Posted in donor, donor engagement, economic recession, fundraising, investment, lifecycle, marketing, marketing budget, non profit, nonprofit on Aug 3rd, 2010
While meeting with a client the other day the conversation turned to their growth plans. The client softly explained that their growth plans were pretty conservative considering the economy and how much their board of directors enjoyed their dividend checks. We both chuckled knowing that growth needs to be funded by profit and would cut [...]
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Posted in banking, community, consumer engagement, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, donor engagement, financial services, follower, fundraising, individualized marketing, investment, lifecycle, marketing, network, non profit, personalized marketing, social marketing, social media, social network, twitter on Jul 27th, 2010
Frontline associates are often the most frequent point of human contact provided by an organization. I’m talking about folks like the teller at your bank and the undergrad working the alumni association telethon. They’re the tip of the spear, yet they are also among the least empowered in the organization. Their roles are viewed as [...]
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Posted in SPURspectives, banking, branding, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, financial services, follower, leader, lifecycle, marketing, marketing budget, marketing innovation, social branding, social marketing, social network, spur communications, transformation on Jul 13th, 2010
Regular readers of SPURspectives know that Spur Communications provides marketing services for financial services and community benefit organizations. We are routinely asked to help with brand development. So, we spend a lot of time asking why — Why do you exist? Why do you matter? Why should someone care? As you can imagine, our nonprofit [...]
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I have a routine. Most people do. We tend to make habits of the simple chores that we need to do each day so that we can concentrate on the big exciting stuff. The problem is that several routines become a pattern and a pattern becomes a rut when it’s allowed to grow. Pretty soon [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized, banking, branding, community, consumer engagement, consumer generated content, consumer perception, customer interaction, follower, investment, lifecycle, marketing, marketing budget, marketing innovation, network, social branding, social marketing, social media, transformation on Jun 16th, 2010
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an unprecedented tragedy. The extent of damage to the ecosystem, economy and lives of countless people is staggering. But it has also been enlightening. Our always on connectivity, social networks and the instantaneous spread of news by citizen journalists has shown this crisis to be [...]
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I love soccer. I know most Americans don’t get it, but I think the game is wonderful because it is filled with life lessons. With the 2010 World Cup in full swing now in South Africa, there is no shortage of lessons to learn. Consider this weekend’s 1-1 draw between England and the USA squad.
It [...]
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Posted in branding, consumer engagement, consumer generated content, consumer perception, customer engagement, leader, lifecycle, marketing, marketing innovation, transformation on Apr 7th, 2010
Do you remember seeing Apple’s 1984 commercial during the Super Bowl? I do, it was an amazing thing — totally groundbreaking hype. Steve Jobs has been at this a while and knows the game. The launch of the iPad was no less monumental in generating buzz in a different time. What strikes me as the [...]
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Do you like brainstorming sessions? Some do, others not so much. I like them. But I don’t use them to generate solutions. In fact, I can’t remember ever walking out of a brainstorming session where the ultimate solution was generated during the session. If you’re one of those folks who don’t care for brainstorming, or [...]
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Posted in SPURspectives, branding, community, economic recession, investment, leader, lifecycle, marketing, marketing budget, network, social network, spur communications, transformation on Mar 30th, 2010
Yesterday’s SPURspectives post talked about sowing the seeds for the future of your business so that you’re moving in a positive direction as the economy picks up. One way to do that is to look at your crop of existing employees and the crop of resumes crossing your desk. If you’ve been doing a good [...]
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Posted in SPURspectives, Uncategorized, branding, community, customer interaction, imitation, leader, lifecycle, marketing, spur communications, transformation, withdrawl on Feb 15th, 2010
“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
~ Yogi Berra
Have you ever asked for advice from someone you trust only to ignore the advice and continue down the road you were on? When you heard the advice you knew it was the right thing to do. But you chose to ignore it [...]
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