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Growing a Brand while Helping Non-Profits

12/11/2020

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Image: Ford Proud to Honor Initiative
​Corporate Challenge: Bringing ‘meaning’ to your brand, and creating excitement for your employees. 

Ironbound Strategy: Helping non-profits has a unique effect of also creating value for your own customers and employees.

Ironbound Action: Michigan based Ford Motor Company created an online store to sell genuine Ford merchandise in military colors and insignia, with all proceeds going to veterans organizations.  Ford leveraged its brand to grow awareness of veterans issues while growing its own brand awareness in the military enthusiasts segment.  This strategy could easily be employed by any company.  By bringing awareness to impact organizations, brands can create excitement with their employees and customers while simultaneously creating extraordinary value for society.
​* In December 2020, Ford Motor Company will donate $100 on behalf of each person who uses the hashtag #ProudToHonor, with a goal of donating $3.5 million to military charities.
 
** In Q3-2020, Ford earned $37.5B in Revenues, $2.3B in Net Income.  Ford’s FY-2020 has seen a 27% Revenue drop compared to FY-2019.
 
*** In 2020, Ford donated 200,000 face shields to US Military Bases to help active-duty soldiers prevent Covid-19 spread on their bases
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Giving Away Coveted Assets for Even Higher Revenues

11/20/2020

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Image: Salesforce Ohana Floor
​Corporate Challenge: Giving away your prized assets to create value for society, and in turn exponentially grow your brand.

Ironbound Strategy: Look within your assets for new and creative ways to create value for your customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: California based Salesforce decided to give away the top floor of their skyscrapers to nearby community organizations.  Known as the Ohana Floor (Hawaiian for Family) the top floor of Salesforce buildings are communal spaces designed for employees to spend non-working time together and enjoy the majestic views.  During evenings and weekends, Salesforce donates the floor space to all local community groups.  By giving away their top asset, Salesforce strengthened their brand by gaining free publicity within their communities.  This clever sharing of resources can be replicated by any brands that are looking for unique ways of empowering their brand image while creating value for society.
​* The top floors of corporate skyscrapers are usually prize locations for executives and are usually designed with exclusivity in mind, prohibiting most employees from ever setting foot on those floors.
 
** Salesforce has 15.8B in revenue, up from 13.2B last FY, with an ~18% annual return on their common stock.
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Smashing the ‘Glass Ceiling’ to Forge Diverse and Inclusive Organizations

10/23/2020

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Image: Visa Innovation
Corporate Challenge:  Modernizing the C-Suite to be more inclusive and diverse.
 
Ironbound Strategy: Powerful brands thrive by responding quickly to market changes with new and innovative solutions. Being innovative is the outcome of a top down culture that develops a strong internal pipeline of creative leaders.  Top talent and future executives choose to stay with organizations that value all employees, focus on creating the best value for customers, and an overall meaningful mission to better society. 
 
Ironbound Action:  Visa Inc, founded 1958 in Fresno California, is one of the world’s most trusted brands.  In an effort to build a better world, Visa is modernizing the 21stcentury of businesses to include greater equality.  In their 2019 annual financial report, Visa was one of the first publicly traded companies to disclose diversity and inclusivity as part of their internal recruitment practices.  To help promote more women in leadership, they launched the She’s Next initiative in 2019 toincrease female entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment in society.  Powerful brands are stakeholder capitalists – building a pipeline of innovative leaders by creating holistic value for employees, customers, and society.
*In 2019, Visa ranked #1 on Forbes World’s Best Regarded Companies and #5 on BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands.  

‡Women are a little more than 50% of white collar workers, but represent only 4.5% of executives – 2016 NBER Working Paper Series. 

† In January 2020, For the first time in American history women held more payroll jobs (50.04%) than men. 

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Creating Value by Bridging Democracy and Technology

9/11/2020

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Image: Snapchat In-App Voter Registration
​Corporate Challenge: Brands creating value for society by advancing democracy.

Ironbound Strategy: Finding creative ways to support and grow democracy can be a great way to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: California based Snapchat registered 450,000 voters in 2018 during an in-app pilot project.  For the 2020 elections, Snapchat has rolled out their digital voter registration program nationwide.  Snapchat partnered with both partisan and non-partisan organizations to create candidate content, voter guides, e-day checklists, and ballot information to make it easier to vote.  Finding novel ways to leverage your brand for the promotion of democracy is a great way to create value for society.  In the digital age, participating in this type of value creation is easier than it has ever been.
​* 75% of millennials and gen-z in the United States are actively on Snapchat.  93M of them are over the age of 18.
 
** 57% of millennial Snapchat members who registered in-app in 2018 went to the polls and voted, whereas only 41-52% of millennials tend to vote.
 
*** During the 2016 election season, 63% of young voters learned about the voter registration process through their school; most colleges and universities will be closed during the Fall 2020 election cycle.
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Creating Value by Being Tech Savvy

8/28/2020

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Image: Ralph Lauren Bitmoji on Snapchat
​Corporate Challenge: Increasing sales among millennials.

Ironbound Strategy: Using emerging technologies can reinforce brand prowess and help create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: New York based Ralph Lauren, known for timeless style, has been trying to appeal to millennials in recent years.  The brand has created value for employees by emphasizing diversity and inclusion, while creating value for society by lowering carbon emissions and becoming better water stewards for the planet.  One novel way of creating value for customers has been to partner with Snapchat to offer Ralph Lauren clothing for Bitmoji’s.  Ralph Lauren is the first fashion brand to create a clothing line that is entirely digital. Investing in the digital ecosystem of Snapchat is a cost-effective way of building brand relationships with millennials.  Building powerful relationships with stakeholders is a great way to assure sustainable and exciting growth.
​* Snapchat purchased Bitstrips (Bitmoji’s parent company) for $64M in 2016; at the time Snapchat’s daily active users was 122M.  In 2017 Bitmoji was Apple’s most downloaded App. In Q2 of 2020, Snapchat recorded 238M daily active users.  
 
** As fashion brands have been lagging with brick and mortar stores, in the last FY Ralph Lauren has increased their number of stores in the US from 224 to 230, and 501 to 530 Globally.  YoY revenues fell from $6.31B to $6.16B (FY ending March 28 2020).  
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Choosing a Brand Ambassador to Create Value

7/24/2020

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Image: Here + Now by Justin Bieber
​Corporate Challenge: A niche product company wants to break through to the mainstream.

Ironbound Strategy: Choosing a brand ambassador to create value for your brand’s customers, employees, and society can help launch into the market spaces where the brand ambassadors have influence.

Ironbound Action: Portland Oregon based Schmidt’s Naturals began creating chemical-free personal products in a house kitchen in 2010.  Between 2015 and 2018 the company tripled in size and scale, reaching customers from coast-to-coast.  Unilever purchased an ownership stake and created a partnership with Jane Goodall to design a product, it tripled sales.  In 2019, Justin Bieber became Schmidt’s next brand ambassador.  His popularity launched Schmidt’s entire product lineup into every mainstream cosmetics retail store globally.  Choosing Justin Bieber helped Schmidt’s create a larger impact on expanding the all-natural product segment from a niche preference into the mainstream must-have product.  
* 54% of women have claimed a preference for their cosmetics to be all-natural.
 
** The current US cosmetics market is around $49B.  The natural cosmetics market is positioned to be worth $25B globally by 2025.  Most of the natural cosmetics market is driven by large market players, rather than small entrepreneurs growing to competitive scale.

*** 5% of Jane Goodall’s product sales through Schmidt’s are donated to the Jane Goodall Institute.
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How Innovation Thrives from a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace Culture

6/19/2020

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Image: Intel Computer Chip
​Corporate Challenge:  Being the first pick and preferred workplace by top talent. 
 
Ironbound Strategy:  Creative and diligent people are attracted to workplaces with values that align with their own personal beliefs.  Powerful brands attract and retain top talent by holistically creating value for employees, customers, and society.  
 
Ironbound Action:  Intel Corporation*, founded 1968 in California, is the world leader in computing technologies and breakthroughs.  They continue to lead† the market while nurturing a diverse workplace that enables everyone to equally develop and progress in their careers.  This diversity initiative‡ was furthered in 2019 with the introduction of the “Intel Rule”.  Beginning 2021, Intel “will not retain or use outside law firms in the U.S. that are average or below average on diversity for their equity partners. We are applying a similar rule to firms used by our tax department, including non-legal firms”.  Intel continues to be a best-case example of how effectively executing world changing ideas requires strategic value creating investments across stakeholders. 
*Intel is currently betting big on memory, autonomous driving, and 5G.  
†Over the last 5 years: revenue has increased 30%, operating income has increased 57%, and shares have increased in value by 87%. 
‡Their 2020 goal is to have $1.0 billion in annual spending with diverse-owned suppliers.  
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How Brands Can Affect Employee Moods

5/22/2020

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Image: Renovated Adobe HQ Artistic Space 
​Corporate Challenge: Using paint colors to create employee value.

Ironbound Strategy: Sometimes creating value for customers, employees, and society is as simple as choosing what color to paint the walls.

Ironbound Action: California based Adobe has been creating value for employees by making conscious efforts in the colors chosen for spaces in their San Jose office building.  Entrances were deliberately painted with yellow to energize employees when they arrive.  Orange was selected for communal spaces to promote the feeling of community.  Blue was chosen for hallways leading to meeting rooms to destress and calm.  Within meeting rooms are greenery to liven the room and provide natural uplifting emotions.  Creating value for employees does not have to cost a lot.  In the case of Adobe, the simplest action of painting offices can be deliberate and intentional methods of enhancing employee value.
​* Adobe’s revenues increased to $11.2B this FY, from $9B last FY, and $7.3B the year prior.
 
** Colors significantly impact how people think and act. In a 1996 paper, it was discovered that the color of medication effects how patients believe in a drug’s effectiveness, including the effect of placebos.  
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Advertising Brands by Building Stronger Communities

4/17/2020

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Image: Salesforce Trailblazer Mascot
Corporate Challenge: Benefits of investing in communities.

Ironbound Strategy: The best way to advertise a brand is to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action:  California based Salesforce has been adopting public schools that their employees children attend.  In all, 107 public schools in the Bay Area have received $70M in cash investments as well as thousands of hours in mentoring, volunteering, and technology assistance.  By investing in the children of their employees, Salesforce has not only secured the loyalty of their staff, they have positively impacted the community they operate in.  Brands that look for new ways of creating value for society often discover that their investments in their own communities yield better results than traditional advertising.
​* By working with schools Salesforce spun a non-profit to sell tailored Salesforce software to improve efficiencies in K-12 schools.  Salesforce.org has lauded 49% faster school response times to issues, 31% enrollment efficiency, and the ability to boost fundraising by 28% on average. And of course, higher student engagement.
 
** Salesforce has 15.8B in revenue, up from 13.2B last FY, with an ~18% annual return on their common stock.
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Generating Customers by Creating Society Value

3/27/2020

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Image: Lyft
​Corporate Challenge: Manifesting new customers from outside the market space.

Ironbound Strategy: If you never stop creating value for customers, employees, and society, new customers will overwhelmingly flock to your brand.

Ironbound Action:  California based Lyft now provides rides to people who don’t have the Lyft app, including those who don’t even have cell phones.  Lyft has partnered with rural communities such as Vernon County (210 miles west of Milwaukee) that don’t have taxi services to provide safe rides for bar patrons late at night.  Bartenders are able to call Lyft’s for their patrons using a unique dedicated service that allows upfront payment by the bar, foregoing the need for the passenger to have a Lyft account.  When brands search for new ways of creating value for society, their efforts always increase their customer base.
* The NTSB's most recent report (2016) reported that around 30 people die every day from drunk driving in the US (almost every 48 minutes) with 10,500 deaths and 290,000 DUI injuries annually.  These statistics are expected to decline with Lyft’s influence.

​** Lyft launched in 2012.  It has reported over 1 billion rides, by 30 million riders, in 2 million vehicles.  Lyft’s expected FY19 revenues is $3.5B.
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