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Incubator Session 3: Branding and Marketing

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On March 16, 2017, the third in a series of six sessions of the Reconstructionist Learning Networks Innovators Incubator took place. In this session, guest facilitator Rabbi George Wielechowski guided a discussion on branding and marketing. Below are highlights from the session, with links to resources discussed.

What is a Brand? You Feel it in your Kishkes!

Brand = psychological, emotional, gut reactions people have to a company or product.

In this audio clip, Margie shares a favorite brand (Eileen Fisher) and why she loves it. George explains how Margie’s emotional connection to the brand breaks the rules of economics.

Brand Love

Talk to People

Echoing wisdom from Doug Heifetz in Incubator Session 2, George emphasizes the crucial step of talking to your target audience or beneficiaries to truly understand what they need and how your brand aligns with their needs. Ask 50 people!

Always ask

Innovation Torah

The ancient wisdom of the Torah can help us get in touch more deeply with what we have to offer. Margie shares Torah to inspire innovation from Shir Ha-Shirim (Song of Songs). The female character asks, “Where are you?” This is what we ask of our beneficiaries or customers. We want to understand where they are coming from. The lover responds, “If you do not know, go follow the tracks of the sheep.” The Zohar emphasizes, “go for yourself [tze’i lach].” When we fully show up as who we are, we can meet our customers where they are.

To help us more deeply connect to what we have to offer, Margie leads a meditation to encourage us to reconnect to the idea or value that we want to share. Listen to the meditation guidance here, and consider: What is your nekudah penimit, the essential idea you are incubating?

Brand Meditation

Strategic Planning

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