Free Flowing Thoughts

I can quit anytime...

In a cost cutting move, my employer has pulled away Blackberrys for everyone but executives.  I'm in day 3 of my rehab and finding the withdrawl more painful than I expected.  I thought I was in control and could quit anytime, but I might have been wrong about that.  The change is so painful I am willing to pay personally to get plugged back into the grid.  Below is a petition I started at work to permit access again with a personal device.  My only hope is to find a way to continue my addiction on my own dollar.

From: Rogers, Matthew
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 4:37 PM
Subject: Together, we can all make difference...

Are you suffering from Blackberry withdrawal? 

(actual former Blackberry user)

Did you really need more time talking to family, reading or exercising?  Are your thumbs losing their muscle tone and coordination?  Wandering around the buildings trying to remember where your next meeting is happening? 

No one would pick a Blackberry over someone’s job, (well maybe some people, but they have a real problem) but there is a setting on the Exchange server that would permit access to your email from a personal mobile device.  This would maintain the opex savings and give access to those people who want an option for keeping up with email.

Use the EmployeeStorm link below to get back on the (personal) crackberry!

Forward this email to other disenfranchised crackberry users.

Matt

(if you cannot reach me at this email address after this note makes the rounds…I can be reached at mattrogerstx@gmail.com.)

Learning New Tricks

Remember when you learned something new and were really excited? My six month old has taught herself to roll from her stomach to her back. And she just can't stop. Last night bath time took a little longer than usual.

Take off a shoe, roll over, smile.

Take off other shoe, roll over again, smile.

Take off sock, smile. Roll over, smile.

Take off other sock, roll over.

Pose for picture.

It's the little things that make being a new dad so much fun.

The Non-Profit Brand Series: Start With The Brand Vision

Some of the best ideas on brand development comes from Scott Davis book Brand Asset Management.  David Aaker also has some outstanding work on this topic and most of what you'll find are adapatations of their work.  In his book, Davis says brand visions have four components:

1. A statement of the overall goal for the brand
2. Target market(s) identified for brand development
3. How the brand will be differentiated from others
4. Financial goals linked specifically to the brand

1) Overall goals for the brand should be closely tied to the mission of your organization.  In most cases, the brand you are managing is your organization itself as few non-profits have the resources to actively manage a large brand portfolio (in most cases it is a mistake to try.)

2) Target markets are your constitencies.  You should spend considerable time understanding these different groups and how to communicate and engage each.  In most cases you will have more potential constituencies to focus on than you will have the resources to engage in a meaningful way.  Identify the three most important groups to accomplish your mission.  For MCEC, we selected: families, policy makers, and volunteers. 

3) Understanding how your brand is different from any other in your space is challenging, but may be the most important part of the exercise.  If your constituencies cannot understand what is unique about your organization they are less likely to engage with you.  MCEC is unique from other non-profits focused on military children in that our mission is to ease the transitional challenges affecting education.  We are positive, global in scale, and experts at what we do.  We are working toward the day when every military child walks into a new school and is greeted by name by their new guidance counselor and a Student to Student volunteer.  There would be no confusion or backward progress the student's level or graduation date.  They are quickly integrated into the same extracurricular activities they have been passionate about for years in their previous schools and they are actively recruited by major universities because of their unique perspective as a military child and not in spite of their mobile life.

4) No non-profit can survive without funding.  There are many different models to fund the efforts of the non-profit and you should develop your brand with this in mind.  If you organization is funded based on invidual donations your brand needs to be oriented toward attracting these individuals.  If your organization is funded from services you would have a slightly different approach.  MCEC funding comes largely from services, we are recognized as the experts in the transition challenges of mobile military children.  As we manage our brand, we keep in mind the importance of maintaining an image of accessible experts who equip caretakers of military children.