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The role of brand for non-profits
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
Harvard’s Hauser Center have published a study showing how branding can be used to advance an organisation’s mission and values. This approach looks at the integrity, democracy, ethics and affinities of a brand and how it can be aligned with a theory of change. The case studies cover Amnesty, WWF, Publish What You Pay and the Girl Effect. Useful for a sector that often looks sceptically at brand issues. READ MORE
Handling a crisis
Monday, February 27th, 2012
The Susan G Komen Foundation has been one of the most effective cancer fundraisers in the US over the last decade. In recent weeks, it has found itself in trouble for decisions relating to its funding of Planned Parenthood. This article, titled “What marketing genius thought that up?”, explores why the communications around the crisis appear to have been handled so badly. READ MORE
Making NASA cool
Friday, June 24th, 2011
By law, US agencies (with the exception of the military) aren’t allowed to spend money on advertising. This is one reason why NASA, which could be a popular brand, has such a low-profile and limited public support. This article shows how one fan has built a new following for the organisation through a series of home made promotional videos. The lesson here is obvious. There are people who support your organisation who could a better job promoting it than you do. What are you doing to help them? Read more.
Uncertainty builds trust
Friday, May 13th, 2011
There’s new consumer research on Katya’s blog that discusses how expert endorsements influence trust. The confident sounding expert who has all the answers is less compelling than one who expresses doubts and gives caveats to their opinions. The messenger, in this case, can trump the message. Real but flawed spokespeople are the best voice for your organisation. But then, what do we know? Read more.
Haiti, communities and media, one year on
Friday, January 21st, 2011
The Knight Foundation have published an evaluation assessing how people used technology to assist the relief effort in Haiti. They note successes in i) crowdsourcing information from local people ii) using SMS to keep people up-to-date iii) volunteers creating open-source maps. But they caution against describing the effort as a “new media success story”. Initiatives failed and the most important communications tool was still the radio. Read more.
The socialisation of brands
Friday, October 29th, 2010
This presentation from Universal McCann summarises one of the largest ongoing studies of behaviour on social media. As ever, Firetail’s “value-added” is to tell you which two slides to look at in a 72-page report. We’re all busy people. The most interesting data are on slides 25 and 57, which look at ‘means and motives’ for engaging with social networks and organisations online. It suggests Europeans are less likely to engage online in order to support a cause than any other continent. READ MORE
My charity is better than your charity
Friday, March 19th, 2010
From September 1, because of a review of advertising regulations, charities will be allowed to compare themselves to other charities. Until then, whilst Asda might be able to claim that it is cheaper than Tesco, charities can’t make similar claims. Will this lead to a raft of negative advertising? It seems unlikely, but with fundraising and cut-through increasingly difficult, you can guarantee someone will try. The more interesting question is whether donors will respond. Negative ads are used in politics because they work. Will they work in fundraising? Or will they lead to in-fighting that just erodes trust in the sector? Read more.
Non-profits: Likeable, but not competent
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Customers, investors and stakeholders stereotype organisations based on whether they are non-profit or for-profit. People see non-profits as warm, generous and caring, but feel they lack competence compared to the private sector. This is important, because when it comes to purchasing decisions, competence guides action. Non-profits selling products or services may be hampered by these perceptions. This new research suggests a few ways to address this. Read more.
Finding big donors with statistics
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Charities with large databases of supporters know that there are some potentially major donors hidden in their lists. Memorial Sloan Kettering in the US have developed predictive modelling software to find these high potential supporters. They match the characteristics of big donors to their whole database. For example, one big indicator was choosing to have post sent to a business address, rather than their home. This process yielded a $1.5m donation from someone whose previous biggest gift was $300. This software is getting cheaper all the time and could be an important supplement to traditional prospect research. Read more.
What influences decision making?
Friday, July 24th, 2009
Dotcom throwbacks Razorfish have released “Fluent”, a detailed report on social marketing. Their core argument is that “top-down branding will become increasingly impotent” and what your supporters say about you is more important than what you say about yourselves. It has a particularly useful table (p16) on influence at the stages of awareness, consideration and action. Read More