Clearly, I have been missing much since 2003 since I only heard about Movember this month. Movember began in 2003 by a bunch of inspired (and brilliant) Australians. Movember is an international movement to bring attention to men’s health issues, mainly prostate and other men’s cancers through individuals growing mustaches.

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In today’s shared-brand economy, people rule. And it’s about time. The rules of engagement have fundamentally changed. The line between people and brand is blurred now more than ever. The opportunity to be yourself and beyond yourself has arrived.

It’s our world. It’s our time. It’s our experience.

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When discussing new technologies with clients and peers I often hear the importance of not building “technology for technology’s sake”.   I agree that this should be prevented but I prefer to think positively and speak about how we want technology to work instead of how we don’t want it to work.  In doing this, I use the word Sprezzatura.

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When Warren Buffet donated the bulk of his vast fortune to the Gates Foundation, did the Gates Foundation’s donations dry up because people felt the foundation had enough money, and their money would be needed more elsewhere? Nope. The Gates Foundation donor base got bigger. Why? Because people want to be around winners. A wider and deeper donor base is built on the understanding and belief that your organization is a winning brand. Learn how to develop and communicate your 5 Top Winning Attributes and how to use this message framework to engage your audience and grow over time.

On December 3rd, Chris Klaehn, Partner & Director of Brand Strategy, gave a talk entitled “Everybody Loves a Winner” at the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Conference on Philanthropy.

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We always love doing work for nonprofits and we recently finished developing a nonprofit brand from the ground up. What was formerly CollegeSUCCESS will be Beyond12 in a few weeks once their new Web site and brand goes live. We sat down with founder and CEO Alex Bernadotte to ask her some questions about her company’s brand, her background, and Beyond12. Beyond12 is true social entrepreneurship–it is a national nonprofit organization looking to increase the number of first generation, underrepresented and low-income students who graduate from colleges and universities. If you have any other questions for Alex, please comment here.

Why did you decide to hire Corey as your branding firm?

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Andrea Naddaff, Partner at Corey, responds to Susan G. Komen Fights for Trademark on American Public Media’s Marketplace Web site.

“I am reminded of Rodney King’s famous sound bite ‘People, please, can’t we just get along?’. If we put this issue in branding parlance, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is the uber-brand of the pink ribbon and ‘race for the cure’. The other organizations can be considered as partners and should leverage the power of the creator to help establish their cause by crediting their inspiration. So, what am I saying? Susan G. Komen should be more charitable and the other organizations should be more respectful. ”

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A key question when developing social media strategy or a website is “Who do we target?”. “Who will be the most effective individuals to reach with our message?” Often these target audiences break down into two groups. Advocates for your organization, people who are invested in you and your offering, and the public, customers or end users – the ultimate recipients of your offering. A typical website design or social media strategy will try to reach these two groups in varying proportions.

But there is a third group, a group as important as either and one that can have a disproportionate effect on reaching end users. We call this group “Messengers.” Unlike your advocates, messengers are an audience that you don’t have direct contact with on a regular basis. They don’t follow your every word but they do share an affinity for your ideas, your topics and your issues. They might already be talking about your issues without mentioning your organization. Sometimes messengers talk about your topic on a regular basis, sometimes more sporadically as events or seasonality dictates.

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Internal applications – intranets, knowledge management sites, workflow management systems, etc. – drive an organization by keeping employees informed, creating quality and consistency across an organization, and positively influencing the bottom line. In this post, I review 4 ways to make these internal workhorses really shine.

Social Tools

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Yes, that’s right, the mighty Businessweek recently called on us to contribute some tips on branding. The tips are being featured in a regular section targeted to small businesses. Three of our tips have been published in the last two months. Tell us what you think. We’d love to hear your two cents or even more.

Tip One: Your Brand is a Verb, Not a Noun

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I had the great privilege of participating as a panelist in National Provider’s Council Annual meeting two weeks ago. The keynote address was on The Power of Branding.

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