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Brands Capitalizing on Memes

10/8/2021

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Image: The Home Depot 12 Foot Skeleton
​Corporate Challenge: Optimizing meme exposure.

Ironbound Strategy: Celebrating customer memes is a unique and contemporary way to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Georgia based The Home Depot created a 12 foot tall plastic skeleton for Halloween last year.  Customers transported and posed them in laughable ways, which took the meme world by storm.  For 2021, Home Depot created new versions of the #12ftSkeleton and promoted the original in an employee vest to poke some fun at themselves. Making instagrammable moments is great way to create value for your brand.  Investing in memes that poke fun at your brand can elevate a brand’s status and draw in lifetime customers.
* The Home Depot sold out of all 12 foot Skeletons last year.  Despite producing more of these Meme Giants, The Home Depot is expecting to sell out of them again this year, and began taking Halloween pre-orders in July.
 
** Reported revenues for The Home Depot increased from $110B in 2019 to $135B in 2020
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Making Your Brand Carbon Neutral

9/3/2021

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Image: Amgen Inc.
​Corporate Challenge: Differentiating your brand to become relevant.

Ironbound Strategy:  Creating value for customers, employees, and society is the fastest way to differentiate your brand.

Ironbound Action:  California based Amgen announced its plan to be carbon neutral by 2027.  Since 2007, it has already reduced carbon emissions by 33%.  Younger consumers admire brands that are carbon neutral.  Brands can quickly become relevant when they chart their path towards carbon neutrality, and share their progress.  The media is quick to report it, providing free advertising, which gives brands an added lift. 
 * By 2027, Amgen plans to reduce water usage by a further 40% and waste by 75%.
 
** From 2007 to 2021, Amgen successfully reduced water consumption by 30%, and waste by 28%.  New technologies will help Amgen accelerate their planet stewardship to reach their 2027 goals.
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Brand Growth from STEM Education

8/6/2021

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Image: Amgen Inc.
Corporate Challenge: Inspiring the next generation of employees and customers.

Ironbound Strategy: Creating value for underprivileged youths will engage your customers and employees, while creating phenomenal value for society.

Ironbound Action:  California based Amgen has been involved in teaching biochemistry at underfunded high schools for over 30 years.  Some of their students now work at Amgen.  In 2017 Amgen put their curriculum online, reaching 900,000 students in 4 years.  The company is now partnered with Harvard and EdX to bring laboratory based learning to the world.  Creating Value for customers and employees generates sales; creating value for future customers and future employees generates sales for decades.
​* Over 80% of high school students are not proficient in STEM.  The rate at which American high school students pursued STEM stalled last decade, but is now growing with the help of corporate philanthropy.
 
** The current market size for STEM philanthropy is unquestionably massive.  Any company can tap into this resource for future employees or future customers, and skyrocket their brand value in the coming decades.
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Brand Growth from Guaranteeing Employment

7/2/2021

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Image: The Home Depot
​Corporate Challenge: Strategies to solve female underemployment.

Ironbound Strategy: Use the brand’s core values to help generate new stakeholder values for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Georgia based The Home Depot discovered that over 30% of military spouses have college degrees but are underemployed because of frequent relocation.  Since 78% of The Home Depot stores are within 20 miles of a military base, the home improvement retailer created a program to guarantee employment to all spouses after an active-duty relocation.  Creating value for military spouses emboldens employees, builds pride for customers, and enriches society.
​* With over 30% of new hires identifying as women, The Home Depot created the “Orange Women’s Network” to promote professional growth among female associates.
 
** The Home Depot employs over 400,000 associates in 2,300 stores, 35,000 of their associates are veterans.  In 2021, The Home Depot was recognized as one of the top Military Employers for their 19th year in a row.
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Brand Growth Through Education Philanthropy

6/4/2021

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Image: John Deere
​Corporate Challenge: Enhancing education for the next generation.

Ironbound Strategy: Promoting education is a great way to create value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Illinois based John Deere committed $100M to helping with equitable access to education for underserved communities. John Deere became aware that farming families struggled with access to online learning during the school shutdowns of 2020.  The innovation based company pledged to change that.  Building educational programs create phenomenal value for society.  All stakeholders experience significant gains when education becomes a corporate priority.
​* The John Deere Foundation has donated $340M since 1948.  
 
** John Deere endows and operates 3 physical educational experience destinations (a pavilion, a museum, and a historic work site) to encourage K-12 students to become the next generation of innovators and engineers.  All those experiences have moved online, inspiring schoolchildren globally.
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Incentivizing Employees to Volunteer

5/7/2021

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Image: John Deere
​Corporate Challenge: Growing social consciousness among employees.

IronboundStrategy: Incentivizing employees to volunteer is an extraordinary way to create value for key stakeholders.

Ironbound Action: Illinois based John Deere sets aside $20M per year to pay their 70,000 employees to volunteer.  Each hour spent volunteering is rewarded with $20 towards the non-profit they served.  The brand growth potential for John Deere has been revolutionary.  More houses are built, food banks are overstocked, and trees are being planted at stellar rates in the metropolitan quad-cities region where John Deere is headquartered.  Incentivizing employees to volunteer uplifts communities where companies operate, creating timeless brand loyalty that influences generations. 
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Brands Becoming Water Stewards

4/16/2021

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Image: Proctor & Gamble
​Corporate Challenge: Helping solve the drinking-water crisis.

Ironbound Strategy: For brand acceleration, never stop creating value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Ohio based Proctor & Gamble has focused its innovation toward water conservation.  P&G wants to use less water to make products, use less water inside products, and wants customers to use less water while using P&G products.  Their first water conservation product is a dish spray.  P&G hopes their innovation towards a better planet will ultimately win over the hearts of younger customers.  
​* P&G discovered that 61% of Americans rinse and re-use at least one item every day.  90% of Americans run a tap while washing plates and cups.  P&G hopes their innovations will solve customers’ own water wastage habits.
 
** P&G invests over $2B annually towards R&D, and owns over 55,000 active patents.
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The Stakeholder Capitalist Approach to Outcompeting Competitors

3/26/2021

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Image: Microsoft City of Tomorrow
​Corporate Challenge:  Leveraging your brand and products to help prevent a climate crisis.   
 
Ironbound Strategy:  One way to outcompeting competitors is to successfully convert unavoidable risks into opportunities.  Powerful brands focus on long-term sustainability by creating holistic value across employees, customers, and society.  
 
Ironbound Action:  Microsoft once the dominant leader in cloud-based computing solutions is now facing mounting competition.  These new and existing competitors threaten to derail a Microsoft driven future of Artificial Intelligence. To combat these competitors, Microsoft is adopting stakeholder strategies to entrench its technology into climate solutions.  In their 2020 Annual Report, Microsoft announced a $1 Billion commitment over the next four years towards innovative climate solutions.  In addition, they will be investing $50 Million in AI for Earth to accelerate using Artificial Intelligence to address sustainability challenges.  They will also help their suppliers and customers around the world reduce their carbon footprints using Microsoft technologies.  Finally, Microsoft intends to be carbon negative by 2030, and by 2050 remove all carbon it has ever emitted into the environment since its founding in 1975.  
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Unlikely Collaborations Bring Epic Innovation

2/12/2021

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Image:Ford Driverless Vehicle
​Corporate Challenge: Forming successful partnerships.

Ironbound Strategy: Innovation success stems from creating value for customers, employees, and society.

Ironbound Action: Michigan based Ford Motor Company partnered with Bosch and Bedrock to innovate. Ford provided driverless cars, Bosch provided dishwasher sensors, and Bedrock hosted parking garages where sensors were mounted to guide cars into parking spots. After months of trial-and-error, the 3 brands announced “Driverless Valet” which yields 20% more vehicle capacity in parking garages.  Unlikely brand partnerships yield high success when the goal of innovation is to create value for stakeholders.
* Ford is investing $4B over the next two years towards Autonomous Driving.
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The Best Time to Invest in Automation

1/29/2021

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Image: Driverless John Deere Tractor
​Corporate Challenge: Deciding to automate.

Ironbound Strategy: For guaranteed success, invest in automation when its purpose is to create value for customers, employees, or society.

Ironbound Action: Illinois based John Deere pioneered tractor automation 20-years ago, by designing a tractor that could drive itself in a straight line.  Today, Caterpillar has 350 fully-autonomous ‘earth movers’ running 24/7 at mines around the world.  Autonomous tractors are not designed to replace operators, instead operators engage with the automated machines nearby, in safety and comfort.  When the purpose of automation is to create value for stakeholders, it builds more excitement and has higher adoption rates.
​* John Deere posted $35.5B in revenue, down from $39.2B last FY.
 
** Caterpillar posted $53.8B in revenue, down from $54.7B last FY.
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