A Conscientious Branding Manifesto
Conscientious brands can create a positive impact and achieve long-term success while staying true to their unique identity and purpose.
Finding today’s local heroes
The author by the iconic phone box from the film Local Hero. Forty years ago, in 1983, the film Local Hero was released. The director, Bill Forsyth, won a BAFTA, its red telephone box became an icon of Scottish cinema, and its theme, by Mark Knopfler, still echoes, especially when Newcastle United run out on
Don’t resign, but re-sign: fighting climate change is in our hands
We have not failed yet. There is too much resignation in the whole climate change discussion for me. However, the word resignation is derived from the Latin word resignare and means not only to give up, but also to make a new contract with oneself. Maybe we need a re-signing. A new contract between us
The case for a better US
We should start a conversation on a new meaning of “US”, one that is evolutionary and not confrontational, one that includes and integrates rather than opposes and negates.
Medinge Group podcast: a conversation on value
Join Sandra Horlings and Oriol Iglesias on this enlightening podcast on how to get value from brands.
What it takes to be a brand with a conscience and insights from Dutch Design Week
Sandra Horlings and Erika Uffindell, both members of Medinge, discuss the themes and learnings coming out of attendance of Dutch Design Week and share their thoughts and ideas on the big themes that are challenging and guiding todays brands: the importance of elevating planet before profit, stopping creating “more” things, new concepts on circularization and
For your listening pleasure: Medinge members on podcasts
Medinge Group members have been creating some excellent, thought-provoking podcasts lately. Here is a sampling of several recent ones. From November 2020, Nicholas Ind mentioned Medinge Group and SAP in this podcast with Mark Stinson. Nicholas wrote this afterwards as a follow-up. Sandra Horlings was interviewed in January about responsible brands and how to strengthen
Generation Co: reconnecting with nature
‘The Lagoon is like a mirror. There’s not a boat to be seen, the water is crystal clear, and schools of little fish are swimming in the canals. We have a gondola landing at our entrance, and we are seeing little crabs crawling up the gondola poles. Ducks are nesting on the vaporetto docks, and
Generation Co on society: from me to we
We know different societies vary in terms of their orientation towards individualism (me) and collectivism (we), rooted in their histories, political systems and cultural values.1 We also know that the orientation—from Asian Confucianism to northern European social democracy to American individualism—has consequences in terms of social trust and cohesion.2 What we have seen, in the
Generation Co: Business
Business leaders have long operated with the mindset that the purpose of a private enterprise is to maximize value for shareholders. A business seeking investors to grow exchanges a slice of ownership to investors for their capital, with the investors’ expectation that the monetary value of their slice will grow and therefore also their wealth.
Will Generation Co and conscientious organizations save our world?
Everyone says coronavirus and the resulting deep recession will change everything. The Great Pause and the Great Restoration of the last weeks will finally make us a more caring, united and responsible community. They are wrong. The double-crisis of the virus and the recession aren’t a revolution. But they are a radical acceleration of trends
Co-creating brands with a purpose
Customers do not passively wait for messages from on-high. Rather they discuss their brand experiences, share them in brand communities and voice their opinions to each other on social media
CSR is already woven into Māori leadership
I was fascinated to read a New Zealand Herald story on the Māori (the native people of New Zealand, or Aotearoa) asset base, though it wasn’t the financial part that hit me. What was more significant were the principles behind Māori businesses. About 15 years ago, when chatting to a woman representing a Māori winery,
Brand on balance
You will have heard of Hygge,and how about Lagom, the latest lifestyle trend to spur countless coffee table books?
Your business has the potential to change the world
n the newly published book Secret no more! 45 global entrepreneurs, leaders and innovators and I have come together to share our secrets about creating and scaling a startup, innovating within existing companies and leading with authenticity and passion
How Truthful Do We Want Brands to Be?
It’s not a bad guide for brands trying to navigate this new world of purpose and authenticity. Do the right thing and be straightforward about your motives.
Green Demarketing vs. Green Advertising
In many ways, traditional marketing encourages consumption and contributes to some of the environmental problems we face today
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: when finance follows brand
Facebook’s woes over Cambridge Analytica have only prompted one reaction from me: I told you so. While I never seized upon this example, bravely revealed to us by whistleblower Christopher Wylie and reported by Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison of The Guardian, Facebook has shown itself to be callous about private data, mining preferences even
Trading identities in the 2010s: when corporate branding and personal branding adopt each other’s methods
In 1999, the late Wally Olins sent me his book, Trading Identities: Why Countries and Companies are Taking on Each Other’s Roles, a fine read published by the Foreign Policy Centre that argued that countries were trying to look more corporate, adopting the practices of corporate branding. Conversely, as corporations gained more power and their
A Brand Story to Tell La Benevolencija
Human beings thrive in safe and secure societies. But a continuum of violence constantly puts pressure on safety and security.
Five Keys to Building a Purpose
When creating a company with a sense of permanence and transcendence, it’s almost a fact that the first concept to be defined –implicitly or explicitly, is its purpose.
Hate Speech and Branding
’Hate speech’ and ’branding’ hardly seem connected concepts. Yet there are two important ways that they come together.
Truth and Purpose in the Age of Alternative Facts
With more populist fronts rising across Europe, it is clear that populism is here to stay. In order to mitigate its effects, we have to continue researching how it forms and experimenting with ways to effectively inform the population.
Make me a Proud Contributor
That’s what Millennials want out of brands in a Circular Economy. At our Spring Event in Seville, Spain, we discussed Brands’ search for Meaning
