There are people out there who would love to check your work and weed through the small details.

Find someone who can help…

This is a great little manifesto over at change this. For fan’s of seinfeld, you’ll remeber all of these scenes that Bill Gammell uses as metaphors for marketing lessons. Quick read. Worth 5 minutes for a a quick bit of inspiration.

Changethis.com

In the kitchen with Moby

Tony Morgan on Seth Godin…
Your Branding Sucks

FortyOneTwenty
Hot church media

A surly group of friends doing great work, from their passion, here and in Rwanda.
Scallywags - I’m continually amazed by them.

Safari is still the best browsing experience, but Apple still needs to fix a few things.
$10,000 exploit

This is a brilliantly well-done slideshow.

| View | Upload your own

Favorite lines:

It’s not what YOU say it is. It’s what THEY say it is.

The Focus Test:
1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. What does it matter?

Posted in Branding, Communications | 1 Comment

Everything communicates something.

When I was in grad school, my thesis project involved studying the impact that nonverbal communication has in the courtroom. Everything I observed firsthand in the courtroom and later talked to jurors about revealed that nonverbal factors in the courtroom have an enormous impact on the outcome of a case, almost as much as the words spoken and the evidence presented. The demeanor and dress of the attorneys and the parties in the case “speak” first and most often. Does he look guilty or innocent? How fast does she talk? What do his eyes do when he answers a question? Is the defendant’s suit nice…but not too nice? How does the attorney look at the judge? Does it look like they played 18 holes together yesterday? I later practiced law and, from what I experienced and from what more experienced attorneys told me, jurors are like communication sponges…

read more…

1. Have too many of them.

Not everything in your organization needs a name, logo and stylesheet all to itself. When you overbrand, you dilute your core message. When everything has it’s own identity, you end up competing with yourself. It’s like Fight Club all over again.

2. Borrow it from Someone else.

It’s easy to get inspired by design. Somethings are just drop dead beautiful. But it’s hard to be yourself, if you’re trying to be somebody else. Be inspired, but design yourself, don’t design to be somebody else.

3. All Sparkle, No Substance.

Design is great, when it communicates truth. if you’re trying to sell yourself as more than you really are, eventually, people will figure you out. You can only fool people for so long. A candy coated brussels sprout isn’t going to hide the bitter taste when you bite into the core.

As a designer, I’ve been guilty of all of these, but I always strive to be a better communicator.

Things that are happening at Sanctuary this year:

1.  We launched Love Minneapolis. A place for people to “just show up and serve.” There’s been two events and already we’re extending far beyond our doors. 
2. We have a series of Amazing Hip Hop Sunday’s featuring the 3 of the hottest acts in Hip Hop. Starting this weekend with The Ambassador also of Cross Movement. This guy is amazing. The real deal. Not “Christian Hip Hop,” but Hip Hop that’s Christian. We can’t advertise it, because we already know that there won’t be any open seats unless the temps drop below 0 again. Soon to come Phil Jackson and his crew from Tha House. Urban D and others from Crossover Church (#21).
3. We’re adding another service. We’ve been maxed at 1000 for a long time. It’s time to open the doors a little earlier. I’m betting we’ll double in size this year.
4. Efrem will be speaking somewhere that might shine a bit of a spotlight on what we’re doing.
5. We’re tightening the belt. We’re moving to a new office. We’ll start a capitol campaign for our first semi-permanent facility. 

However, I can’t believe how well done this video is…

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fZHou18Cdk&rel=1&border=1]

I couldn’t turn it off. 

Imagine building your entire brand on the hope for something better. On the hope that we want to take care of each other. On the reality that if we don’t actively participate in our future, the future will be dictated to us.

Sound like anyone you know?

7 Poor Communication Skills to Avoid

1. Contacting others only when you need something.
2. Not following up, or closing the loop.
3. Not returning telephone calls or email messages.
4. Foregoing basic courtesy.
5. Not listening.
6. Telling lies.
7. Spewing chronic negativity.

I was  at a major retailer that can remain nameless, let’s just call them Bullseye. I love Bullseye. I love how Bullseye takes the time to find the balance of Design and Utility. I love the way Bullseye presents itself and makes itself guest focused.

I had a recent experience at Bullseye where i was the guest and I was clearly not the focus….

I recently spent over an hour trying to resolve a “customer service” issue with Bullseye. Out of that hour, I spent at least 45 minutes of my time by myself. Waiting. Waiting…and waiting some more. And while I waited for Bullseye to fix their mistake, I waited by myself, clueless as to what was being done to resolve my problem…

And when the manager came back, he made an attempt to appease me with $15 in Bullseye cash.

I didn’t ask for it. I’ll be honest, at that point I didn’t even want it. I didn’t want to be placated with their solution, I wanted them to initiate a conversation with me, about what might make me feel resolved regarding this situation.

I often placate. I try to silence problems by applying what I think to be the best solution, without initiating a conversation around what might be a real solution for the other party. 

I think I need to do a much better job of initiating conversations, rather than offering placating solutions…. 

There’s a great new manifesto over at Change This.

so I read this post from shawn and… 

Here’s the deal:

Invention is something from nothing.

Innovation is something new from something previous.

Renovation is returning something to the way it was.  

In the end, it’s all just buzz words. Jesus left us with a job to do. Make discples of all nations, love God, love your neighbor as yourself

The real question is, was there movement from the message?Did people respond in the way you wanted?If not, you may have to do one of the above. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6ylxWcwkUM&rel=1]

Sometimes they do a better job of getting the message across than we do… 

I was looking for a new printer driver for my printer/scanner since I upgraded to Leopard. 
Here’s the list I had to choose from: Notice the difference?

• Mac OS X
• Microsoft Windows 2000
• Microsoft Windows 98
• Microsoft Windows 98SE
• Microsoft Windows ME
• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows Vista (64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business (32-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business (64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise (32-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise (64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Starter
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic (32-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic (64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP x64

One full version for everybody. No mess. No fuss. 

Katya from Network for Good and Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog takes us back to the basics. As we share our story its more about them than us:

 …I found myself saying the same thing I always say, over and over: focus on the audience, listen to the audience, then engage the audience in conversation.  Our work is not to drop pamphlets or preach or pontificate.  Our job is to connect.

One thing I learned early on from reading the Art of Innovation is that renovation is often much harder than innovation.

It’s one thing to have a problem that nobody has solved yet. Your solution is the best solution by definition of being the only solution. In the case of the grocery store shopping cart that IDEO was charged with renovating, the challenge was clear: Make the best shopping cart ever. The problem however was deeper: Rethink the grocery shopping experience so that the design and functionality of the shopping cart matches the reality of your shopping experience or makes it a more desirable experience.

So they had to dive in and rethink things from the moment you walk in the store. Whether you’re the urban hipster, the soccer mom, or the daily shopper. The results were drammatic. The traditional shopping cart took on the form of this multi-compartment hodgepodge of speciaiized functionality.I don’t think it was that great.In fact, it looked bulky and awkward. Spaceage and untouchable….(yet fascinating).

The reality is the traditional shopping cart meets most of the needs we ask of it. And even if IDEO’s cart is a good design, the awkwardness of it compared with something I’m used to, makes it harder to adopt in it’s renovated state.

Last year when I started renovating my kitchen, I would have begged for a blank slate to work with. Not bad wiring, banged up walls and 5 layers of flooring. It would have been much easier to start with nothing but studs, but instead, it was a renovation job. It required rethinking how to make something old into something new. Something broken into something that works. Something stylishly outdated into something fresh, modern and visually appealing.

It took sweat. And it’s still not done.

Renovation can be much harder than innovation. 

<p>How well does the church renovate?

I just want the most relevant infomation as fast as possible and I’ll dig for things I’m “interested in.”

That’s why my favorite part of our website is the “blurbs” section. It’s quick, easy access to info without having to dig for it.

What’s new and happening this week?
It’s right there when I hit the main page. Info goes in and out of there reletively quickly, though our web stats seem to show that a relatively high number of visitors click a blurb on every visit.

Are people able to access relevant info quickly on your site?

The Truth…from Granger Community Church.

Talk about removing the noise of our media saturated world.
This is everything that’s good about what the church can do with media.

Strip it down. Share the message. Share the impact. Share the truth. Move people.

Love it.

Love this post from Seth Godin.

Kinda puts you in an uncompromising position just for being you.

Are you in or are you “out.”

Day 2 at MinistryCom was a short one for me…
I spent the morning with Seacoast Church….well not really.

Shawn Woods gave a sweet message on Brand Schizophrenia.

Shawn says, Communications Issues fall into one of two buckets:
1. How can I get people to help me do more stuff?
2. How can I do less stuff?

Branding is:
Creating experiences that match the expectation of the experiences with the aftertaste of the experience.

Takeaways:

“Don’t focus on the stuff, focus on the experience itself…All you have to do is get people to the experience and then work the experience to bring brand value by meeting the expectation of the experience.”

Terry told me that Shawn was going to use about 160 slides in a 35 minute presentation. Looks like he did.

*****

Graphic Design for Ministry with Ashley Schuerman from Seacoast Church

I was completely on the same page with Ashley. Though, I think she works way harder than i do. She does the design and web work for all 11 Seacoast campuses. I struggle to keep up with 1 Sanctuary.

The most important thing about Ashley:
She is HILARIOUS!

Dear MinistryCom: I’d pay to listen to Ashley year after year. Even if she just gave the same talk.

*****

According to Kem Meyer, Seacoast should change their tagline to: Seacoast SPANKS. (Gentle, loving Christian spanks though…)

Communications Revolution - Terry Storch
If you’re not there yet, it’s time to go to Web 2.0
Web 2.0 simply stated is The Participatory Web
(Enabling and Encouraging Participation, the relinquishment of communications control to viral methods and utilizing God’s people to deliver the message.)

Four C’s of Multicultural Marketing - Tracy Lewis
Cultural Awareness - eliminating fear, perception, criticism, preconceptions, doesn’t imply endorsement
Commitment - Long Term
Creativity - throw out the box
Christ-Centered - don’t sacrifice the message…but don’t limit the reach of it…

To accomplish this, you will need to have Multi-Cultural Awareness (Find Commonalities, Embrace Differences, Overcome the fear of honesty), Appropriate Application (Be Authentic, Know your Audience), and have a Strategy (Build conviction through scripture, Affirm diversity through identity and vision, Build a multi-cultural leadership and staff, Enjoy Progress and anticipate problems).

Writinng as an Act of Service - Jon Walker
Service Journalism answers two questions:
1. So What? (Why does this make any difference to me?)
2. What Now? (What should I do with this information?)

The goal is to leave the reader with a call to action.

Practical Outputs of Service Journalism:
- Timelines
- Headers and Subheaders
- Charts and Graphs
- Breakouts
- Q&A’s
- FAQ’s
- Captions

Branding 101 - Dawn Nichole Baldwin
Brand
the practice of delivering a promise that reflects the mission, uniqueness and personality of your organization…..

Positioning
Determining how you want to be defined by your audience.

A Matter of Message - Brad Abare
Matthew 5:13-16 - If you lose your saltiness what will you taste like>?
- Be Salty - Pursue God
- Be transparent - Pursue Your Own Story
- Think Local - Pursue Others
- Keep it Simple - Un-clutter the Message