I was giving a business focus and positioning statement workshop with a group of start-ups at the only high tech business incubator in Tanzania. Terrific cohort of energetic startups with some innovative new ideas. It’s always difficult no matter what stage a business is at to get people to come down out of the generalities and into the specifics, and to stop using buzzwords, technical language, or otherwise gumming up the works. [Read more...]
Classic startup dilemma
A fast $1 million profit
Connectix was introducing a new product in the middle of summer, just the worst time to do it. The company was projecting a modest $1,000,000 in sales for the year. The marketing budget was non-existent. There was no staff to support it, no infrastructure for direct sales, no call center – nothing. [Read more...]
Creating a powerful case for giving
Atzmaut: Independence
The Federation is a 100-year-old institution, but no one outside of a very small circle knows what it is or the work it does. And yet, a community-wide network of social service agencies rely on the Federation for partial funding, and the Federation raised $25 million in 2009 to support this work. But because the work is so wide-ranging, people said I couldn’t create a compelling ad campaign – it was too vague, too diffuse.
I knew that helping donors make an emotional connection to the programs we support would give them a greater understanding of the value their donations had, and the effect of their contributions on real people’s every day lives. So I didn’t listen when they said I couldn’t do it, and created a “This is Federation” ad campaign that really raised awareness of and affinity to the Federation. Each one of these ads is really a short story highlighting the real human impact of the programs supported by Federation philanthropy, and each one creates a powerful and compelling reason to give.
Click on these thumbnail samples to see them fullsize:
