Inspiring Stories, Wisdom and Opportunities

5 Ways to Connect Your Brand to a Cause and Make a Difference

5 Ways to Connect your brand to a cause

“It’s clear that brands now are being asked to do much more than just brand their products. Customers are taking the extra step to ask, ‘Hey, what is this company all about?’. – Antoine Andrews

When you connect your brand to a cause you make a promise to your customers, staff, and stakeholders. As we build quarterly promotional calendars for our customers our most exciting content comes when we can connect your brand to a cause and create supportive messaging around that cause. Whether it be childhood nutrition, mental health, sustainability, diversity, equality, etc. when a brand can use its position to make a difference, studies show customers have more loyalty to the brand.

5 Ways to Connect Your Brand to a Cause

  1. Offer financial support. For example a percentage of profits from a specific product’s sales, annual corporate profits, or profits from an event, etc.
  2.  Increase awareness of a cause and offer educational resources for their followers
  3.  Offer ways customers can participate in contributing to the cause through their efforts
  4.  Evoke change through working with, hiring, sourcing products and services that support their beliefs and chosen causes
  5.  Create an event to increase awareness with a course, a presentation, etc. Or raise financial support through a fundraiser or auction, etc.

Keep Authenticity when You Choose a Cause

I am writing this in February and am happy to report on the many large brands sharing black stories and standing for equality and change. Just this morning I received an email from Disney+ with their campaign Black stories. Black joy. Black History. Moments later an email from Hulu.

Hulu’s Black Stories Always promotion recognizes that the interest in Black History isn’t just in February. A variety of Dramas, comedies, documentaries, etc. are available 24/7, 365 days a year. Subscribers can search within the app for Black Stories. They can also follow the link from social media promotions or email campaigns. Hulu has developed evergreen digital content for the campaign. Each February during Black history month it is locked into the promotional calendar.

Thoughtful, inclusive, creative, on-brand.

What a consummate way for a media company to raise their platform and lift Black History and culture. Hulu understood the need for black stories to be shared, they considered how to fill the need, and recognized they had a platform to make a difference. Creating the catalog that continually expands offers value to subscribers and builds loyal audiences. This compilation not only exposes larger audiences to black history, it advances black voices, demand for black actors, and more. All the while educating and entertaining bingers.

Personally, I started with Mudbound and then got hooked on the series Snowfall. Waiting for this dramatic series to drop more episodes I’m inspired to watch more of the Black Stories catalog. The Hulu brand has demonstrated how to use its role to shine a light on society’s problems, introduce history and new ideas, be inclusive, and entertain audiences with diverse catalogs and messages. Now, when I am looking for a story with depth, I look to Hulu first.

Even if your brand does not touch the number of people that Hulu or Disney+ does, your brand has the power to make a difference. In addition, the morale of the entire corporation is lifted when you are working together to create change. So what is important to you? What is important to your team? How do the products or services you offer affect a population, a community, a culture, the future, etc?

When you choose to connect your brand with a cause, follow through on your promises through perpetuity. In 1990, Starfish tuna claimed they would change the way they were sourcing tuna. Dolphin numbers were being diminished in part because they were being netted by large tuna harvesters. By making a commitment to change the way they captured tuna they eased consumers’ minds that no harm would come to dolphins. Unfortunately, many reports claimed there was no such action taken by Starfish. Not only did they not create positive change and save dolphins, but customers also sued them in 2019 for not following through on their claim.

How Your Brand Can Make a Difference

It’s great when you tie your cause to your brand or connect your brand to a cause. In the case of Starfish, it was evident. In other companies and industries, there may not be an obvious path. I encourage you to give it some thought. What do your customers feel strongly about? What causes are in mainstream media that align with your business or personal beliefs? With a few exploratory conversations with your customers, ideas develop from local issues, personal experiences, family, company history, etc.

Be selective here. If brands connect to each and every cause, studies show they are less effective. Don’t be viewed as wishy-washy. Be choosy, show support in what you believe in, but build focused efforts to connect your brand to a cause that resonates with you, your team, and your customers.  Don’t try to be all things to everyone.

For instance, the Connection Group team loves nature and the outdoors and feels strongly about protecting our environment. The print industry uses virgin wood and damages the environment. In response, we adopted sustainability practices over twenty years ago.
• commit to the reduction of virgin material use in our office
• established a recycling program
• source the highest recycled content in print stock for client print projects as possible
• partner with vendors who share our beliefs and follow sustainability practices

What cause can your brand embrace?

Also, we are a certified woman-owned business and as such are advocates for diversity, inclusion, and equality. We demonstrate our support by providing high-value services to diverse businesses, primarily women-owned businesses. By delivering valuable brand services, reliable support, and fair pricing, our efforts help lift women-owned businesses. We also seek partnerships with other women-owned businesses for our needs, personally, and professionally. We know that the more women-owned businesses we help succeed the more equitable the marketplace can be. Living our cause and connecting it to our brand extends our impact.

Support a cause and demonstrate that your brand is committed to changing the world. Or keep it closer to home and lift your local community. Our customer Augusta Mills is a woman-owned flour mill in Michigan. Their motto is family, community, love. One of the causes we help them to promote each year is families baking together. Teaching children to bake, inviting them into the kitchen to make their own food is empowering. It helps strengthen families and teaches a skill to fulfill our basic need for food.

What cause can your brand embrace? How can you create change with your promotions, advertising, actions, or profits? If you are curious how you can share a cause effectively with your audience, connect with us. We are happy to help with a consultation. Or, we can assist with building a promotional plan and editorial calendar that can help you beginto share your story. Connect with your customers on a level that makes a difference to you, to them, to your team, and to the cause you believe in.

Stay connected, we’re here to help!

Our brand story – The Beauty of All Things Connected

Our brand story con

From an early age, it has been my desire to see and spread beauty. This purpose has enhanced my love for nature and design and the appreciation of the interconnectedness of all things.

Connecting nature, beauty, and design is the key component of our brand story. It’s what makes me stop and take a picture in a city park, a foggy forest or a trendy restaurant. It has inspired interest in landscape design, interior design, jewelry, and fashion design. All the design things. Consequently, show me a clever graphic design on retail packaging with an inspiring brand story, and you’ve got an instant brand ambassador.

This appreciation of nature and beauty inspired me to pursue graphic design training and launch Connection Group, Inc.  As a result, for over two decades the Connection Group team has created beautiful logos, beautiful graphic designs, and beautiful publications that people pay attention to.

Connection Group Brand Story

Articulating beauty is our purpose, graphic design is our talent, and increasing connection is our mission.

“In nature, we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This partnership of beauty and nature and the belief that everything is connected was the inspiration behind our name. As a graphic designer, the patterns of nature and beauty in natural form have always captivated me. My morning dog walks remind me to be grateful and slow down and enjoy the beauty around me. These moments allow me to ease into my day with gratitude and clarity. I then bring to my work a creator’s mind and an artist’s eye.

Recently, a TED Radio Hour presenter on climate change expressed his belief that humans will outlive nature. Humans will live on but they will have to live without trees. No trees, no beauty. I began to wonder how much we take for granted the role nature plays in defining what beauty is?  What of living without beauty, without the beauty of trees? What kind of world will it be without the sight of a tulip tree in bloom, an apple tree at harvest time, a Michigan sugar maple aglow in October? Trees encompass all of the elemental rules of design; symmetry, color, organic line, patterns, textures, and placement. Like a beautiful design, they evoke a response.

#aTreeaDay

all-things-connect-a-tree-a-dayIn response, I have slowed my walk in my favorite parks and dirt roads. I started seeing each tree individually and as a connection to each other and all of us. I started connecting with them and photographing them. The beauty of nature, the beauty of a forest of trees, the beauty of that one special tree that makes you gasp every time you see it. We are celebrating nature’s beauty in the Connection Group #aTreeaDay posts. We want to share the wonder and variety and strength and power and fortitude that is the beauty of each tree. Each day we share a tree on our social media platforms, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We encourage you to spread beauty and share #aTreeaDay to pages too.

People find beauty in many things; in other people, architecture, art, cars, shoes, a new Apple anything, the list goes on. If sharing a favorite tree of the day helps people remember to breathe and appreciate beauty, we have succeeded in our mission. I can’t think of a better depiction of our brand story, than honoring our personal practice to connect with everyone through recognizing and spreading beauty. This includes creating beautiful marketing materials for our customers and sharing posts of trees that remind you to slow down and take a long, beautiful breath.

“All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We do not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” – Chief Seattle

Stay connected!

Inspiring Facebook Graphics and Images for Sharing on Social Media

As graphic designers we like to create and share inspiring Facebook graphics and original design images containing positive quotes in our posts for social media pages. From Pinterest, to Twitter and Facebook (we still haven’t jumped into Instagram with both feet yet – baby steps…) and even Linkedin company pages… posting inspiring Facebook graphics, web memes and digital designs allows us to share our beliefs and have a little fun with our graphic design skills at the same time. Since we are often seeking Facebook graphics, twitter photos and the most inspiring pins for our pinterest boards we decided to post a lot of them here in our blog for you to reference for your own social media sharing.
We hope you enjoy these inspiring images and motivational quotes all developed for sharing to your social media followers and fans. Please feel free to share them, pass them along, print them out and hang them on your wall – if one of them inspires you to take a positive action then all of our effort has been rewarded.

Everything is fine.

Everything is fine.

Contemporary inspirational quote for social media

You are your wisest guide.

dream-big-connectiongraphics

whatever makes you feel bad, leave it whatever makes you smile, keep it

inspiring-facebook-graphics-good-things-connectiongraphics

Good things are happening

inspiring-facebook-graphics-haters-brene-brown-connectiongraphics

“Don’t try to win over the haters; you are not a jackass whisperer.” ― Brené Brown

inspiring-facebook-graphics-intention-wihtout-discipline-connectiongraphics

“Intention without discipline is useless.” ― Caroline Myss,

inspiring-facebook-graphics-know-your-worth-connectiongraphics

Know your worth.

inspiring-facebook-graphics-laugh-breathe-connectiongraphics

Laugh as much as you breathe.

inspiring-facebook-graphics-look-at-change-connectiongraphics

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” – Wayne W. Dyer

inspiring-facebook-graphics-matters-more-connectiongraphics

“What we know matters but who we are matters more.” ― Brené Brown

inspiring-facebook-graphics-rainbow-in-someones-cloud-connectiongraphics

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” ― Maya Angelou

inspiring-facebook-graphics-seeds-you-plant-connectiongraphics

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

inspiring-facebook-graphics-sell-your-cleverness-connectiongraphics

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” ― Rumi

inspiring-facebook-graphics-inspiring quote for sharing on facebook

whatever makes you feel bad, leave it
whatever makes you smile, keep it

inspiring-facebook-graphics- inspirational Lao Tsu  quote design for social media post

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” Lao Tzu

Retro inspirational quote for pinterest inspiring-facebook-graphics-

What if you fly?

Contemporary inspirational quote for social media inspiring-facebook-graphics-

You make the world more beautiful

your-wisest-connectiongraphics-inspiring-facebook-graphics-

You are your wisest guide.


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GM Billboards – A Tribute to Motown

Every year in August Detroit enjoys a popular Classic Car Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise. Car buffs from all over the country meet on Woodward Avenue in Detroit and show off their rides and relive their hot rod pasts.  This year GM shared a tribute to this popular event with the people of Detroit by posting vintage billboards throughout the Detroit area proclaiming the staying power of two leaders in the auto industry – GM and Detroit. These clever images and sayings are a respectful and nostalgic nod to both style and strength – characteristics Michigan is proud to be known to deliver.
This message is most influential in billboard design of course, right in the heart of the land that built them ,in front of the eyes who drive them. The creative agency who developed this billboard campaign knows their market and the GM brand. Michigan and GM does not believe a car is just a commodity – a car is a statement of who you are, your lifestyle, your personality, it’s designed for comfort and cruising – it was then and it is to this day.
If you are in the Detroit area, enjoy the 2012 Woodward Dream Cruise and smile when you see these Michigan billboard designs, take pride knowing why we earned the title, Automobile Capital of the World.

Connection Group Publisher of MI Sport Page Magazine

Brianna Flowers, Tony Sweet and Jill Marlin featured in Grand Ledge/Waverly Mi Sports Page Magazine
MI Sports Page Grand Ledge Waverly Michigan Magazine Issue 1

The inaugural Mi Sports Page Magazine, covering Grand Ledge and Waverly is now available on the newsstand in multiple community locations.
The first edition includes stories on former Grand Ledge athlete Jill Marlan, who has used the discipline she learned and benefitted from as an athlete to cultivate a successful educational and professional career; former Grand Ledge basketball coach Tony Sweet who has now taken his  basketball knowledge and passion to Brighton where he coached the Bulldogs’ boys team  to a Kensington Lake Athletic Association championship in his first year; and the steady, calming influence Brianna Flowers had on the Waverly girls track program during her four year years.
As an area leader in website design, print and corporate communications, Connection Group, is proud to introduce the first Mi Sports Page Magazine. Our goal to support local businesses and communities with highlights and feature stories of local athletes and high school athletic programs.
Please visit misportspage.com for more information.
Thad Kraus (517)645-4387
email: thad@connectiongraphics.com

SISTER GIANT: Rousing the Sleeping Giant of American Womanhood with Marianne Williamson

sistergiantI have to share this special event information with all of you. Marianne Williamson, who is a wonderful, passionate, change maker in this world, will be hosting a seminar called Sister Giant on February 26, 27 and 28, 2010 at the Sheraton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Those of you who receive Connection Group quarterly calendars may notice all of the quotes on the 2010 calendars are by Marianne. (Of course all you have received is the first quarter…so now you have even more to look forward to…) She is an inspiring woman and this effort is just another example of how she has spent her life empowering women. Below is an excerpt of her explanation of the seminar. If you can not make it to the seminar , Marianne is planning to do more work on this subject so please visit her Web site and join the email list to be a part of something larger than yourself. Briefly, the information is not about the power women don’t have – but the power we are not using.
This seminar/conference speaks to the role of women at this pivotal moment in history. It’s a critically important time to transition from disastrous probabilities to fantastic possibilities, and women can lead the way.
If you are a woman who feels a prompting in your heart that goes something like this: “Okay, it’s time. I might not be perfect, but I’m good enough. And I’m ready,” then this invitation is for you.
Learn more here and sign up for Marianne’s mailing list.


Flash back to the year you were born…

Ever wonder what happened in the year you were born? The following Website offers a thorough answer to the question whathappenedinmybirthyear.com. The site is the 2010 creation of German writer and programmer Philipp Lenssen, who has marshaled the resources of Wikipedia and a Star Wars type effect into an interesting way to learn about the state of the world the year you were born and during the whole decade – including the time you arrived in it. Learn what people were watching, reading, and doing, fun facts include the best selling book and top rated movie plus a visual of the movie poster . Interesting fun facts to visit and help appreciate the world we live in. Just click the link, enter the year you were born, and …have fun!


2009 Abundance

Sweet Christmas Tree 2009

Sweet Christmas Tree 2009

Finally a follow up to my “Being Thankful” post. I had to share the Sweet Family Christmas tree. We enjoyed the lovely fragrance and beauty of the gia-normous tree the entire month of December. On Christmas morning when the whole clan met, the overflow of spirit and the physical gifts were a testament to the abundance that is always available to us. Blessings to all and much happiness and success in 2010.

It’s a New Year! A Time to Keep, a Time to Let Go

At the end of the year I have always found it helpful to review the previous one for the successes and losses that will help me to set goals for the new year. Following is a list of great questions to ask yourself when you have a few private moments to reflect. These questions pertain to all aspects of life, not only business, but personally and spiritually. I hope you find it beneficial and I wish you much success, love, peace, and prosperity for 2010.
These insightful questions were offered by Louise Hay, founder of Hay House Publishing. Take time to ask and explore these simple questions:
What shall I now release from my life?
What or who no longer works for me?
What am I holding on to that holds me back?
What thoughts or beliefs belong to the old me?
How am I being unloving to myself?
Am I ready to let go?
What do I believe that really works for me?
What is going on in my life that is terrific and wonderful?
Where am I being very loving to myself?
Where am I most content?
Let me acknowledge myself for all the growth and change.
What do I want to bring to my life?
What do I want to create?
How do I want the next year to be?
Who do I want to bring into my world?
How do I want to look?
What image do I want to project?
How healthy do I want to be?
How prosperous do I want to feel?
How much love am I willing to experience?
What kind of world do I want to live in?
Affirm:
I know that where I am is the totality of possibilities . . . not just a few possibilities, but the totality of all creation.
I am not limited by statistics, medical opinions, time, or authorities.
I am one with the infinite wisdom and capabilities of the Universe itself.
All good is available to me, right here and right now.
All I have to do is to use the power of my thoughts to create that which I desire. I know that. Now let me live it!
Louise Hay – www.hayhouse.com

Be Thankful – Author Unknown

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire. 
If you did, what would there be to look forward to? 
Be thankful when you don’t know something, 
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times. 
During those times you grow. 
Be thankful for your limitations, 
because they give you opportunities for improvement. 
Be thankful for each new challenge, 
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons. 
Be thankful when you’re tired and weary, 
because it means you’ve made a difference.

It’s easy to be thankful for the good things. 
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who 
are also thankful for the setbacks. 
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive. 
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, 
and they can become your blessings.