Moira Forbes and Branding Women as Leaders

Yesterday at 85 Broads , a premier association of professional women in NYC, I had the honor of personally meeting Moira Forbes...yes that's in FORBES, and her Forbes Women Platform never sounded better. Moira is pictured on the right with the President of Semprae Laboratories (Zestra),my client, Rachel Braun Scherl. Moira spoke directly and passionally about a brand...The Women Leader who is at the helm during change..and these times are a-changin!

Moira spoke about the dramatic rate of change today, and how women must lead in a "rapidly changing state of change". Women's deftness and dynamic nature doen't make them better leaders..but different.

Leading and motivating, according to Moira, BEGINS WITH YOU! To me that's a call for a personal brand in leadership, which is one of my beliefs, and this goes to the educational leader...female or male!

How do we lead and manage change in our own lives and in our careers is something that bumps up against thinking brand-ed!

What do you think?

M GIVE...funding the brand

Lately I've heard and gotten connected to people who are engaging with the non-for-profit world, and have heard from those circles about Pepsi Refresh Project and M Give..mobile giving that takes the idea of philanthropy to a micro giving level. Through texting your phone you will have the ability to donate small amounts of money to support your charity. As we know from our last election, those donations ADD up. I'd encourage educators to look into M Give, and to begin conversations that might tap into sharing a school brand with alum through these new ways of being philanthropic at any level!

Super Branding for Super Schools--The Win!

Today the faithful gather. The most watched TV event of the year. The faithful to football, the faithful to partying, the faithful to TV will gather to watch Saints battle Colts on a Sunday evening.Eating 40 million pizzas nationwide. An even those not interested in the outcome of the game will pause from their chips, dips and salsa to watch the Super Brand celebration, The Superbowl Commercial.

The brand icons have for years plotted, planned and pitched to massive audiences in stylized commercials priced at $80,000 a second, that are designed to win brand loyalty. There's two Superbowls going on, the game of sport and the game of marketing.

This year, one of the iconic brands will be missing from the lineup. Pepsi has passed on the high price of reaching its audience to take a new tactic, a flea flicker of its own making. The brand is going online to support its new sub brand Pepsi Refresh, and have chosen the internet to reach superbowlers with its community minded message of support. So smart. The brands are seeing that the channels for reaching the consumer and spreading the world are changing.

As schools think about the need to brand and deliver their Super messages of excellence to improve culture and performance, take note of the changing face of sharing the word that Pepsi is living. Social networking gives new value. A consumer doesn't get to simply hear the message, but engages with the message and helps shapes the message. This is a way for schools to engage their"clients" as supporters. Thinking about the value that a school offers and the possibility for the community to help shape the brand of the school is innovative and worthy of conversation. Refresh your thinking as a school leader on this Superbowl day will an eye on the game of communication.

Brand-ed Buzz

Listen. The Branding buzz is everywhere.

Communication can change in a heartbeat today. Spreading the word is at the root of a firestorm of communication in our social media decade. How do educators grab the power of this current of communication for the benefit of their schools?

They Listen to the Brand Buzz.

Branding, once thought of as a tool for marketing wonks, is riding a wave of mainstream possibility practiced everyday by anyone who has a social media page or a website. Communication is king of connecting in any environment, business, personal or educational. And where there is communication, there is need for relationships, trust, and promise. That’s essentially what the business of branding is built upon.

And if you think of it… That’s just what education embodies: relationships, trust, and promise.

Move over Madison Avenue-- branding strategies for school leaders may be the most valuable tools in today’s educational manager’s communication toolbox.

It’s time for school leaders in a web 2.0 world, to build a two way street of communication. One outbound, for reaching out and touching the entire school community, and one inbound for attracting community support for the success of the school. How can a leader bundle the essence of school culture in relationships, trust and promise? Launch a Branding conversation in a school and make a simple start.

The divide between business and education can be shored using this marketing principle, and I challenge school leaders to accept this. From where I sit in business today, brand development has moved from Madison Avenue and fits perfectly in today’s educational reform conversation. As a lifelong educator, I see it as the new power tool. I’ve seen its successful use in business, and believe its value in education. Building a brand identity for school community, addresses building relationships, creating trust and the promise student achievement.


Listen. If you think this can matter to you and if you think you have the capacity to make it happen, then buzz about branding yourself. And Buzz about Brand-Ed. The Little Book of Brand-Ed helps you Understand, Develop and Live a winning school brand.

Brand Ed: Brand Platforms for Educators

A Brand Platform focuses the organization on building value-added customer relationships.

Thinking about a platform for your school branding efforts will take you in several directions as you align management on key strategies to deliver value to customers, create a clear, compelling marketing message that results in more efficient brand communications,and provide a focus on connecting every employee's behaviors to consistently deliver differentiated value.

Creating an educational brand platform that has strategic value to an organization requires a process that is inclusive, that results in genuine outcomes that are inspiring throughout the community. Website polishing or tagline or re-positioning statement is not going to make it.

A school's brand platform must be embraced throughout an organization.It will define important brand behaviors and support clear, targeted communication about the brand's promise. A brand platform is designed to provide uniformity in the way the organization interfaces, in every way,and also is a practical, usable tool to guide all members of the organization on how to support the brand through words and actions.

Credibility is the most important criteria of the brand platform, period. it a brand platform is reduced to another empty slogan that will eventually, sooner, rather than later, become irrelevant.

According to business experts, these are the 6 elements of a platform:

Brand Vision – A forward-looking statement that describes the brand in terms of its relationship with its targeted customers.
Core Values – Core values are an expression of an organization’s principles and culture and provide the foundation for living the brand.
Brand Position – The brand position pragmatically defines the brand’s desired position among competitors in the category.
Brand Dimensions – The impressions of what the organization does, the distinctive qualities it delivers in every relationship, and the consistent qualities that every client can expect in every interaction.
Brand Promise – The crucial link to the day-to-day brand impressions that are delivered by an organization’s employees.
Brand Character – A personification of the brand that creates the imagery forming the bases of consistent external marketing communication.

Build a strong brand on the inside using these elements as a guide!

Branding Lessons: Build School Culture and Identity with Branding

You're an educator and you are starting to think about branding. Of course, you can't help but do this. When I am asked in business settings about my ability to work within the business community, since my perspective is informed by education, I simply smile and say..."I've been in the business sales all my life. I've sold "education" to a diverse marketplace: students, teachers, parents, administrators, school board members and the community."
So today, with my sales perspective, I'm traveling the country speaking to educators about the common ground of educators and business people. The ground of selling and living a BRAND for ROI in education.
Let's capture one Branding definition to work with. Branding is a total experience for the user that is based on relationship. It's more than a logo or a tagline.
If we lead with that principle, then as educators, we should feel a good fit. Education is about building relationships. Educators work hard to do honor that, and have their own tools that make this harmony of relationship building happen everyday in schools. SO with that in mind, can a school culture be created through strategic understanding and a champaign to advance a brand? Can this result in brand loyalty among students, teachers, parents, administrators, board members and the community?
To define what education is today is as challenging as defining what a brand is. There are many ways people try to define both, and branding is in essence solid and changing at the same time. That is true for education as well.
The way to make connections right off the bat is through CULTURE. Branding tenets that are from Madison Avenue's hallowed halls are perfect tools to develop language and attitude for building CULTURE across the diverse market for education. The beginning of the work lies in the understanding that branding is based in an implied promise. In schools, the promise is achievement. Savvy principals today can be Madmen...or women leaders by applying Madison Avenue tools to include branding, some marketing and a dash of social media to create culture that feeds a loyalty to the organization. Madman Principles? They work. And you'd be crazy not to try.

About the Author
Ms. Rubin is the president of the Edventures group, a NYC based consultancy that helps individuals and organizations grow though marketing, branding and networking services.

Branding Lessons: Brand Language for Districtwide Achievement

o if you are reading this, you are thinking of repositioning your personal brand before you take the lead on re-branding your school. Step One, and that's a good direction. Get comfortable with the idea that you are gong to live the Madman brand as you lead the push toward a community-wide living of achievement that your district stands for every single schoolday, not just on the budget voting day. Your personal brand overhaul will include your image and actions related to being a brand manager, and a Madman principal.
My hope for you is that you will spend time researching business topics that are devoted to brand understanding. That's your focus as you start. For you to learn your branding lessons, and for you to teach them to others, you'll need to do the work of mining what's out there in the world of Branding. Find what you can hook onto, what resonates, and like coming to a foreign country, learn the language and understand the attitudes that are present in this new world.
There is truly a language of" BRANDSPEAK", and as I develop my branding lessons, I will define the best use terms and coach you into making connections from business applications to school use. It'll be easy, believe me.
If you've read my previous articles, you know that Branding as a term is open to discussion, and that Madmen admen still quibble over the meaning. Fo my purposes, I want my readers to think RELATIONSHIP BUILDING as paramount to understanding Branding. Yes, it is a total of positive experience that people have with a service or product. Any yes, it is built on reputation and positive delivery of the service or product. Above all for me it is about relationship building. That's why branding is not a solo push, but an effort tied to marketing and networking as you go forward.
Here's some of the BRANDSPEAK terms that I promise to define for you in future pieces. Brand Promise, Brand Platform, Brand Loyalty, Brand Messaging, and Brand Engagement to name a few. All of these frameworks gather around a tenet related to communicating with your diverse niche market that exists in your school district. And here's the tenet...To be a Madman Principal ...Think NICHE MARKET.
Think customers and begin your branding lesson by finding out how your school/district is perceived by parents, school board, teachers, students, businesses and community at large. Think about the LANGUAGE, the BRANDSPEAK that you must know, and genuinely embrace so that you can talk the talk of Branding. Knowing these elements will bring an attitude to your work that helps you walk the walk as a brand manager, a Madman school principal. Now, think about how you going to launch a branding campaign that will make relationships with each of these niche markets, and remember that each market is different, yet they must exist under the same brand . It's your job to build relationships with all your customers powerfully enough to advance your school brand for positive return on your investment...ROI!

About the Author
Ms Rubin's is a NYC based consultant who helps individuals and organizations grow through branding, marketing and networking services. She is a speaker and author of Trish Rubin's New York MINUTE NETWORKING

Brand Lessons: Build School Culture and Identity with Branding

ou're an educator and you are starting to think about branding. Of course, you can't help but do this. When I am asked in business settings about my ability to work within the business community, since my perspective is informed by education, I simply smile and say..."I've been in the business sales all my life. I've sold "education" to a diverse marketplace: students, teachers, parents, administrators, school board members and the community."
So today, with my sales perspective, I'm traveling the country speaking to educators about the common ground of educators and business people. The ground of selling and living a BRAND for ROI in education.
Let's capture one Branding definition to work with. Branding is a total experience for the user that is based on relationship. It's more than a logo or a tagline.
If we lead with that principle, then as educators, we should feel a good fit. Education is about building relationships. Educators work hard to do honor that, and have their own tools that make this harmony of relationship building happen everyday in schools. SO with that in mind, can a school culture be created through strategic understanding and a champaign to advance a brand? Can this result in brand loyalty among students, teachers, parents, administrators, board members and the community?
To define what education is today is as challenging as defining what a brand is. There are many ways people try to define both, and branding is in essence solid and changing at the same time. That is true for education as well.
The way to make connections right off the bat is through CULTURE. Branding tenets that are from Madison Avenue's hallowed halls are perfect tools to develop language and attitude for building CULTURE across the diverse market for education. The beginning of the work lies in the understanding that branding is based in an implied promise. In schools, the promise is achievement. Savvy principals today can be Madmen...or women leaders by applying Madison Avenue tools to include branding, some marketing and a dash of social media to create culture that feeds a loyalty to the organization. Madman Principles? They work. And you'd be crazy not to try.

About the Author
Ms. Rubin is the president of the Edventures group, a NYC based consultancy that helps individuals and organizations grow though marketing, branding and networking services.