marketing and branding strategy
A recent Harvard Business Review article by Marc de Swaan Arons, Frank van den Driest, and Keith Weed, uncovers what it takes to be a high-performing company. The Marketing2020 study has some excellent observations from which any sized business or nonprofit organization can benefit.
One major fact: The study demonstrates that marketing is no longer one entity, but extends throughout an organization, tapping every function. It’s always validating to read what many of us have been preaching for eons. Marketing is NOT a department. It is a mindset.
Here are some of the findings and recommendations:
I recently received an “Urgent: Your support is needed” email. It came from a charity whose annual municipal grant was reduced by 10% for the next fiscal year. How bad was it?
In the second paragraph, the CEO states that the organization has experienced a 30% cut in municipal funding over the past eight years! He asks me for help - to contact city officials and advocate on the charity’s behalf, and to show up at a city budget meeting to voice my opposition to the budget cut. As I read his plea, my instinct told me that something was wrong with this picture.
So, I did some research and uncovered a very disturbing fact. Continue reading
