your music onto MOG is a cinch. As long as you’re distributed via an indie aggregator (CD Baby in our case) your music will soon pop up on MOG. For fans and artists alike, MOG is an excellent platform. Easy access for all, with top-notch audio quality to boot (and no ads!).

A different business with a very different model, Pandora certainly talks a similar talk, which is why I was struck when Joe Kennedy commented (paraphrasing):

Pandora is all about connecting people to new music.

New music from who?

Back in January, one of our new releases was rejected by Pandora. After successfully getting three releases on the Pandora platform over the last few years, I received the following regarding the new album, Pyramid, by Boston solo artist Kurt von Stetten:

Thank you for your submission to Pandora’s Music Genome Project. We wish we could say otherwise, but we have decided that this submission does not fit our collection needs at this time.

Collection needs?!? It’s new, and it’s good. What else is there?

Meanwhile, around the time of the Rethink Music conference, we had another new release in the Pandora pipeline—Careers in Science by Boston post-poppers The Longwalls. I’d jumped through all the necessary hoops (the process takes months) and was waiting to learn if the Pyramid rejection was just a blip. One day I logged on to Pandora to check my submission status page…:

Thank you for your submission to Pandora’s Music Genome Project. We wish we could say otherwise, but we have decided that this submission does not fit our collection needs at this time.

Collection needs?!? It’s new, and it’s good. What else is there?

Two albums in a row. Groundhog day.

What’s with this “collection needs” stuff?

I sent Pandora a few emails to try and find out.

I asked if Pandora was in the business of “connecting people to new music”, or if it was instead more interested in curating a particular music experience. Given Joe Kennedy’s comment, the name Pandora, and the fact that server space is certainly not an issue, one can easily posit that there should be no such thing as too much new music in the Pandora catalog—no matter what the genre. This is supposed to be about discovery—a Pandora’s box of new music. Warts and all. Yes?

I received the following response from a “listener advocate”:

Hi Brandon,

We have a curated collection and what we choose from independent submissions is entirely based on what we believe the collection needs at the time.

As you may know, our policy is that we don’t discuss submissions. We cannot go into the specific reasons why we make those decisions.

We hate to ever discourage any artist, so please understand that we are only deciding what will work best in the context of Pandora radio stations. If we decided not to include your current record, we hope that you continue to follow your vision, and that you will keep us in mind as you release new material.

Again, thanks so much for your interest, and best of luck to you in all your endeavors!

I ‘d copied Joe Kennedy on the note as well. His response was very much the same:

Brandon:

I’m really sorry to hear that some of the music you submitted was not accepted by our curation team.

We truly do love new music and add ~10,000 new tracks a month to our collection, most of it indie….but we receive at least 3x that number as submissions.

There’s no way to put a positive spin on turning down a submission. We genuinely do want every artist to continue to develop their craft and submit new work to us.

Three things jumped out at me

1
Curated collection: Maybe I was being naive, but I’d never heard the word “curated” used in conjunction with Pandora’s catalog. (Again, isn’t “openness” at the heart of Pandora’s brand story? How can it not be?) Yes, you can curate your own stations—it’s the only way to add variety after all!!—but I didn’t know the collection itself was curated. The word isn’t used once on the Pandora about page nor their Music Genome Project page. There’s plenty of “curation” talk if you dig a little deeper into the site, particularly in the FAQs about the submission process. But it’s clearly not a main message. Why not? They’re sorta talking out of both sides of their mouth, no?

2
We don’t discuss submissions: The catalog is curated, and they won’t talk about submissions. New radio is beginning to feel a bit like old radio.

3
We hate to discourage any artist: They’re a bit self-conscious of this as it came up in a couple other emails we swapped back and forth. It is discouraging. After jumping through the hoops just to get into the approval pipeline.. to then be rejected with no explanation while the CEO sits on stage at Rethink Music waxing on about Pandora connecting people to new music… in a word, discouraging. And to make matters worse, according to their submission FAQ page:

…we do not reconsider submissions once an initial decision has been made.

Ugh.

Why I think this is a problem

Aside from the apparent contradictions between Pandora’s talk and its walk, the real (more subtle) problem is that the Pandora curation team quickly accepted three of our artists’ earlier releases.

And now, the new releases—on another level creatively and with more interesting production values—are deemed “not appropriate” for the collection. And they’re unlikely to ever reconsider these releases.

Why does this matter? By trying to be more exclusive, Pandora is actually undermining its collection by favoring an independent artist’s early work over their later, (presumably) more creatively mature work.

To be clear, I’m not out to clog the Pandora platform with our roster of indies, I just want our roster’s best stuff on the platform! Instead, there’s now an inaccurate picture of our work on the biggest internet radio platform around. And because Pandora doesn’t reconsider submissions, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done to remedy it.

There must be a better, more open, way to manage indie submissions. Otherwise, Pandora may very well become cluttered with early releases by independent bands so anxious to be heard, while their later work is ignored. (Though it can easily, thankfully, flow freely to listeners on Last.Fm, MOG, and the like.)

It’s a blow to the artists, the Pandora catalog, and their listeners. A real lose, lose, lose for music discovery.

I wonder what effect the IPO will have.

I also wonder if we should we have waited and never submitted the early releases? But with such a closed submission process, how were we to have known?

So what’s in a name, anyway?

[I was asked by Entrepreneur.com to expand my Brand Judo blog post for Sametz Blackstone Associates into an article. It's since been posted by MSNBC, FoxBusiness.com, CNNMoney.com, The Street, The Business Insider, The Washington Post, and Reuters.]

Use ‘Brand Judo’ to flip negative perceptions into memorable campaigns.

One of the all-time greatest examples of a brand turning lemons into lemonade may also be one of the first. Advertising aficionados will remember the 1960s Volkswagen Beetle campaign. As competing automakers built ever bigger cars for growing, post-World War II families, Volkswagen’s Beetle was seen as too small, too ugly and too German. The now-legendary campaign played up the small and ugly perceptions with headlines touting its status as a “lemon” and clever copy that then drove home the benefits of driving a small, German (rebranded as “well-made”) automobile.

For entrepreneurs and their communications staffs, this concept can apply to the management of their company’s brand. “Brand Judo” can be described as the practice of turning negative brand perceptions into positive ones. The practice of Brand Judo can help undermine your opponents’ marketing campaigns and insulate your brand from ongoing or potential attacks. Campaigns rooted in the practice of Brand Judo have the potential to be compelling, differentiating, fun and, best of all, sticky; they can help your message cut through the din. What’s more, in this age of transparency, you can’t afford to try to hide what’s real–big or small, warts and all–so don’t even try. What to do? Make the most of your inner lemon before someone else does.

These two examples of Brand Judo are of the critic-proofing variety. By bringing perceived weaknesses out into the open, either to make light of them in the case of Volkswagen or to address them head-on like Armstrong, two major brands were able to deflect, or at least lessen, the impact of potential attacks, and create compelling and memorable brand-focused campaigns in the process.

Brand Judo for the Fun of It

The other side of Brand Judo is more fun. The practice can sometimes provide the right spark for unexpected and completely out-of-the-ordinary campaigns.

One of my favorite examples of the inherent fun of Brand Judo is ESPN’s “Is It Monday Yet?” campaign. I’ll never forget the dreary Monday morning commute a couple of years ago when I first saw a Boston MBTA bus zoom buy with a huge placard on the side exclaiming, “Thank God it’s Monday.” Amusing? Yes. Out of the ordinary? Yes. Effective? You bet. With slogans like “Is it Monday yet?” and “Monday can’t come soon enough,” ESPN latched onto perhaps the one negative association NFL fans have with the four-decade institution of Monday Night Football — the fact that it takes place on Monday — and created one of the more engaging and unique brand campaigns in recent memory.

Lastly, look at Hulu. We all know television rots ours brains and we should all get out and smell the roses a bit more. Why on Earth do we need more ways to watch TV “anytime, for free”? The answer is the company is “an evil plot to destroy the world” hatched by aliens who are going to eat our liquefied brains. Comical for sure, but it’s another example of Brand Judo in action as Hulu turns a negative association into a fun and memorable brand story.

Get Your Brand Judo On

In branding, whether it’s Listerine making the most of its burn, Altoids marketing mints as “curiously strong,” ESPN making you wish for Monday, Lance Armstrong airing his own dirty laundry, Volkswagen’s “lemon,” or Hulu’s alien plot, perceived weaknesses and negative brand associations can often be turned on their ear.

How do you begin? Look inward, and don’t shy away from what’s real. The best campaigns are always brand-focused, so think long and hard about all aspects of your brand, including those aspects you know are either weaknesses or have otherwise ignored because you think they’re a little unsightly.

Perhaps what you or others perceive to be a weakness could actually be the spark of something fun and differentiating. Make light of your realities — it just might undermine an opponent’s attack and provide the basis for something memorable.

Now, go find your inner lemon and squeeze.

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

I live out of my Victorinox messenger bag.

Me and my Victorinox have walked every corner of this city. It’s been with me on planes, trains and automobiles to New York, Nashville, Atlanta, Denver, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Petersburg, and halfway around the world to Melbourne, Australia.

And then, last week, while crossing Tremont Street here in the South End, one of the metal rings that connects the shoulder strap to the bag gave way. The 1/4 inch metal had completely severed! My bag fell to the ground, its contents strewn about in the middle of the street. Fudge.

Sitting in my office an hour later the realization began to set in. How the hell am I going to operate without my bag? I logged on to the Victorinox website looking for repair info and quickly found a service phone number.

Great! I just need my receipt and registration card, right?

That night I turned my apartment upside down… to no avail. I’d since purchased a Victorinox wheeled garment bag, and of course I was able to find that documentation right away. But the documentation for my messenger bag––the bag that I’ve traveled around the world with for 6 years––was nowhere to be found.

So I did what anybody preparing to go toe-to-toe with a customer service department would do––I prepared for battle.

The next morning I called the customer service number. I pressed 5 for repairs and took a deep breath––ready to hold, and readied for battle.

But the line immediately rang. What, no 8-minute hold?

And then a woman answered the phone. A real person! Seriously? One level in on the phone tree and I get a real person with no wait?!? Are you kidding me?!?

Then she asked how she could help.

Hi… uh… my bag broke..
Been a customer for years…
I don’t have a receipt…
But I do have a different receipt…

Thankfully, she cut off my stammering,

CS: Sir, let me give you an address to send the bag to and we’ll fix it if we can, otherwise, we’ll replace it…

Me: I don’t have a receipt or my registration info…

CS: That’s okay, we just need to verify it’s a Victorinox bag and we’ll take care of it…

At that moment I moved from being a loyal Victorinox customer, to being a brand advocate.

I had purchased, and been very happy with, two Victorinox products. After burning through a bag a year until I bought one of their products, I didn’t hesitate to make them my luggage brand of choice.

I was loyal… but it wasn’t really something I talked about to others.

Until that moment of advocacy occurred.

People’s relationships with brands exist on a continuum from awareness to advocacy (in the non-profit world, “support” and advocacy go hand in hand):

Awareness > Comprehension > Participation > Loyalty > Advocacy

You can’t skip a step, and brand-focused communications (while critical) can’t do it all. Successful brands must live their values, too.

A that moment, when the quality of interaction equaled the quality of the product, I was instantly converted into a Victorinox brand advocate.

I had graduated from loyalty.

Brands need to remember that every communication––and every interaction––either contributes to a compelling, valued brand mosaic, or not.

The Victorinox brand is built on the notions of quality, durability, and precision. Lucky for me, those ideas permeate more than their products. They’re ethos the whole company embodies (that was some high-quality, high-precision service after all).

In the end, Victorinox was good to me, and I’m now compelled to return the favor.

Does your brand foster an environment for advocacy?

Have you experienced such a moment yourself?

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

Have you ever thought of your brand that way?

Think about it…

Independent media channels provide a distinct voice, and view the world through a particular lens not shared by others. Independent media channels engender trust and loyalty, giving audiences reasons to connect above and beyond particular programs.

Your brand can––and should––do the same!

You’re a content publisher, after all. Your brand, by way of your website, blog, e-newsletter, Twitter stream, YouTube channel, and Facebook wall provides a mosaic of content that audiences (ideally!) find engaging, useful, and worth talking about to others.

And out there on the inter-webs, information disseminated solely in support of commerce doesn’t cut it. You have to engage and hold your audience’s attention. In fact, your ability to engage––to spur people to respond in some way and come back for more––is more important to brand-building and your bottom line than anything you say about your programs, products, or services.

Why? The web has rolled content, commerce, and entertainment into one. Going forward, successful brands––for profit, non-profit, retail and B2B alike––will be those whose audiences view them as an independent media channel… providing a differentiated mosaic of content that engages, entertains, and encourages action.

Is your channel coming in clear? Does your mosaic of content reflect a greater “picture” of your brand people can understand and connect with?

Some tips…

Define your voice

If your brand was an independent media channel, what would you call it? What would its tagline be? While you might not put it out there for the world to see, a concise notion of your identity will help guide your content decisions: who are you… and what are you trying to say?This is where your content strategy comes in. What are the “story lines” that you can credibly advance about your brand––and that people will tune in to? Where is the content coming from? Who’s in charge? Do you have an editor in chief?

Draft an architecture

Knowing what you want to say, and where, means creating a digital content architecture. What platforms are you going to use? Who are the target audiences for each? What messages make sense, given audience / platform combinations? What is your metric for engagement and response? Answer all these questions, and you’re well on your way to creating an effective structure for your “programming.”

Bring ‘em home

Far flung outposts on YouTube and Facebook are great for meeting people where conversations are starting, but your website needs to be at the core of your digital media strategy. Drive people to the place you can most effectively communicate “one-on-one”, and find out who they are––and how you can help.

Know your stats

How are people responding to your content? What messages hold their attention the longest, and keep them coming back for more? Where do they stick––and where do they “bounce”? By keeping a close eye on your stats and analytics, you can tell where things are working, and where they’re falling flat. And there’s no sense in experimenting if you can’t gauge the success of your experiment.

People want more than the latest information on your new widget. They want to connect with you and with others, and be both informed and entertained. You need to keep their attention, foster deeper connections, and move them to take action. If your channel isn’t doing all those things, you’re not taking full advantage.

So, what’s on?!? You have a voice, use it!

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

I operate in two worlds. By day (and often into early evening) I craft brand-focused communication programs for a variety of mission-driven organizations. By night (and often into early morning) I write, perform and record with a band as part of Boston’s vibrant independent music scene.

There’s always been a synergy between the two, as I often draw on my marketing and branding experiences while managing promotions for my bands. The last year or so, however, I’ve noticed the tables have turned a bit.

Nowadays, however, I find myself bringing my DIY music marketing experiences to bear on my branding projects at Sametz. Music blogs focused on independent artists have become an excellent source for current thinking on building connections in our increasingly noisy, fragmented world.

With limited resources, independent bands must make the most of every opportunity. At the same time, they’re less encumbered by red-tape and drawn-out decision making processes, and more willing to take calculated risks. As a result, musicians and bands are out in front of many mainstream marketers. Consider…

One step beyond…

Bands understand from the get-go that their music effects different people in different ways, and often fulfills a variety of needs beyond the simple “entertainment” a particular genre offers.

Bands purposefully promote the social aspect of their music: the emotions it triggers; its power to inform and educate; its ability to conjure memories; and so on. Businesses should take a similar approach. While they are undoubtedly important, take a step beyond your core value proposition to see what surrounds it. Your constituents aren’t monolithic, after all, and neither are you.

People are people…

Artists have always understood that personal connections drive success. Putting on a great show is important, but it means nothing if you aren’t building personal connections in the process. And playing a show is often the easy part; it’s the time before and after the set spent hanging with the club staff, the sound person, other bands––and the audience––that really makes a difference.

Organizations should follow suit; people aren’t likely to become loyal to your brand unless they have a (positive!) sense of the people behind it.

I want my ____ TV…

Successful bands understand their role as mini-media companies. Via websites, photostreams, Twitter, blogs, video channels and other social media outposts, bands produce a mosaic of content with a particular voice––one that people find valuable and regularly worth tuning in to.

Businesses must understand that on the Web, entertainment and commerce are quickly becoming one and the same. The ability to engage is more important to brand-building and the bottom line than anything you can say about the “speeds and feeds” of your programs, products, or services.

It takes two to make a thing go right…

Bands are always collaborating: sharing audiences, leveraging resources, and cross-pollinating ideas. Whether they’re working with an engineer, a producer, a club owner, or other musicians, artists are constantly moving and existing outside their immediate orbit.

As a result, bands (independent, working bands anyway) rarely become isolated. They are in constant touch with what’s happening creatively around them. Business should look for opportunities to work outside of thier comfort zone; to experience new ideas and new ways of doing business.

Here, there, and everywhere…

Bands have always understood that it’s far better to be discovered by fans than forced upon audiences. When a listener “discovers” a band, they feel a sense of ownership which soon breeds feelings of loyalty and advocacy. By being everywhere it matters to be––from social media sites, to blogs, to internet radio, to soundtracks of all kinds, and beyond––bands strive to be visible enough to “get found.”

Marketers, of course, now call this “inbound marketing”… but bands have been doing it for years.

Looking for cues to help craft your inbound digital marketing strategy? Instead of reading xyz marketing blog, take a few minutes to study how your favorite artist (or the local band you keep hearing about) is using their website as the hub of a broader inbound strategy.

Independent artists aren’t so “starving” anymore. Many are savvy marketers who could teach us a thing or two about communicating effectively in our complex world. And chances are, someone you know or someone within your organization is a working, independent musician.

Learn from them… and then, please, buy a CD.

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

Storytelling has been with us since our earliest days. And while methods have changed over time, the power of a good story endures.

Why?

As a means of engendering common beliefs; exploring our fears; gathering context from history; celebrating prosperity, beauty and love… well, storytelling just works.

Stories move us, shape our beliefs, and carry our history forward ––and most importantly, they’re easy to share, and they stick.

As referenced by Roger Sametz in his seminal Storytelling through design (PDF) article for the Design Management Institute, storytelling expert Stephen Denning¹ tells us:

Storytelling is natural and easy and entertaining and energizing. Stories help us to understand complexity. Stories can enhance or change perceptions. Stories are easy to remember…and engage our feelings…Storytelling enables individuals to see themselves in a different light, and accordingly take decisions, and change their behavior in accordance with these new perceptions, insights, and identities.

This is why storytelling is so critical to brand building. After all, thoughtfully planned, well executed, brand-focused communications should ultimately work to influence thinking and behavior––in your favor.

With the proliferation of social media platforms, and the emerging practice of intentional content strategy, it’s apparent the power of a good story is more relevant than ever. The “hows” of delivering stories through myriad communication channels is a post for another day, though.

For now, let’s concentrate on how to collect and refine your brand stories.

Engage and mine

Brand-building is the responsibility of your entire organization. The marketing group might set the strategy (in concert with overarching business goals, of course), but branding is everyone’s job––from volunteers and customer service reps all the way up to the board of directors. And those two polar extremes are often where the best stories can be found.

Engage your board members and volunteers by asking them to tell a story about your organization that exemplifies their reason for being involved.

Engage costumer service representatives and ask them what they’re hearing on the front lines. Chances are they know things you don’t!

Collect story ideas, gather the contact information of everyone involved, follow up, and fill in the details using the template below.

Make it sing

To make a story “sticky”, you need a structure and a hook. And if it’s going to help build your brand, your organization’s role in the story must be explicit.

Here’s a basic template I’ve used with a number of clients to help organizations develop a library of effective, brand-building stories.

Title

• What would you name the story if you were making a movie of it?
• Pull the reader in; think evocative and emotional as well as literal.

Subhead

• Convey progress / transition; the value [your organization] added.
• Speak to interaction between customer and [your organization].

Situation

• Who was benefiting from [your organization] in this story?
• What were they out to achieve? What are they passionate about?
• Contextualize, if appropriate, within their broader life and experience.
• Did they pursue other avenues of help / assistance first?

Enter [your organization]

• Explain [your organization's] entry into this person’s life.
• What role did [your organization] play?
• Which product / program / service came into play?
• Who from [your organization] participated?
• What about [your organization's] role was innovative?
• Any breakthroughs as a result?

Progress and benefits

• Explain the key benefit / value delivered by [your organization].
• Explain the transition / progress experienced by this person.

Results

• How is the person “different” at the end of the story?
• Is the story ongoing?
• What are the expected (future) results and benefits?

For written stories, work in quotes wherever possible. Or adapt this outline into a script, and document your stories via short conversational videos. Do whatever works best, given your established communications strategy.

Most organizations have an untapped wealth of brand stories at their fingertips. A little digging, follow-up, and editing / shaping can go a long way.

Do you know your brand stories? And could you be telling them more effectively?

1. Stephen Denning, The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (Boston: Butterworth-Heinmemann, 2001), p. xv.

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

Putting customers first, and brand second, can be somewhat of a tough pill to swallow for marketers.

Sure, most understand the need to build communities around their brands, and to nurture those who cluster around the experiences their brands enable. For many, however, it largely remains lip service. Marketers talk about putting customers first, yet many continue to focus on the more transactional tactics of marketing products, programs, and services to build their brand.

They’re missing out.

Human nature doesn’t drive us to connect with brands. Rather, people desire a sense of connection with other people. (Does anyone really love Facebook? What people do love is the easy means of connection Facebook affords.) Your brand, informed by those communities around it that matter most, is a means to an end—a platform for interaction among like-minded individuals.

It’s not about you, it’s about them.

Armed with new tools, and more timely constituent information than has ever been available before, businesses (nonprofits and for-profits alike) can effectively put people first and build their brands in the process—increasing loyalty, decreasing costs, and bringing important feedback and new ideas to the fore.

A few things to keep in mind:Putting people first means (drumroll…) putting people first.

Your brand program should be informed by the values and lifestyles of those who interact with your programs, products, and services. Use social media and RSS readers to set up listening posts to hear what people are saying, not just about your brand, but among each other. Interact with customers in-person wherever and whenever possible. Invite a group of high-value constituents over for tea.

If you come to understand the nature of those clustering around your brand, you’ll inevitably come to understand the nature of your brand as a platform for community. Institutionalize that kind of thinking above and beyond the walls of the marketing department and re-organize around it if possible. It’s a more effective, and cheaper, brand-building practice than marketing product “speeds and feeds.”

Your constituents aren’t monolithic, and connections must be reinforced.

Those who cluster around your brand likely share a common, high-level set of values—yet each has their own personal reasons for showing up to the party.Some may participate for social, emotional, or spiritual reasons.

Some may be indulging passions, pursuing particular goals, or exploring new ideas. Determining your constituent segments remains vitally important, but you must do more than pump out perfectly tuned communications.

Your brand program should advance opportunities for people to interact among themselves along those resonant wavelengths, and to help them realize their personal visions—however big or small. Doing so strengthens the community around your brand, in turn building your brand.

Don’t try to control the cluster.

People that cluster around your brand will most certainly talk. In fact, you want them to, and it’s far better if conversations are within earshot. If people are critical of your brand, wouldn’t you rather hear it firsthand? Rather than seeking to control or edit the dialogue, embrace it and engage in it.

Peoples’ criticism may in fact be spot on (Domino’s anyone?) and your brand community could become a crowd-sourcing tool for improvements and bold, new ideas. Rather than control, seek to steward those who cluster around your brand by providing context and content that maximize engagement.

By putting people first—really putting people first—marketers can truly bring brands to life. More than just putting a “community” button on your website, more than just amassing 4,000 followers on Twitter, building your brand around people means a strategic shift in thinking.

It requires literally decreasing the distance between you and those who matter most, listening, engaging, and not being afraid of what you might find—because it’s likely true, and it might be the spark of a great new idea.

How is your brand putting people first?

Connecting your value and values to those of your constituents can give youa leg up.

The nonprofit world is a crowded one, and it’s only becoming more so. According to the Independent Sector, there are more than 1.4 million 501c3 organizations operating in the United States, and from 1998 to 2008, the number of charitable organizations registered with the IRS grew by 73 percent.

As the number of nonprofit organizations increases, so does the difficulty of raising funds. And with costs rising and support from foundations and government agencies flat or declining, more and more organizations are seeking to diversify revenue streams. They are working to increase earned income by appealing to a wider set of constituencies through an ever-expanding array of communication modes—all while trying to bolster the flow of unearned dollars from foundations, corporations, government, and individual sources. Building and sustaining this income mix is a complicated job, and no component is more important to current success and long-term sustainability than realizing the potential of significant support from individual donors.

Of course, it seems every organization is trying to boost its individual donor efforts. Competition for major donors is fierce, the landscape is cluttered and increasingly noisy, and every dollar secured is hard fought.Success is about knowing who your friends are and, perhaps more importantly, who they could be. Raising money from people whose values and personal vision align with yours—people with whom you can have a dialogue—is a lot more fruitful than simply making “asks.” Before you can raise funds, you need to raise friends.

Continue reading at Sametz.com >>

[Originally posted at Marketing profs]

You’ve done your homework and designed a strategic brand program. You’ve found insight through research, learned what makes your constituents tick, established a strong brand foundation, developed a framework for messages, and evolved a system for visual expression—all necessary to help your organization realize its goals and vision.

Now it’s time to build.

An Architecture of Action

So how do you translate your planning and strategy into tactics that drive desired outcomes?Although you can define your brand in a corner conference room, it doesn’t really exist unless your constituents “get it.”

For that to happen, you need communications—both outbound and inbound, articulated and acted out. And those communications must address the needs and opportunities presented by target communities; they must help people see their personal brand in the context of your corporate one; and they must get the right information to the right people, in the right format, at the right cost, at the right time.A “communications architecture” is your best tool for planning and then executing the communications most likely to achieve those goals—and eliminating the ones that aren’t.

Continue reading at Marketing profs >>

[Originally posted at Marketing Profs]

Know whom you serve, and why they care.

Much more than just “your customers” or “your audience,” your constituents are all the people for whom your work is meaningful—the internal and external populations whose interest, participation, and advocacy are important to your stability, growth, and long-term success.

Many of these people know you through your products, programs, and services—or because they’re staff or volunteers—but some know you only through how you communicate and through the reviews, posts, tweets, and comments of others.

Whether you’re a for-profit or nonprofit enterprise, your goal is to have relationships with your constituents—to move beyond transactions. But as your organization evolves and engages in more areas of endeavor (it’s rare for a business to do one thing these days), the challenge is to start and nurture more relationships than ever before.

Doing so successfully requires that you have two-way conversations with your constituents—dialogues. It’s not enough to push out communications from headquarters. To have conversations that are meaningful, you need to know who your constituents really are. You need to learn what they care about, what moves them, what keeps them up at night, how they like to be communicated with, and what your value to them is—or could be.

Read more at Marketing Profs >>