Tag Archives: 413Assign2

Pick A Not-For-Profit, Any Not-For-Profit

By Katie Bloom | Published February 19, 2013

Love and Business?To gain an additional perspective outside of class readings, I searched for online discussions about emotional branding.  I came to Forbes, where I found myself immersed in “‘Love, The Secret Ingredient’: A Valentine fo… Continue Reading →

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Brand Image in a Modern Society

By Robert McIver | Published February 19, 2013


What exactly comes to mind when you think of a company’s corporate image or their brand image? Could it be Coca Cola’s distinctive red cans, or GE’s slogan “Imagination at Work?” These examples both play a role in shaping the companies’ images but do not embody the companies’ entire image.  Much more goes into an image than what may be immediately apparent. 
“A corporate image summarizes what the company stands for as well as how it is known in the marketplace.”
-Crow p.24
This quote by our book author dives a little deeper into the idea of brand image. The part of the quote “what the company stands for” is a loaded statement. There aren’t too many companies, if any at all, that will outright say what they stand for. A person looking for an answer to this statement is likely to have to draw a conclusion based on what they already know about a particular organization, especially if that person has no previous exposure to the brand itself. Traditionally people would have turned to commercials, or word-of-mouth to better understand a brand, but in the age of fast information, the internet, and social media consumers have many more options to get information about their brand.
“One thing I learned from my days in traditional advertising is that a brand doesn’t exist on shelves—it exists in the hearts and minds of people.”
-Murthy, WSJ**
People now have the ability to become familiar with a brand on their own terms. No longer is it commercials telling you what to think about their goods or services, but now its one’s fellow consumers who engage in social interaction via Facebook, and Twitter that have almost more power over a company’s image than the company itself.
Friend #1
Habitat for Humanity
“Habitat is a wonderful organization. They contribute so much to the community and directly improve the lives of those who they help. Also, the Habitat model has been applied to other countries from a variety of different organizations.”
Friend #2
Red Cross
“The Red Cross does so much, in so many places to improve the lives of people affected by a wide range of disasters. Whether it’s providing disaster relief to hurricane victims, or running blood drives for local hospitals the Red Cross has been and will continue to be one of the best non-profits in the country.”
Friend #3
Goodwill
“The concept of Goodwill is something that has always been appealing to me. Giving used clothing a second chance rather than just throwing it away is good for the environment. Discounted clothing goes to benefit those who cannot afford to shop at traditional stores. And the jobs created at the stores give people the opportunity to gain work experience.”

**http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791504575079151291532366.html

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Social Change and Supporting Not-For-Profits: What Motivates You?

By Elizabeth Kubert | Published February 19, 2013

This week’s post has been very interesting for me to research and explore. Although essentially all of my marketing experience thus far has been working with consumer products and brands, I’m really excited to learn more throughout the semester about t… Continue Reading →

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Branding Your Image

By LaurenK | Published February 19, 2013

Is Image Everything?

Image is a term used to describe every aspect of life these days. What’s your image? What look are you going for? What reputation do you have? These questions can be directed towards the everyday girl who dresses in the current style trends, to the company innovating its appeal to their customers. Corporate image reflects the feelings consumers have towards the overall organization and its individual brands (Clow and Baack). 
A customer’s perception of image can be generated by:
– marketing strategies
– social media
– websites
– promotions
– personal selling experience

Why should we worry about the image?

Corporate image is rated as the highest importance of a company. As a customer myself, I research quality brands before purchasing them. My qualifications range when considering products of different natures. Customers want product assurance.
Corporate image can be manifested through brand prestige. Advertising promotions help generate constant repetitiveness for hopeful remembrance by customers.  The goal is to capture the customer’s attention and propose a sale. The more unique and crafty the advertisement or promotion is, the better result for sales and loyalty. 
Once a corporate image is set, it is carefully controlled for prolonged success. Clow and Baack referred to Tide as an excellent example of a company that has remained the most powerful and trusted detergent. Advertisements for Tide emphasize the quality of Tide and their decades of proven success to their customers. Tide reaches customers through television, YouTube, and Facebook. Tide entices customers to test their detergent to competitors to prove their quality. Tide’s quality distinguishes their brand equity n comparison to other brands in their market. Tide is also continuously innovating itself with new products that further enhance clothing and service. The company is currently extending their ventures to include drive-thru dry cleaning service locations. These locations are predicted to be successful because of the great number of loyal Tide customers. 

Non-Profits care about their image too…

Corporate image is also an important aspect to non-profit organizations. Even though they are not making money off of a service or product, their cause is funded by monetary progress and supporters. 
Preferred not-for-profit social causes:
  • Susan G Komen for the Cure
  • St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital 
  • Teach for America 
Motivation to be involved in national health non-profits usually hails from an experience with cancer, either personally or with a family member. Cancer is the second largest  common cause of death in the US, or roughly 1 out of 4 deaths. These non-profits focus on research advancement and education awareness. Susan G Komen is supported by several sororities on the Elon Campus as well as St. Jude’s Children Research. 
St. Jude’s cancer research non-profit was created by a late entertainer, and continues to be highly marketable non-profit supported by successful film stars. The hospital successfully completed a $1 billion expansion in 2005 and continues to excel in advancing research. Supporters of St. Jude are drawn to these delicate children who are attacked at such a young age. 
Teach for America is an excellent education non-profit that provides young intelligent individuals to educate in poverty stricken communities around the country. These educators create the possibility for lower class sizes and direct engagement with students who are more prone to grim circumstances as they age. Teach for America also collaborates with Teach for All which has the same premise as Teach for America, but with a global initiative. 
Core Qualities of a Non-Profit Brand:
  1. Valuable (benefits outweigh all costs) 
  2. Relevant (a need by the community) 
  3. Well-known (awareness of mission, goals, and successes)
  4. Personable (emotional connection to supporters)

Image may not be everything, but it surely is important considering the direction of a company and their projected success.  

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Changing The World is a Team Sport

By Betsy Tremblay | Published February 19, 2013

This week I’m looking into what drives people to support one non-profit organization over another. Is it the emotional connection people feel towards certain organizations? Is it a personal tie that draws them in? Or is it simply because some non-profi… Continue Reading →

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How to Turn Brand Mercenaries into Brand Loyalists

By Sarah Schermer | Published February 19, 2013

Emotionally Branded

Buying a product today is nothing like it was in the past. Your favorite brand of ice cream now has so many flavors you haven’t tried them all, your favorite brand of clothing is made in some country you’ve probably never been to, and your favorite digital gadget has to be updated at least once every couple months or years. Nothing seems to work like it used to…so how are we expected to stay loyal to one brand these days? Why would we stay loyal? Aren’t we just mercenaries that maintain loyalty to one brand because they have something “new,” “exciting,” “cheap,” or “green” about them until some other brand comes along, we may have never hear of that’s offering something newer, more exciting, cheaper, and promises that they recycle ALL of their waste. 

How to Gain and Maintain Brand Loyalty

To keep a customer loyal to your brand, you really have to know them. Know why they’re loyal in the first place, and then always deliver that perception to them at the time that is best for them. Difficult, right? Impossible, no. Gobe in his article, “Emotional Branding: Fuel for Success in the 21st Century” hits on the idea time and again that offering an experience, an emotional reason to be attached, and caring for the customer makes them brand loyal. Companies allow their “brands to carry on a personal dialogue with consumers on the issues which are most meaningful to them. The new model of brands will be one with them connecting with innovative products that are culturally relevant, socially sensitive, and have presence at all points of contact in people’s lives” (23).

I spend most of my research on East Asian countries Japan, China and South Korea. This relevant article talks about how Budweiser has been getting smarter about their interactions with China, the worlds’ largest beer market, and trying to offer them an experience to get them excited about their product.

One analyst noted that with the “Celebrate Chinese New Year Around the World” campaign, Budweiser has smartly tapped into a recent trend among Chinese consumers choosing to spend on experiences.”Rather than going out and buying products, they’re spending money on doing things, such as travel,” said Ben Cavender, associate principal at the China Market Research Group in Shanghai. “Marketing around that does a good job of bolstering the brand and supporting the brand.”


Ties: Non-Profits & Social Causes and Brand Loyalty

Non-profit organizations working towards solving social issues create extremely brand loyal activists and consumers. The heart of their brand is something that touches their heart which is why they spend time and money on it, motivated by the cause to support the brand. Corporate businesses could really learn a thing or two from non-profits supporting social causes. However, not just because a company is non-profit and says it’s working towards aiding social reform does brand loyalty fall from the sky. Think of the recent debacle with Lance Armstrong admitting to doping. How will his non-profit Livestrong organization ride this out? 

I talked to three women about how they interact with their favorite NPOs…

Ana, senior at University of Minnesota
She does the Christmas Angel program every year through the Salvation Army. She said it makes her sad to think that a family can’t provide for their kids in the same way her parents did due to hard times, so it’s nice to be the Santa for those kids, but also help the parents share in the joy of seeing their kids happy. I do it through Salvation Army because they offer this program. I’d like to think they’re trust worthy because they are reputable. The Salvation Army is everywhere, I hear about them a lot without major complaints.

Holly, Elon University graduate
She supports the Jimmy V Foundation that raises money for cancer cure research. She’s motivated by them because she think Jimmy V (Jim Valdando) was such an inspirational person and she believes cancer research is important. She trust the foundation because of Jimmy V, she said she could have picked any cancer foundation but chose his, however, after the Lance Armstrong incidents, she’s a little bit more wary of where her money is going and the reliability of NPOs.

Mariah, Elon University graduate
She likes Women for Women International, a NPO that helps create jobs for women in third world countries. She knows that the organization uses a lot of its donations to pay for the staff than actually using it for charity which she doesn’t condone, but the idea of the NPO is why she likes it.

Heart of the Brand

After talking to these women and seeing how different their favorite organizations were from each other, it is important to recognize how each individual customer is different and therefore important to recognize the customization of your interaction with each. At the core of a powerful brand, one that touches the customers heart and brings them back time and again, is the emotional attachment. Get your customer emotionally attached to your brand, and you’ve won their hearts and hopefully got a few dollars in your bank.

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Single Connections Make a World of a Difference

By Caroline Scalici | Published February 19, 2013

Becoming Part of the SolutionSenior year of high school, when my friends were all planning the senior class beach week retreat after graduation, I knew I had to do something different. I had grown up in the same town with the same people for the last 1… Continue Reading →

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Preferred brands…

By Sofia Ibarra | Published February 19, 2013

If you were asked to say which is your favorite Fast Food restaurant, your favorite shoes brand, and your favorite Non-profit social cause, which ones would you choose?
Image from: businessinsider.com
I asked 10 of my friends this same question and I got somewhat expected results.


Let’s begin with the Fast Food restaurant. The most popular response was McDonald’s which was said four times out of ten and when asked to provide a reason why they chose this restaurant they said it was because they loved their French fries but also because they had good food and no matter which country they were in, they always knew they could count on the food to taste good.

According to Forbes, McDonald’s is considered the seventh most powerful brand in the world; they operate in 119 countries globally with a total of more than 32,000 restaurants. The brand has done a great job in brand awareness, looking for locations that are the most convenient for people (in malls, near colleges, airports…); they also look for intersections with traffic signals- typically corners of two well-trafficked streets- and ample parking (McDonald’s Corp.).


The Golden Arches are not only present in almost every corner, but they have implemented different strategies that make the consumers feel like they are in the same restaurant no matter the country. I can personally say that I get the same feeling when I go inside a McDonald’s here in Burlington, North Carolina than when I go into a McDonald’s back home, which is Guatemala; (one of my friends spent her Winter Term in China and said that the only place they felt it was safe to eat the food was McDonald’s).


Image from: http://www.interbrand.com/en/our-work/McDonalds.aspx
(I’m pretty sure you sang the song while reading the poster above).
Their famous brand tune was used worldwide to change the image of the brand into: “Simple, Easy, Enjoyment.” This tune was a strategy to appeal to the consumers’ values as well as make the brand equal all around the world.

As Gobe says in the reading Fuel for success in the 21stcentury, “The emotional element is what gives a brand both the foundation and fuel for future business strategies-consumer-driven strategies.” McDonald’s does not have the best burgers but they have implemented strategies that achieve that “emotional element” in their consumers, which create a sense of community and comfort.

And now switching to the shoe industry…


I was actually not too surprised by the results since Nike was chosen by five of my friends, Steve Madden was chosen by two. I know I have blogged a few times about Nike but, I personally love the company, and apparently my friends agree with me (they are my friends for a reason…).


The company is known for their sports gear and constant innovation, they work closely with technology. They were recently awarded as one of 50 most innovative companies for creating polyester jerseys (used in the last World Cup) using 13 million used plastic bottles and melting them down (FastCompany.com).

Image from: medcitynews.com

Nike has created a strong image in the customers’ eyes; beginning with what the co-founder Bill Bowerman says, “If you have a body, you are an athlete”.Consumers are inspired by the brand that believes in them, stands by them and helps them achieve their goals. The company focuses in the brand image by getting famous athletes to wear their products; this way people will assimilate success to the brand and will want to become as good as the famous athletes.

They have such a powerful brand presence and image that they don’t need words in their logo, the famous “swoosh” is known all around.


Relating this once again to Gobe’s reading, “Creating product identification by stressing product benefits is only relevant if product innovation are memorable and exciting to consumers.” This is exactly what Nike has been doing by creating products such as Nike+, Nike’s array of digital products like the fitness tracking app and the Nike FuelBand. According to Nikeinc.com, the Nike+ Accelerator program will begin in March 2013 through June. The program consists of balancing the success of Nike+ to support technological innovations by partnering with companies that also want to help people live more active lives.


Image from: tech.co
It is strategies like these that keep the brand in the consumer’s mind, creating not only value but also causing the consumer to immediately think of the brand whenever thinking about shoes or innovation.

Non-profit social cause


The Non-profit social cause industry can be seen as completely separate from Nike and McDonald’s but if you think about it, they need as much branding as the others.

The winner for this industry, among my friends, was St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The pediatric treatment and research facility was founded in 1962, and it focuses on children’s catastrophic diseases.


To be honest, I am not very well informed in this sector because I haven’t been in the United States long enough to know about the different organizations, and most of my friends that I surveyed are international as well. It is interesting for me to hear that the majority said St. Jude was their favorite Non-profit because I am pretty sure they don’t know enough about the social cause to say it is their “favorite”.  But this result reflects how well the organization has managed its brand image. The brand has a place in the consumer’s mind, even if they don’t completely understand what it is all about. In fact, St. Jude is listed among more than 50 other internationally recognizable businesses and consumer brands and it was one of the three non-profits selected by the American Brands Council.


Image from: misssocialnetwork.com
John P. Moses, chief executive office of LSAC, the fund-raising organization of St. Jude, said:

Our brand awareness is critical as we seek the support of volunteers, donors, groups and major corporations. Recognition of this kind reminds all of those who support us that when they associate with St. Jude, they associate with a world-class organization.

Brand image can be even more important than the product or service itself because, as mentioned earlier, the emotional rather than the rational feeling guide the customer. Gobe says it is about creating a relationship, getting in touch and understanding the consumer; sensorial experiences, establishing brand preference and creating loyalty; imagination, find subtle ways to constantly surprise and delight consumers; and vision, brands have to evolve through its natural life cycle.




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Bojangles or McDonalds?

By Samuel Kahane | Published February 19, 2013

What Separates the Best Brands from the Rest Brands? David Scott, in his book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR writes that getting information out to the world and making your brand more known than your competitors is key to branding success.I i… Continue Reading →

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A Cause for Marketing…the RED Way

By Nicholas Martin | Published February 18, 2013

The Causes of Cause MarketingSo this week I somehow decided that it would be interesting to poll some friends about certain NPO’s or Social Causes that they cared about.  Each of them came up with a totally different answer from each other, which … Continue Reading →

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