For nearly 10 years, we’ve been a supporter of the American Cancer Society and its mission of celebrating more birthdays throughout western Pennsylvania. We’ve participated as a Board Member, Marketing Committee Chairperson and general volunteer.

However, this year is shaping up to be one of our more meaningful, gratifying and fun years as we’ve helped the Pittsburgh Region (New East Central Region) more effectively promote its Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Event.

The NFL and locally the Pittsburgh Steelers are huge ‘Strides’ supporters. And a year ago, we proposed the idea of using popular (and future NFL Hall of Famer – if we had a vote) Steelers Hines Ward as an event spokesperson asking people to help, “86 Breast Cancer!” Note: The number 86 is Hines’ number. FYI – to “86 something” means to get rid of or eliminate.

Well, this year the Steelers and Hines agreed and helped the ACS air a unique Public Service announcement with Pittsburgh’s NBC affiliate WPXI-TV and news anchor Peggy Finnegan (a breast cancer survivor) to “86 Breast Cancer” which is what number 86 of the Pittsburgh Steelers is striving to do – and encouraging Pittsburghers to do!

Note: Hines and Peggy are joined in this first picture with American Cancer Society Regional Vice President Glenn Callihan.

Over and above the ’86 Breast Cancer” idea, we’ve supported the ACS brand as its Facebook marketing coach, initiated a sponsor meeting with the local Chevrolet Dealer Marketing Group of Pittsburgh (who raised nearly 15% of the total donations to date) and set up a television interview on Pittsburgh CBS affiliate KDKA-TV s Pittsburgh Today LIVE show.

We’re always excited to work alongside brands to help them maximize all of the storytelling opportunities they have available to them and show them the way so they can even do it more effectively themselves. And, they are!

And as a result, I’m happy to report that the American Cancer Society’s 2^nd annual Pittsburgh Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K Walk held on October 29, 2011 on Pittsburgh’s North Shore (just outside of Heinz Field) involved more than 3,000 walkers and helped raise nearly $300,000 – nearly twice the amount raised in 2010.

Participants included teams from Western Pennsylvania corporations, businesses and organizations that formed Making Strides teams, as well as participation from individuals, including breast cancer survivors, family members and friends.

Of course, the fight is not over yet! Donations will continue to be accepted in order to help the American Cancer Society reach their fundraising goal. Donations can still be made online at cancer.org/stridesonline or by calling 1.888.227.5445.

Proceeds from Making Strides Against Breast Cancer support the American Cancer Society’s life-saving breast cancer research, education, advocacy, patient services, and community partnership grants for women in Pittsburgh.

Here’s a great opportunity for Pittsburgh brands and every day people to do well by doing good!

Today, Tuesday, October 4, is the Pittsburgh Foundation’s “Day of Giving” when online donations ($25 minimum) via the PittsburghGives website can help your favorite charity in western Pennsylvania receive a pro-rated match.

This is a great opportunity to leverage a tax-exempt contribution and increase the level of your support one of your favorite causes. Follow the PittsburghGives simple four-step process.

Donations must be made online TODAY  by 11:59 PM to be eligible. The match pool for 2011 is $725,000 for Pittsburgh Gives and the match pool is $100,000 for Westmoreland Gives.

Remember this weekend (especially Monday) and EVERY day that, “All gave some and some gave all!”

We’re building a team looking to establish an Honor Flight hub in western Pennsylvania – there’s no hub in our state.

Ours is a simple mission – to raise funds to fly/escort World War II vets to visit their Washington DC Memorial (and other Memorials) to thank them for their selfless service for freedoms we enjoy and so often take for granted.

If interested in hearing more (or know someone who might be interested), please email us.

“We can’t all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” – Will Rogers

These days you hear a ton about Cause Branding and Marketing and about authenticity and transparency in brand messaging.

Well, to see it first hand, check out this interview we set up for our friends at Light of Life Rescue Mission and good friend, former Pittsburgh Steeler and broadcaster Tunch Ilkin.

It’s easy to see how Tunch and Beth’s passion for the Mission enables it to attract volunteers and donors who help its staff make miracles happen every day by getting homeless men and women back on to bright path of recovery.

Net – it’s easy to ‘sell’ when you believe in your product and what you’re doing!

If you’d like to participate in Tunch & Wolf’s 9th Annual Walk for the Homeless on Saturday, May 9th, click here for more information.

Remember,when you light a lamp for someone else, you brighten your path too!

Over the years we’ve done a lot of hospitality marketing consulting and the first thing we study is how “hospitable” our clients are as well as their staff and their operating practices.

And, if they’re not hospitable we fix the situation immediately. No advertising is recommended, no one passes “GO” and no one gets $200 – you get the picture.

So, you can imagine how floored I was when I read this story by Rob Shuter about the popular, successful and seemingly nice Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa!

‘Barefoot’ Backfire: Make-a-Wish Kid Turns Ina Down

Here’s Enzo,  a sweet 6-year-old kid with cancer whose wish is to simply meet and cook with ‘her majesty’ because he’s a  huge fan! She blows him off and it’s not until a public backlash that she agrees to meet him.

Here’s the kicker!

Now the family says it’s too late and kicks ‘Her Barefootness’ to the curb because of the snub.

Good for Enzo – he and his family have a ton of class.

Bad for Ina because she’ll feel this PR disaster with a drop in ratings and sales – guaranteed – she lost me big time!

PR lesson #1 – be nice – always – not just when it’s convenient for you!

P.S.: Here’s another report of the story and video on ABC News. And, another. And, you can be sure there is and will be hundreds more!

Last week at a lovely holiday luncheon at LeMont, we were proud to join our friends and marketing partners from the American Cancer Society, Western PA Region who were recognized by the Pittsburgh American Marketing Association as the Marketer of the Year in the Non Profit category for 2010.

We’re proud of BrandMill’s ACS affiliation, leading its Marketing Committee, providing public relations guidance and launching its first Social Media Marketing efforts via Facebook. And, we look forward to continuing to help them in their fight to fund cures for cancer.

It was a great way to end the year and a great follow-up to our recent award.

Here are five ways to use this Thanksgiving holiday as inspiration to build a better brand for yourself and/or your company.

1. For starters, take the word apart ‘Thanks’ and ‘Giving’ and use both themes as part of your marketing mission and messaging for the next 12 months – not just this week.

1. Call/visit as many customers, team members and vendors/partners this week to thank them personally. Cards/emails are OK, but try calling first. If you don’t reach them, leave a message saying how appreciative you are of their business and partnership and how much you’re looking forward to building a better relationship in 2011.
2. Send thank you cards, but make sure you sign it with a special note even though your card may have a message.
3. Commit now to being a better partner inside and outside your company by giving better value going forward and put a special appreciation process in place.
4. Champion a cause for your brand and become part of the fabric of the community in which you do business. You can give lots of things such as your time, money and expertise. The most successful brands make money of course, but they also dramatically improve the lives of others and their employees. Here’s a link to ideas to help the homeless and for the hungry you can ‘Take the No Kid Hungry Pledge” here. Did you know that that nearly one in four children struggles with hunger? And, did you know that every $5 the federal government spends on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) generates $9.20 in local economic activity? Read more here in the Washington Post about how you can help end childhood hunger.

Throughout this Thanksgiving and holiday season, work on improving the unique value that only you can provide. Gift giving isn’t a terrible thing, however offering genuine thanks, appreciation, added value and truly giving of yourself is the true essence of this holiday and season – and a gift you can give to others that will reap you and them many future blessings and rewarding relationships.

P.S.: One last tip – OK 3 more:

1. Always bring something – wine and a covered dish is nice
2. Help with the clean-up
   
3. Learn a great toast or two such as one of my old Irish favorites:

“May all that you wish for, be the least you get…
and may the best times you’ve ever had, be the worst you’ll ever see.”

THANKS FOR READING AND
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU AND YOURS!

I don’t have many favorite politicians – check that – I don’t have a one! And, I’d bet most of you don’t have one.

Until maybe now.

Republican candidate for Congress and former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Allen West is someone I’ve been following throughout his race in the Sunshine State!

And you should too.

Allen West, is a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and is running this November as a Republican candidate for the United States Congress in Florida’s District 22.

Watch this video of West in action. No notes – pure passion and conviction – clear message coming from experience – a complete mastery of the power of video and the mastery of the public speech!

When the Republicans and McCain and Co., got outgunned and derailed by the Obama campaign in the last presidential election, there’s no question that one of big contributing factors was that they were far behind in mastering the New World Order of interactive and social media marketing tools.

In the next election/s, you’ll see that everyone will be on the SMM bus. And, it will be somewhat of a level playing field in terms of marketing execution since most everyone will be wearing a pretty nice SMM tool belt and carrying a well equipped toolbox.

Check out West’s Web site and you’ll see its complete with all the appropriate SMM tools however, his talent, integrity, character and clear brand message and performance rules.

Certainly money helps, but in this online, always on world we live in, citizen journalists can help West even out the playing field for his underfunded brand.

Watch out for the Allen West’s of the world (performance based brands with character, integrity and trustworthiness) and remember that tools are cool, but tools don’t rule because anybody can buy them and learn how to use them.

To excel these days, recognize that for today’s informed consumer, what truly matters is a clearly communicated and meaningful brand promise delivered from a trustworthy, proven brand. Guaranteed.

P.S.: I call Lt. Col. Allen West a Marketer’s dream because it’s so easy to promote a brand you believe in. I’ll bet West wins in November – this American Patriot prays and hopes that he does – we need more good people like him in government.

I’ve been a practicing (and far from perfect) Roman Catholic and Christian all my life, and for over 25 years, I’ve been a practicing (also far from perfect) marketing professional.

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a lot of brand positioning exercises and marketing audits as well as attending a weekly bible study. As I’m preparing to enter Holy Week and Easter – my favorite time of the year – my professional and personal life is colliding in an interesting way.

I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ ministry and his time on earth a lot lately. And, I’ve been thinking about him as a brand too. And, when I think of him as a brand, his radical and remarkable message and unique selling proposition is clearly one of unconditional love, tolerance and forgiveness – but, love is his foundational core message. And, he demonstrated his core message of love by living it out loud through his actions and by making the ultimate sacrifice.

I say radical and remarkable because if you closely study The Sermon on the Mount, you’ll see what I mean. C’mon…turning the other cheek is one heck of a radical concept! Even today!

When I try to stand outside of my faith and look at Christianity as a product,  it’s amazing that it has spread throughout the world and has welcomed 2 billion adherents without depending on large scale ad campaigns, social media and the like.

Christianity has spread because one person – Jesus – started it by speaking his message of truth, being authentic, transparent and following a singular focused devout message of pure unconditional love for everyone.

It’s a great lesson for all of us people of the world and marketers too.

Happy Easter to all of you.

P.S.: With all due respect, this post is not meant to be sacrilegious at all, but merely an essay in effective branding/messaging. Also, for those of you interested in religious marketing lessons, I came across this Blog – Church Marketing Sucks – and found it pretty interesting. The site’s goal as stated is to…“frustate, educate and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ.” Another interesting post is here, Jesus Is Not a Brand; Why it is dangerous to make evangelism another form of marketing, by Tyler Wigg Stevenson.

Looking forward to great game and loving Pepsi’s decision to pass on Super Bowl ads (waste) and lead with its “Refresh Everything” online marketing project.

Two things I’m sure of about the Super Bowl.

One – someone named Peyton/Payton – will win!

Two – Pepsi’s campaign will be successful for them and similar types of brand initiatives that focus their marketing with a meaning (great book here – Marketing with Meaning) will create more long term brand success than over-priced, short-lived and joke-filled ads.

Pepsi’s “Refresh Everything” offers them a lot of extra ‘arms and legs’ such as adding folks to their database, promoting goodwill inside and outside of their company, community connections, generating great PR, making the US a better place etc.,

Check out the success of PR machine already!

Any brand – big and small – can learn a great deal from Pepsi’s Refresh!