Max du Bois, executive director, Spencer du Bois

1. Powerful or
powerless ?

2. Do ten things right and they don’t
notice, do one thing wrong and they
certainly do. It’s our job to get the
ten things noticed to bury that one.

4. Brand: what you project
Reputation: what sticks
Brand and
reputation

5. “We stand for the human rights of
mothers, fathers and children.”

8. Proactive
Active
Passive
Random
Engaging
Resilient
Vulnerable
Asking for it
Brand or bland?

9. Brand is what people
say about you once
you leave the room
What is brand?

10. What brand does
Brand is a way of building
and using your reputation
to persuade people to act
in a way that will help you
achieve your goals

11. Whose brand
do you admire?

12. What sucks the
lifeblood out of
a brand?

13. Speed
Other people’s problems Irritants
Background radiation Killer blows
Potential
severity

14. Background radiation
14%
17%
42%
14%
9%
2%
Attitudes towards charities and their role
A third (32%) of the public say that their views towards charities have become more positive in the last three
years, compared with a quarter (23%) whose view has become more negative: a positive balance of nine
percentage points.
Figure 1: Perceptions of the sector
Thinking back over the past 3 years would you say in general your views towards charities have become…
Base: 1,035 GB adults surveyed in January 2014
This is indicative of a positive trend which is consistent with other research, including by the Charity Commission
and Ipsos MORI, which showed an increase in trust since 2005. ‘Public trust and confidence in charities remains
high, with the mean score for trust being in line with previous years at 6.7 [out of 10]. Charities are still one of the
Don’t know
A lot more positive
A little more positive
Neither/nor
A little more negative
A lot more negative

15. 42%
“We can’t – and shouldn’t – compete with salaries
in the private sector but we need to pay enough to
ensure we get the best people to help our work to stop
children dying needless deaths” (Save the Children)

16. Other people’s problems...
can become ours

18. Killer blows

19. Delayed action

20. Resilience
“Reforms have changed the
charity ‘beyond recognition’,
driving out people she
values and leaving others
demoralised.”

21. Irritants

22. Irritants
…they’re not looking for trouble
…it’s not a story, at worse it becomes a bit
of Twitter-fire that soon burns out or gets lost
somewhere (in the newspaper)
…and it gives us a chance to respond and tell the
story about what we do…
…but you’d never guess that from the time I have
to spend internally…

23. bad

24. Some not so minor

25. Speed
Other people’s problems Irritants
Background radiation
Amplification
Killer blows
Potential
severity
Association
Escalation

26. Speed
Other people’s problems Irritants
Background radiation
Amplification
Killer blows
Potential
severity
Association
Distances
Bulkheads Dilutes
Escalation
The effect of a powerful brand

27. Building a
powerful brand

29. Brand Audiences
Preferences
Benefit of the doubt
Behaviour
Communication
Products

30. A truth well told

31. If you immediately
ceased to exist,
what would the
difference be?
Short term
Long term
Unique
Important

32. Go for everyone,
get no one
To whom
For what

33. Audience:
the main focus
What action do we want them to take?
What do they currently think about us?
To make them act, what do they have to think?

34. Building a brand
What we do?
What area of activity are we in?
What’s our status in the world?
Why we do it?
What’s our goal?
What are the principles that drive us?
How we do it?
What is our personality?
What do we want people to say about us?

35. Focusing on the audience
Audience: what action do we want them to take?
Our pitch, in one sentence
WHAT’s going on in the world that makes what we do important?
Context
RESPONSE we want
WHY do we feel that this is important? HOW does our work make a difference?

36. DREAM
Drop
Retain
Evolve
Acquire
Manage

37. Getting the credit
for what you do

38. Reputation is too
important to allow
mismanagement
by someone else.