Be the Match

This past Labor Day, my wife donated her bone marrow to save the life of someone she has never met and knows nothing about.  Through this opening sentence you can probably gather that my wife lives her life with her hands open.  My hope is that by sharing this one example it may inspire others to live with hands open as well. 

Be the Match is an amazing organization that is dedicated to saving lives.  The National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP), a nonprofit organization, is the global leader in providing bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants to patients in need. As Be The Match^®, they operate the Be The Match Registry^®, the world’s largest listing of potential marrow donors and donated cord blood units and raise funds to help provide transplants to all patients through the Be The Match Foundation^®. They also match patients with donors, educate health care professionals and conduct research through our research arm, the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research^® (CIBMTR), so more lives can be saved. 

We started down this path when Lorrie found out that her cousin's daughter was diagnosed with leukemia last year.  Lorrie registered with Be the Match in hopes of becoming a match for Cede.  Lorrie learned more about the cause and the disease as Cede battled for her life. Before Lorrie was able to complete the registry process, Cede began her journey in heaven.

Our summer started out pretty rough.  I unexpectidly lost my job in June. When you have two kids under 4 and you are the sole bread winner, it sets the stage for a stressfull situation.  The same week Lorrie went to get a mammogram.  A few days later we received a call asking her to come back in for more tests. They had found something. We were scared, but stayed strong and prayed a lot over the next few days.  Thankfully, the results came back benign.  What an emotional roller coaster and a reality check! It sure did put losing my job into perspective. 

The very next week Lorrie received a call that she was a match for someone.  Once Lorrie got off the phone we talked about it as a family and immediately decided to pushed ahead without looking back.  What an amazing and powerful opportunity that had been dropped in front of her. 

We traveled to Birmingham for a weekend of tests to make sure Lorrie's blood was approved for donation.  The test came back, she was good to go and was scheduled for surgery a few weeks later. 

We had a couple weeks back in Atlanta before the procedure.  I remember going for a walk with Lorrie and the kids on a Saturday morning.  We were talking about everything and I distinctly remember a feeling that overcame me while we were walking.  It was a feeling toward her I have never felt.  It was more than feeling proud...not even sure their is a word for it. All I know is that my feelings toward my wife have never been the same.  It took our relationship and my love for her to another level.  Similar to how you become more connected after you have children, you can't explain it, it just happens. 

The  process of donating bone marrow is pretty intense, but when you grasp the bigger picture of what you are doing, courage prevails.  Lorrie said she would do it again in a heart beat.  During this time we were hearing stories about other donors and recipients.  One donor said it well "The courageous ones are those battling a disease, after my procedure I got to lay on my couch for a week and eat ice cream." 

The folks at "be the match" were very accommodating and helpful along the way. You can visit their website www.marrow.org to learn more about the process.

Recently our pastor spoke about how to "be rich".  Being rich is not about having a lot of money, but living through Christ and opening yourself up to be fulfilled.  My wife is the richest person I know.

I purchased these Robin Roberts bracelets from Be the Match to remember the feeling I felt toward my wife that day during our walk

Cause Marketing - quick facts, benefits, and getting the most out of it!

Below is an info graphic I developed for a client around cause marketing.  It seems as though more and more brands  are incorporating cause marketing into their marketing plans.  

 

 

 

Chick Fil A Leadercast

I had the pleasure of attending the Chick-fil-A Leadercast this month along side some of the top leaders in Atlanta and around the country.  It was extremely motivating.  Below are the notes I compiled from the event.  

Key note speakers included:

• Andy Stanley
• Urban Meyer
• Tim Tebow
• Soledad O'Brien
• Marcus Buckingham
• Dr. Sheena Iyengar

Some personal to do's include:

• Review my personal development plan.  Grow intentionally!  
• Create a mission statement – what am I about? 
• Tell my story "better" - update my personal profile to be centered around the choices I have made to get where I am

Andy Stanley – "the goal of leadership is not to eradicate uncertainty but rather to navigate it."

Leadership is uncertainty.  Leadership is about choices

Questions that can help you be a good leader:

1.  What would my replacement do?  Think about the idea around being too comfortable, embrace objectivity of the question “what would my replacement do?”

 

"If the board kicked us out and brought in a new group to lead, what would they do?  Why not walk out the door and do it ourselves."  -Andy Grove (author) Only the Paranoid Survive

2.  What would a great leader do?   Study some great leaders in our history.  Learn from them. 

Wealth isn’t worth it.  Truett Cathy “if we get better, customers will demand that we get bigger” an answer to the question around Chick fil A trying to grow too fast.  

3.  What story do I want to tell?  Every decision you make is part of the story you are telling. 

• Don’t ever choose anything that will make you a liar. 
• Money comes, money goes, your story is with you forever!
• Become a leader worth following

Tips of the trade: How to get ahead!

·         Be ready when your name is called

·         Focus on what you CAN control

·         What do you do when you are derailed – what do you turn to?  A drink, faith, family? 

·         What if someone says I am not a role model – “yes you are, just not a very good one”

·         Your outlook can change your life.  Wake up and say “I can’t wait to make someone’s day better today”  “I can’t wait to be better today?”

·         Effective leaders empower people with choice

·         Choice is the most powerful tool we have.  It allows you to go from who you are today to who you want to be tomorrow. 

·         Effective leaders see choices from other’s eyes

·         Be choosy about choices

·         A leader is someone who can live with nothing and have everything

·         Great leaders are vulnerable.  Develop that vulnerable trust

It was a fantastic event.  I will be there next year! 

Brett Campbell - AMA - Atlanta Volunteer of the Month

http://amaatlanta.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/volunteer-of-the-month-brett-campbell/#comments

Volunteer of the Month: Brett Campbell

April 25, 2012

by amaatlanta

Brett Campbell, director of marketing for Moe’s Southwest Grill, is this month’s AMA volunteer of the month. Brett Campbell's dedication to growing AMA’s connection with Georgia college students is unquestioned. In this past year, Brett Campbell has traveled throughout the state of Georgia to answer questions from college students about what they can expect from a career in marketing. Additionally, Brett Campbell was instrumental in recruiting both speakers and attendees for this year’s 26th Annual AMA Collegiate Conference.

“Brett Campbell has made all of our jobs significantly easier this year,” agreed Collegiate Co-Chair’s Greg Cohen and Patrick West.

At Moe’s, Brett Campbell is responsible for strategic and promotional development and brand management. He joined Moe’s, now with over 450 restaurants, in 2010 as the brand was celebrating their 10 year anniversary. Prior to joining Moe’s, Brett Campbell spent 10 years working his way up through the marketing department at The HoneyBaked Ham Company of Georgia. There, he oversaw the franchise marketing programs and was responsible for driving multiple business channels and day parts, such as lunch, catering and business to business gifting. Brett Campbell earned his bachelor degree in business with a minor in mass communication at the University of Florida.

“I love AMA because it provides an outlet for growth,” said Brett Campbell. “Through networking, volunteering, access to marketing trends and info, it is a unbelievable resource to better your skill sets, grow your connections and develop a framework for the future.”

Moe's Southwest Grill launches mobile ordering app | FastCasual.com

I am very proud to have lead the talented Moe's team around a successful roll out of our first app!

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2012/05/24/moe%e2%80%99s-southwest-grill-satisfies-consumer-cravings-with-mobile-ordering-app 

Moe's Southwest Grill launches mobile ordering app | FastCasual.com

Brand Positioning

I just spent two days going through a brand positioning workshop for Moe's Southwest Grill.  What a challenging and awesome process!   My colleagues and I were honored to have Dwight Jewson, PhD from Strategic Frameworking Inc. www.strategicframeworking.com  take us through this enlightening process. 

I have been through the process before with HoneyBaked Ham.  At the time, our agency on record was The Richards Group and they use a slightly different model (they call their process "spherical branding") than I am going to describe.

For those of you that haven't been through this process, brand positioning is one of the most important pieces of the business.  Attributes that connect to a brand tell the consumer how they feel about the brand.  Brand positioning builds equity and relevance of the brand.  It connect the customer and validates their choice to participate with the brand. It also becomes the foundation and filter for all you do from marketing, operations, training, etc.

We spent the first half of day one talking about the importance of brand positioning.  I outline some of the highlights below.  He walked us through what he calls "the criteria for a brand positioning":

• It is born from a larger purpose
• It is simple and compelling
• It speaks to something scarce
• It is intensely human
• It instills strong energy
• It establishes clear brand authority
• It clearly communicates identity
• It takes us to a differentiation territory

He also talked about customer currency, which I found very compelling:

• time - no one has enough of it
• energy - how much skill do I need as a customer to participate
• quality - is it a quality product
• money - affordability
• self esteem - how do I feel about myself when I buy it (this form of currency was very interesting to me)

As a marketer, understanding the variations of customer currency and identifying which ones to leverage or "do well" is important.  Take Panera for example, there format is not really fast, but it isn't "sit down slow" either. There menu system is confusing with little explanation around products, you are confused with where to go to order (the bakery, the lunch line, etc) so the customer does spend a lot of energy prior to ordering. You have to wait for your food and go into basketball mode and box out others at the counter from mistaking your food for theirs and walking away with it.  Probably, no, definitely an area they can improve. Quality is what they excel in - they have a great product! It is on the higher end of fast casual, but still affordable.  My self esteem is definitely heightened when I eat at Panera.  I feel healthy, I leave there light footed with a pep in my step knowing I have made a good choice about what I have put into my body.  This dynamic or notion of self esteem being a form of consumer currency is sooo interesting to me.  This is a new learning for me as a brand manager. 

We spent the rest of day one, going through a process where we constructed our "advantage playing field".  We had to establish our opportunity zone on an axis.  We had to create a differentiated advantage from our competitors through the attributes we chose to plot on either end of the axis.  This process was pretty grueling and we agonized of each word. 

Next we created our short story or brand benefit hierarchy. He called them the building blocks of branding.  It includes:

Sign up for something bigger

Emotional benefits

Functional benefits - what do we do for people

Attributes - what is our stuff

Strategic Pivot - what is going on in culture that we join

Target

 

 

The process starts at the bottom and works up.  We defined our target, identified the strategic pivot agonized over our attributes, benefits, and landed on the bigger purpose.  It took us all of day two to go through it, but I think we landed in a great place.  At this point, the information is confidential, but I can share some other brands that we used as an example:

 

 

Nike

Unlimited Personal Potential - Something bigger

irreverence, justified - emotional benefit

winning - functional benefit

products made to the exacting standards of the world's best athletes - attributes

All in all, an awesome exercise.  I truly enjoy this kind of work and find myself analyzing other brands to define their brand positioning short story.  Next, communicating the new positioning to the system and the department heads, identifying touch points, and beginning executing against the new and improved positioning statement.

One a side note, Dwight recommended a few books which I haven't read, but will share:

• Different - Youngme Moon
• How We Decide - Jonah Leher 

Brett Campbell awarded with Marketing MVP Award

Marketing MVP award presented
by Paul Macaluso, VP of Marketing

I was extremely honored to recieve the marketing MVP award at our annual leadership conference at the end of February. 

"The award recognized Brett Campbell with excellence in marketing for the Moe's Southwest Grill brand and was voted on by his peers".

2011 was full of challenges and great opportunities.  Some went my way, some didn't, but I learned more in 2011 than any other thus far in my profressional career. 

In addition, I found out that in April I will be awarded volunteer of the month by AMA-Atlanta.  AMA-Atlanta is the largest networking organization in Atlanta and the 4th largest AMA chapter in the country.  I have already recieved so much out of donating my time to the organization so this was just icing on the cake.  I am excited about my opportunities to contribute to AMA in  2012/13!  In addition to serving on the Board of Directors next year, I will be co-chair of the revived mentorship program.  I am truely looking forward to tackling this rewarding challenge. 

All in all, shaping up to be a great year.  My moto for 2011 was "keep on growin"...