Authored articles
Create, sustain, evolve: engaging your organization to keep your brand healthy and relevant
MarketingProfs.com
Number seven in a seven-part series, 'Branding in the age of social'
by Tamsen McMahon and Roger Sametz
The mark of a successful brand is when people find that their personal brands are enhanced by connection to yours. But how do you encourage your constituents to take that kind of ownership?
Donor 3.0: connecting with the prospects of today, and tomorrow
University Business
by Eric Norman
When it becomes harder to raise funds—and the definition of success is coming up with just 90 percent of last year's revenues—fundraisers must better understand their donors and the different tools and approaches needed to connect with them if they're to influence and motivate a new generation of donors.
Put your brand to work: building your architecture for engagement
MarketingProfs.com
Number six in a seven-part series, 'Branding in the age of social'
by Brandon Walsh
While you can define your brand in a corner conference room, it doesn't really exist unless your constituents "get it." So how do you translate your planning and strategy into tactics that drive desired outcomes?
Brand control to Major Tom: the new rules of brand management
MarketingProfs.com
by Roger Sametz
Yes, the new age of extreme participation is a challenge for brand managers. No, you haven't lost control.
Achieving true visual coherence: building a brand identity that's flexible, durable, shareable–and yours
MarketingProfs.com
Number five in a seven-part series, 'Branding in the age of social'
by Roger Sametz
In today's decentralized, tweeting, demand-printed, www universe, achieving compelling visual coherence is tough. How do you create a visual brand system that can be shared, taught, and support all you're doing across different media?
Articulate to resonate: crafting and communicating messages that matter
MarketingProfs.com
Number four in a seven-part series, 'Branding in the age of social'
by Eric Norman
You've done your research; you're clear on your brand strategy, positioning, and personality. Now to connect to your constituents: how do you ensure that you're engaging in the most productive dialogues possible?
Friend-raising before fund-raising
by Brandon Walsh and Roger Sametz
Organizations that compete successfully for major donors are skilled in making friends, fostering relationships with people who share a vision and values, and in connecting their organizational brand to the "personal brands" of prospects. Do you know who your friends are—or could be—and how their passions connect to your priorities?
Who you are today... and tomorrow: building your brand on a solid sense of your identity
MarketingProfs.com
Number three in a seven-part series, 'Branding in the age of social'
by Roger Sametz
The brand picture assembled in the hearts and minds of your constituents is a mix of what you can control—and what you can't, but would certainly like to influence. How do you develop a strong foundation for your brand that helps people to understand and value your organization?
Achieving relevance: understanding and connecting with constituents
MarketingProfs.com
Number two in a seven-part series, 'Branding in the age of social'
by Brandon Walsh
Whether you're a for-profit or nonprofit enterprise, your goal is to have relationships with your constituents. But how do you make sure you're connecting with your communities around what they care about?
A strong brand is integral to successful fundraising
FundRaising Success
by Roger Sametz
Increasingly, major donors view the checks they write as "investments" rather than as charitable giving. They're looking for organizations through which they can realize their (ideally, shared) vision. A strong brand can help build the connection, relevance, and resonance needed to drive decisions in your favor.
Know where you stand: gaining insight through research
MarketingProfs.com
Number one in a seven-part series, 'Branding in the age of social'
by Eric Norman
Before you can begin to build, or renovate, your brand, you need to know where you are, where you want to go, how you might get there, and what might be in the way. How do you go about getting the answers that will drive strategy and tactics?
Leverage your inner lemon: use 'Brand Judo' to flip negative perceptions into memorable campaigns
Entrepreneur.com
by Brandon Walsh
"Brand Judo" can be described as the practice of turning negative brand perceptions into positive ones. The practice of Brand Judo can help undermine your opponents' marketing campaigns and insulate your brand from ongoing or potential attacks.
A scientific method to tame social media madness
iMedia Connection
by Tamsen McMahon
How can you cut through the hype and figure out how best to use social media in your organization? By using a scientific approach that’s simple, measurable, and repeatable.
Mosaic branding™
by Roger Sametz and Tamsen McMahon
In today's multi-modal, tweeting world, your challenge is to build a brand that is compelling and cohesive at an institutional level and meaningful to different people, differently, by making the most of those communications you can control—and by influencing, and providing context for those you can't.
Designing success
by Summer Parker and Roger Sametz
Effective design can help both creators and consumers of communications by making content more accessible and meaningful: sorting information-wheat from data-chaff; giving shape, dynamic range, and emotional depth to ideas and brands; putting new technologies in the service of increased understanding and connection.
Social media reality check
by Brandon Walsh
Manager, Strategy
Is the social media explosion a “big bang” that’s creating a whole new brand communications paradigm, or is it part of an ongoing evolution where focused brand-building principles are not only still relevant, but more important than ever?
What for-profit businesses can learn from nonprofits
Forbes.com
by Roger Sametz and Mark Volpe
The need to connect to constituents at a deeper level to keep diverse income streams healthy—from sales, sponsorships, partnerships, and philanthropy—has required nonprofits to develop approaches and skills that for-profits can learn from.
Download PDF of full article
10 tips for an effective design process OR you have more in common with your designer than you think
by Summer Parker
Designer
A compendium from the Sametz Blackstone design community
“Great clients share many of the traits of great designers: curiosity,…perfectionism, energy, confidence, idealism, wit. And they also love their work.” —Ellen Shapiro
A strong brand is essential to success—and possibly survival
The Voice of Chorus America
by Roger Sametz and Brandon Walsh
In difficult economic times, a strong brand is no longer a luxury, or “nice-to-have” for cultural organizations—it’s a necessity.
Download PDF of full article
Up front and personal
University Business
by Roger Sametz
Academic marketers can now reach prospects through an increasingly wider array of channels, but the structure of discourse and the content communicated hasn't changed as much it might. And change, even in this generally risk-averse environment, might foster deeper connections and better results.
Emerging in an emerging market
Mass High Tech
by Roger Sametz and Eric Norman
Creating context, connection, and meaning for your innovation can help new technologies, their applications (and their inventors) to be more successful than they might otherwise be. Great ideas don't just sell themselves.
Building your business by building your brand
InvestmentNews
by Roger Sametz
With more than 8,000 financial institutions competing for assets—and many more broker-dealers, wholesalers and advisers vying to attract and retain investors—being heard and differentiated in this noisy, ultra-fragmented and heavily regulated arena is a challenge. Smaller financial organizations have to be especially savvy communicators if they are to rise above the din.
Creating and communicating value(s)
Design Management Journal
by Roger Sametz
Design, communications design in particular, can create significant value for any organization. But if communications design is to deliver the highest possible value, the prevailing model of design needs to be re-envisioned.
Courtesy of the Design Management Journal a publication of the Design Management Institute (www.dmi.org). Individual copies of this and other DMI Journal articles are available for purchase at www.dmi.org/publications
Interviews and chats inform strategy and build a more engaged team
Marketing News
by Eric Norman and Roger Sametz
For any number of reasons you may need to change how you're positioned vis-à-vis your competitors—and how you communicate to the people whose interest and engagement are critical to your success. But before you make any changes to your branding and communications, you need to know where you are, where you want to go, and how you might get there. Qualitative research—chats over a cup of coffee—can help.
Marketing partnerships should build skills and knowledge, not just brochures
Mass High Tech
by Roger Sametz
The marketing-communications firm you work with is a key ally. But if your engagement is focused solely on the "making of things," you're not getting the value you need. Yes, you might have a great-looking brochure, but are others in your organization able to talk about what it's saying?
Banking on trust: investing in rebranding can pay big dividends
DIRECT
by Roger Sametz
While performances, products and service always will inform consumers' decisions, a well-defined brand can put these variables into a context. And that can help a firm build the trust and relationships it needs to compete effectively.
Brand matters for bio
BioExecutive International
by Roger Sametz
A well-managed brand, once thought to be important only to companies with a strong retail focus, can help biotechnology companies attract the people, dollars, and partners that make good science possible—and profitable.
Tangled Web: don't sacrifice your brand to save time and money
Mass High Tech
Roger Sametz and Andrew Maydoney
Time and money—there is never enough of either. And in today’s business climate, it seems that every opportunity to save both is worth seizing. But time and money that help organizations build their brands—to build relationships with customers and clients—are resources more wisely spent than those that have a more narrow, tactical focus.
Reflect culture, values to attract students
Women's Business Boston
by Siobhan Kelleher and Julie Strong
Though a unique and inclusive process, Sametz Blackstone and MIT Sloan collaborated to increase the representation of women in the MBA program and also reinforce the School's position as a leader and model for women in management.
Designing dialogues
Design Management Journal
by Roger Sametz
Customizing communications and communication paths to better engage customers and prospects-and to start and progress relationships.
Story telling through design
Design Management Journal
by Roger Sametz
While the methods and materials of design do give "form" to communication, the ultimate goal of mucking about with type, color, imagery, space, and time, is to tell stories—to connect "teller" to "listener" in a dialogue that builds comprehension, commitment, participation, loyalty, and trust.
Courtesy of the Design Management Journal a publication of the Design Management Institute (www.dmi.org). Individual copies of this and other DMI Journal articles are available for purchase at www.dmi.org/publications
Low-cost communications techniques
Boston's Office of Cultural Affairs
by Andrew Maydoney
The City of Boston hosted a series of community conversations to serve information to its well-over 275 small to mid-sized cultural institutions. Sametz Blackstone Associates was invited by the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs to participate in these discussions and specifically, to lead conversations on ways that organizations working on shoe-string budgets can make the most out of communications programs while spending little money. The notes to those discussions are available for download here.
Views from above
AIGA Boston Journal
by Will Cook
An airplane is a microcosm of society. The more money you have, the better seat you have, the more space you get.
Information design: a map to meaning
Presented in cooperation with Peter Lawrence, Chairman, Corporate Design Foundation
by Andrew Maydoney
Information Design: A Map to Meaning—a presentation suggesting that in the most compelling information design, the expression of an idea should form a map to its meaning. This presentation includes collected exhibits and ideas from leading voices on the study of information design and its meaning. The first presentation of this material was given at Abt Associates in Cambridge Massachusetts.
Branding and design beyond the corporate sphere: being successful in academia
Design Management Journal
by Roger Sametz
Much of the thinking and best practices related to branding and design in the corporate realm are of great value in the not-for-profit sector—particularly academia. Roger Sametz reframes fundamental branding strategies to better fit the academic culture, details the steps necessary to build a strong brand in this context, and shares examples of work Sametz Blackstone has done for several institutions.
Contact us via e-mail for a reprint of this article.
Creating a principles-based identity system to build brand equity:
Design Management Journal
by Roger Sametz
Communicating identity requires a strategy satisfying the needs of those who create information and those who receive information. In this case study, Roger Sametz outlines a program devised for Digital that addresses this task by defining three basic identity components combined with focused approaches to writing, typography, color, design and imagery—a balance that enables users around the world to create a broad range of media with a profile that is distinctively and consistently Digital.
Contact us via e-mail for a reprint of this article.
