Vol. 1
Issue 3
Summer 2006
Branding Bytes is a FREE quarterly e-letter courtesy
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archived on my website (www.checcocomm.net).
Simply click Branding Bytes on the website homepage menu
to access them.
In this issue:
- Information on the upcoming Nonprofit Congress
- Question: What do leadership and vision have
to do with branding?
- Bits & Bytes
Nonprofit Congress
On October 16 -17, 2006, approximately 500 Nonprofit Congress delegates
and 200 at-large participants will gather in Washington, DC to:
-
Identify the values that all nonprofits share;
-
Develop a vision and priorities for the nonprofit sector
-
Exercise a collective voice.
The Nonprofit Congress is driven
by local nonprofits. To learn more about how you can play a part in
this unprecedented effort to unite nonprofits and strengthen the
charitable sector, log onto
www.nonprofitcongress.org.
Question
The following question was
posed at a national conference I presented to in the spring.
Q. What do leadership and vision
have to do with branding?
A. Everything!
Some of you may be familiar with well-known author
Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, in
which Campbell describes a journey every hero makes, dating back
to Greek mythology and beyond. Many modern-day leadership and self-help
programs are modeled after Campbell's description of this journey.
These programs primarily attract individuals seeking to improve their
leadership skills by creating a hero's journey for themselves.
I strongly believe, however, that an individual’s ultimate leadership
abilities do not depend solely on whether he or she can map out their
own hero’s journey, but whether prospective leaders can
successfully map out a similar journey for those they seek to lead.
How does this relate to branding?
One example: A disgruntled employee can turn into a
branding nightmare; worse yet is a disgruntled workforce. While the
organization may be working to create a positive brand image, unhappy
employees, instead of acting as good brand ambassadors, often take every
opportunity to speak ill of the organization and its leadership. The
result: erosion of brand credibility.
I'm convinced that good leaders (including managers) can minimize
disgruntleness in the workplace by instilling employees with a sense of
mission, namely charting for them a hero's journey rather than just
giving them a job.
Everyone from board members to staff and volunteers who are made to feel
that they are playing a valued role--regardless of how large or
small--in achieving the organization's mission, tend to embody and
embrace a brand value that is priceless. And only good leaders with
vision can instill that sense of empowerment and pride of mission--or
hero's journey--in those they seek to lead.
Bits & Bytes
Listed below are some of the events and activities I'll
be participating in over the next couple of months:
- June 15, at 7:30 pm. Talking
and taking questions on branding at the Kensington Row
Bookshop on 3786 Howard Avenue, Kensington, MD. For more
information contact Eli at 301-949-9416.
- June 21 and 22. Keynote
luncheon speaker at the Oklahoma Center for
Nonprofits "Power Marketing Conference" in Oklahoma City
and Tulsa, respectively. For more information, contact Tod Bryant
at 405-236-8133 x212.
- July 26 at 2:00p.m. EDT. Conducting
a 75-minute audioconference workshop on branding for nonprofits
sponsored by CD Publications, publisher of several
newsletters on public and private grantseeking. For more
information contact Mike Gerecht at 301-588-6380, x130 or visit
www.cdpublications.com
- August 17 and 18. Conducting
a two-day course on branding for the NeighborWorks Training
Institute in Washington, DC. Registration for the DC
Institute opens soon. For more information, log onto
www.nw.org.
If you didn't get a chance in April to listen
to my interview on branding on the Global Talk Radio
show "Demystifying Nonprofits", hosted by
Celeste Terry, you still can. Simply log onto
www.checcocomm.net and click on the hyperlink in the Global Talk
Radio box on the right side of the homepage. I think you'll find the
interview interesting.
As always, I look forward to receiving your feedback, questions, success
stories and challenges. Also, if you are in need of a speaker,
trainer or branding consultant/coach, I invite you to contact me or log
onto my website for more information.
In the meantime, good luck with your branding!
Larry
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