First Steps of Branding for Social Entrepreneurs
- azrbayraktar
- Aug 18
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 23
The Brand the Change book by Anne Miltenburg is a wonderful guide for changemakers and social entrepreneurs who are working for a cause and making our world a better place with their ideas, services, or new technologies. In her book, she leads us step by step to create a successful brand for a cause. Most people think that a good cause will be enough to sell their products. But unfortunately for that, you need to know some basic marketing techniques.
Although marketing has been criticized for overconsumption, manipulating people, etc., many times, as we mentioned in our previous blog for slow advertising, John Grant, the author of Green Marketing, mentioned that marketers should and can use their knowledge and power for a better cause to leverage the social entrepreneurs and help them with their branding strategies.
WHY is Branding Important for Social Entrepreneurs?
There are lots of important books for branding, starting from Keller and Aaker, which explained the importance of branding for all products, services, NGO`s, celebrities, etc., and explained the brand creation strategies in detail. Miltenburg also summarized in her book ``Brand the following arguments:
..Branding advances your reputation, showing ownership, and helps you to stand out from the crowd. But most importantly, for social entrepreneurs, it helps to tell your audience what you are standing for. Telling your values and bringing your values and your actions into alignment with your idea and brand. It is a clear message for your customers, fundraisers, employees, or volunteers who would like to support you in your case. If you are searching for collaboration, you should have a specific picture in consumers' minds (Miltenburg, 2018, pp. 15-17).
A nice example of this is Patagonia. They have a very clear picture of their brand in consumer minds. For that, they support the idea, 1% for the planet, donating one percent of their sales to reservations and the restoration of the planet, and helping with all their strategies and activism efforts, like films, articles, and campaigns, and for this cause, and this makes them the best brand ambassadors for the environment.
For creating a clear branding, Miltenburg asks in her book simple questions like:
Where is your position in the market?
For that, you must have a very clear and short mission statement that everybody should understand. Miltenburg mentioned this in her book with clear examples. Like the mission statement from Patagonia, they are fighting for climate crisis with their business and community. The mission statement is `We are in business to save our home planet'.
Or like Peekvision, the dynamic social entrepreneurs created an `eye phone 'project which aimed to create a clinically validated vision testing application on a smartphone that could be used by anyone, even in the hardest-to-reach areas of the world, like Nakuru, Kenya.
Their mission statement is ‘We make the invisible, visible. We power eye health programs to strengthen systems and service delivery with our unique software and data intelligence platform. ``
The question of where your position is in the market can be answered in the best way with the brand positioning matrix. It is important to put yourself and your competitors on the same map to see the best fits and also market gaps.
Source: https://fabrikbrands.com/branding-matters/brand-strategy/how-to-create-a-brand-positioning-map/
WHO is your target group?
The first task, as the Brand the Change book mentioned, is to ask the question WHO is your target group? (Miltenburg, 2018, pp. 8-22). We always mentioned the same thing in the first marketing class at the university. If you would like to be everything for everyone, you will be nobody for no one. Therefore, clear targeting is important, especially for social entrepreneurs. A good example of this is Factory45. The owner, Shannon Lohr targeting small sustainable fashion companies that would like to start their sustainable brands. The target group has also been specified in their brand promise`` Factory45 takes sustainable apparel companies from idea to launch. We help you source fabric, find a manufacturer, and raise money to fund production (Miltenburg, 2018, p. 193).
Be Clear with your Brand Promise
Even when you are looking for sales or funds for your project, being clear with your message, target group, mission, and brand promises will make it easy for everyone to place your brand in their mental shortlist. If they are going to purchase your product or donate, your organization also supports you as a founder; you should clarify your message and be sure that it is getting through to your audience.
For that, Miltenburg created a radar (Miltenburg, 2017, p. 193). You must test your brand promise by a third party and be sure that it can be understood clearly by your audience. A good example was again from the Peek Vision `` Professional eye exams from your smartphone. With a mobile app and lens adapter, we provide an easy, affordable, and portable system for testing eyes, whether in a clinic or in the comfort of a patient's home.
Specifying a clear target group and creating a clear brand purpose are the first baby steps for the comprehensive brand-building strategy for social entrepreneurs. We will be dealing with the following steps in the upcoming blog articles in light of the ``Brand the Change`` book and the complementary information and sources.
Azra Bayraktar
16 August 2025
References:
Aaker , David: ``Aaker on Branding`` The Playbook to Building Strong Brands``, Morgan James Publishing, ISBN-13 : 978-1636986661, 6 May 2025
Fabrikbrands: ``How to create a brand positioning map: 9 Steps; retrieved `15 August 2025, from , https://fabrikbrands.com/branding-matters/brand-strategy/how-to-create-a-brand-positioning-map>
Factory45: Lohr, Shannon: https://www.instagram.com/factory45co/
Keller, L. K, Swaminathan, V.: Strategic Brand Management, Pearson Publishing, October 2019, ISBN-10 : 1292314966
Miltenburg, A.: ``The Brand Change``, BIS Publishers, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2017, ISBN: 978-90-63947-8-4.
Patagonia: https://www.patagonia.com
Peekvision: https://peekvision.org/
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