The Medinge Group press room

Videos from the 2009 Brands with a Conscience ceremony

2009-02-28T01:30:00.001+01:00

The following videos are from the Brands with a Conscience ceremony at MIP in Paris earlier this month, which the Medinge Group has been running for six years. The ﬁlming was done by Elmine Wijnia, wife of long-standing member Ton Zijlstra.
The ﬁrst is a video introducing the ceremony, featuring Medinge chairman Thomas Gad, Medinge CEO Stanley Moss, and Pierre d’Huy, one of the directors. Noted member and author Sicco van Gelder introduces one of the videos.
The Colin Morley Award was presented posthumously to Paul Newman, who was voted the winner by a large margin by the BWAC committee. In the words of Stanley: ‘On a per capita basis, he was the most generous person on Earth. He gave away, in his lifetime, over $250 million.’
The subsequent videos feature the acceptances from Ragbag, Ekomarine, One Water and Chhatra Sagar.

Ragbag

Ekomarine

One Water

Chhatra Sagar

International think-tank announces 2009 Brands with a Conscience awards

2009-01-01T06:15:00.002+01:00

Stockholm, Seal Beach, Calif. and Wellington, January 1 (JY&A Media) The Medinge Group (www.medinge.org), an international think-tank on branding and business, today releases its sixth annual Brands with a Conscience list. In the Group’s opinion, these diverse organizations show that it is possible for brands to succeed as they contribute to the betterment of society by sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic behaviour.
The international collective of brand practitioners meets annually in August at a secluded location outside Stockholm, Sweden, and collaborate on the list, judging nominees on principles of humanity and ethics, rather than ﬁnancial worth. The Brands with a Conscience list is shaped around criteria including evidence of the human implications of the brand and considering whether the brand takes risks in line with its beliefs. Evaluations are made based on reputation, self-representation, history, direct experience, contacts with individuals within the organizations, media and analysts and an assessment of the expressed values of sustainability.
Two years ago the group added a unique category commendation, the Colin Morley Award, recognizing exceptional achievement by an NGO. Mr Morley, a member of the Medinge Group, died in the London Underground bombings on July 7, 2005. The award commemorates his visionary work in humanistic branding.
For 2009, the group has singled out the following organizations as Brands with a Conscience:

Chhatra Sagar—an eco-resort in Rajasthan (India)
Ekomarine—environmentally responsible paint (Sweden)
Kiva—microﬁnance lending (USA)
One—enlightened bottled water (UK)
Ragbag—Fair-Traded fashion accessories from recyclable materials (the Netherlands)
TOMS shoes—developing nations’ shoe distribution (USA)

2009 Colin Morley Award
The third Colin Morley Award for a non-governmental organization is given to the American actor and philanthropist Paul Newman in posthumous recognition for an exemplary life of truth-telling and generosity.

Announcing the 2009 Brands with a Conscience, Stanley Moss, CEO of the Medinge Group and chairman of the initiative, remarked, ‘This year’s Brands with a Conscience winners are all superior brands who exemplify environmentally responsible conduct and community involvement. Three of these winners have a direct interest in water-related issues. And Medinge’s selection of Paul Newman for the Colin Morley NGO award acknowledges a hero whose humanistic beliefs accompanied authentic, compassionate action.’
Thomas Gad, Director and Chairman of the Medinge Group commented, ‘The 2009 Brands with a Conscience awards show a sensational variety, and not only geographically; we have award winners from all corners of the world, in a variety of business categories. Everything from eco-resorts, environmentally responsible boat paint, microﬁnance lending, enlightened bottled water, fair-traded fashion accessories from recyclable materials and shoe distribution for developing nations. Once again, for 2009 we honour a person with our Colin Morley NGO award: Paul Newman—a legend not only as an brilliant actor, but also as a business and a brand doing good for the world.’
Ian Ryder, a director of the group added, ‘Every year we seem to say that the quality of entrants to the BWAC Awards increases, but the truth is that this year was absolutely outstanding. In every category, from all corners of the globe, each and every one of the ﬁnalists would have made worthy winners. All of which says that those who won came from a very select group, and they embody all that is best in our tough test of brand sustainability and conscience.’
‘Each of the Brands with a Conscience winners display awareness, responsibility and action. Sustainability here is not limited to a temporary green perspective, but is celebrated as a life-long dedication to future generations,’ said Patrick Harris, a Medinge director. ‘One Water is a wonderful example of a humanitarian focus, founded on an elegant concept. It is a complete solution, harnessing a commercial opportunity to serve communities in need, utilizing the natural energy of children. Pure genius.’
‘This year’s nominees have been the most amazing yet,’ agreed Jack Yan, Director. ‘We received more nominees than ever, and competition was incredibly strong. The bar was set very high, and it was one of the most difﬁcult decision-making process I have been through since the Awards’ inception. There was greater advocacy among the Medinge Group’s members this year, showing what passions these brands generated. In the end, our winners are organizations that admirably forward the Group’s agenda in humanistic branding.’
The 2009 Brands with a Conscience awards will be presented at a private ceremony held at the Management Institute of Paris on February 5, 2009.

The winners in detail
Chhatra Sagar
http://www.chhatrasagar.com/ABOUT.HTM
Chhatra Sagar is an eco-friendly tent camp in Rajasthan, India, a lifetime project by direct descendants of the Maharajah of Jodhpur. Established in 2001, this small resort overlooks 365 protected acres, where over 200 varieties of wildlife have returned to the habitat. The sustainability quotient is optimal—all locally sourced food, furnished by indigenous craft, employs 30 local families, sponsors teachers, provides medicine, classroom furniture and brings specialized educators who address subjects ranging from family planning to recycling to soil conservation. The family’s personal involvement and constant presence reinforce the commitment.

Ekomarine
http://ekomarine.se/en.html
For boating-intensive parts of the world like USA, Australia, UK and Scandinavia, the foul painting of boat hulls is a serious and not-ecological business. Sweden-based Ekomarine’s researchers created the Neptune Formula, a naturally-based vegetable-protein alternative, with the added beneﬁt of improving performance by reducing hull friction.

Kiva
http://www.kiva.org
Kiva is microﬁnance with a peer-to-peer platform. Lends modest amounts direct to developing world entrepreneurs. A brilliant combination of technology and humanity, which connects people through lending for the alleviation of poverty. Kiva is the world’s ﬁrst person-to-person micro-lending website, rallies 10,000 bloggers to promote good causes, and upturned the innovation of Zopa’s direct lending model, applying it to philanthropy. A branded giving process in an economic and powerful way, never preachy and never sentimental.

One Water
http://www.onedifference.org/uk/water/
One sells bottled water in the UK and gives away 100 per cent of all of its proﬁts to water projects in Africa. Proﬁts are used to install PlayPumps, effectively, children’s roundabouts that, when played on, pump water to a storage cistern. Active since May 2005, One water is aligned with the Millennium Development Goals of getting clean water to 1 billion people who do not have access to it and helping the 2 billion people who die each year from water-related diseases.

rag-bag
http://www.ragbag.eu
rag-bag produces fashionable and colourful bags and wallets made entirely from waste plastics (bags, sheets, etc.) collected by rag pickers from garbage tips in India, Cameroon and Brazil. They are paid a fair price for these waste products and they are trained to manufacture the products. The bags are sold online and in fashionable and fair trade outlets in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Rag pickers earn a better income and learn valuable skills, while waste is reused to create new, valuable and practical products. rag-bag sets a high example for social, economic and environmental sustainability.

TOMS Shoes
http://www.tomsshoes.com
For each pair of shoes you buy from this LA-based company, TOMS will donate a pair to needy children in developing nations. Once a year the company does a hands-on ‘shoe drop’ into communities, and customers participate. The shoes are comfy like slippers, and customers effectively vote with their feet. The website is very transparent, and the thousands of shoes distributed are a more direct good deed than throwing money at a cause.

Paul Newman (Colin Morley Award)
http://www.newmansown.com
Paul Newman set up a company in 1982 to make marinades, sauces and dressings from natural ingredients. All the proﬁts and royalties reverted to Newman, who, from the business’s inception, gave away every cent to charitable causes. In particular the money supports Hole in the Wall Camps, which bring together children with serious and terminal illnesses for a free summer-camp experience. Paul Newman disdained fame, opposed the star–celebrity system, and gave over $250 million to these causes in his own lifetime (in per capita terms the most generous individual on earth). Newman’s life’s work reminds us that an individual can act unselﬁshly and humanistically, according to his own values and make a real contribution to a better world.

Images
Images for this release may be downloaded from <http://jyanet.com/090101pr0.htm>.

2009 Medinge Brands with a Conscience Committee
Thomas Gad
Sicco van Gelder
Ava Maria Hakim
Patrick Harris
Pierre d’Huy
Nicholas Ind
Tim Kitchin
Sergei Mitrofanov
Stanley Moss, chairman
Johnnie Moore
Luke Nicholson
Simon Nicholls
Simon Paterson
Anette Rosencreutz
Ian Ryder
Erika Ufﬁndell
Jack Yan

About the Medinge Group
Founded in 2002, the Medinge Group ﬁrst published a brand manifesto of eight statements encapsulating a vision of healthy brands for the future. In 2003, the group authored a collection of essays entitled Beyond Branding, which explored the ways in which brands could add value within alternative business and social models. In 2004, the group established the annual Brands with a Conscience list to recognize organizations who epitomize humanistic behaviour; in 2006, Medinge added a special category of recognition named in honour of its late colleague Colin Morley, which acknowledges excellence by an NGO, in keeping with Colin’s humanistic vision. The Medinge Group maintains an online, automated speakers’ and experts’ bureau accessible through its web site, www.medinge.org. In 2007 Medinge launched an online resource, The Journal of the Medinge Group, a digital anthology of papers and articles written by Medinge members.

The Medinge Group to conduct round table at the Sorbonne in February

2008-12-31T03:26:00.003+01:00

Stockholm, Seal Beach, Calif. and Wellington, December 31 (JY&A Media) The Medinge Group, a Stockholm-based think-tank on international branding, will conduct a round table discussion at the CELSA campus of La Sorbonne in Paris on Friday afternoon, February 6, 2009. The group will share ideas about brand creation and relationship-building in the wake of the current economic crisis.
The Medinge Group bases its core ideas on humanism and compassionate conduct, and strives to influence organizations from the inside and out through an annual series of initiatives. These include yearly dialogues on the brand discipline, an awards’ programme, and publication of an annual online journal of their evolving thought. Medinge is composed of 18 career professionals, representing interdisciplinary practices (strategy, place branding, high technology, luxury, consumer goods, narrative, industry, NGOs, academia). See www.medinge.org for more information.
The round table at La Sorbonne/CELSA will begin with comments on why flat communications preclude building genuine relationships between brands and consumers in the business environment. Thanks to Medinge’s international membership, participants from the group will introduce perspectives from the UK, Sweden, Russia, France and the USA.

Panel title
Can branding help counter the current crisis in your country? A Round Table with the Medinge Group.

Date
Friday, 6 February 2009, 2–4 p.m.
The panel will run from 2 to 4 p.m., in the format of a one-hour discussion, followed by a Q&A.

Venue
CELSA École des hautes études en sciences de l’information et de la communication
77, rue de Villiers
92200 Neuilly sur Seine
Téléphone 33 1 46-43-76-76
Télécopie 33 1 47-45-66-04
Mél information@celsa.paris-sorbonne.fr

Panellist bios in brief
Pierre d’Huy, moderator
M. d’Huy, Medinge director and CELSA alumnus, today teaches Branding and Innovation Strategy in CELSA’s curriculum. He also serves as Dean of International Education at MIP (Management Institute of Paris), and consults privately to global business. As the inviting professor, he will moderate the panel.

Thomas Gad
Mr Gad, Founder and Chairman of the Medinge Group, is a distinguished brand professional and a principal at the Stockholm-based Brandﬂight. He was international creative director at Grey Advertising for 17 years. His practice encompasses brand development, communication and advertising solutions in Scandinavia, western Europe and Russia. Thomas is the author of 4-D Branding, with a foreword by Sir Richard Branson (London: Financial Times–Prentice Hall, 2001).

Ava Hakim
Ms Hakim, an executive for IBM Global Solutions, develops large-scale projects internationally from a base in Chicago.

Patrick Harris
Patrick is a world-class brand strategist based in London. His work for France Telecom–Orange was a cornerstone of that brand’s foundation.

Nicholas Ind
Oslo-based, Dr Ind has worked with prominent NGOs, including Greenpeace. He is a widely published author, expert and respected public speaker.

Sergei Mitrofanov
A specialist in the emerging Russian market, Sergei serves as director of the Medinge Group, and CEO of Brandﬂight’s Moscow ofﬁce.

Stanley Moss
CEO of the Medinge Group, Mr Moss has broad experience in international business, ﬁnance and luxury brands. He is founder and principal of Diganzi, and divides his time between Seal Beach, California and Europe.

Anette Rosencreutz
Ms Rosencreutz, a founder and director of Medinge and a principal of Brandﬂight in Stockholm, is an authority on personal branding, a published author and brand advocate.

Ian Ryder
Mr Ryder is CEO of the British Computer Society, and a Director of the Medinge Group. He is former VP Marketing for Hewlett Packard, and VP Brand and Strategy for Unisys.

About University Paris–Sorbonne
Founded in 1257, la Sorbonne offers an enriching and coherent curriculum in the ﬁeld of the humanities: languages, literature, and the human and social sciences, to a population of 26,000 students.

About CELSA
Founded in 1965, CELSA is the ‘Grande École’ of University of La Sorbonne on SIC (Information and Communication Science). CELSA offers postgraduate and doctoral degree programmes in communications, human resources, marketing and advertising, multimedia and journalism. Recognized for the quality of its courses and teaching faculty, the school trains 800 students and professionals each year.
A decade ago CELSA was ﬁrst in France to launch a Master 2 (M.Sc.) programme in the branding specialization, training students to become brand strategists or strategic planners primarily in advertising and communications.

About the Medinge Group
Founded in 2002, the Medinge Group ﬁrst published a brand manifesto of eight statements encapsulating a vision of healthy brands for the future. In 2003, the group authored a collection of essays entitled Beyond Branding, which explored the ways in which brands could add value within alternative business and social models. In 2004, the group established the annual Brands with a Conscience list to recognize organizations who epitomize humanistic behaviour; in 2006, Medinge added a special category of recognition named in honour of its late colleague Colin Morley, which acknowledges excellence by an NGO, in keeping with Colin’s humanistic vision. The Medinge Group maintains an online, automated speakers’ and experts’ bureau accessible through its web site, www.medinge.org. In 2007 Medinge launched an online resource, The Journal of the Medinge Group, a digital anthology of papers and articles written by Medinge members.

Related sites
The Medinge Group www.medinge.org
Medinge Säteri www.medinge.com

Related documents
The Medinge Group fact sheet
The Medinge Group Q&A
Brands with a Conscience criteria
The Medinge Group Brand Manifesto
The Medinge Group members’ roster

International think-tank, the Medinge Group, publishes second issue of Journal

2008-08-31T04:03:00.002+02:00

Stockholm, Seal Beach, Calif. and Wellington, September 2 (JY&A Media) The Medinge Group, a Stockholm-based think-tank on international branding, today announces publication of the second edition of its yearly online review, The Journal of the Medinge Group at <http://medinge.org/journal>. Exclusively digital, the collection of essays and thought provides a window into the think-tank's evolving vision of humanistic branding.
Medinge is closely watched in the business community for its vanguard thought. In 2003 the group inaugurated the yearly Brands with a Conscience award, which is frequently cited in international media. The awards are given every January at a private ceremony in Paris. The think-tank also runs a free-standing consultancy. Medinge’s gurus are sought after for their cross-category expertise.
The new issue of the online Journal contains articles informed by the group’s leading-edge perspective, on topics ranging from place branding to strategy to value-creation.
The September 2008 issue consists of the following papers.

Branding New Kinds of Places: the Example of Experience Retail Centres
by Malcolm Allan
The author, a town planner and place and destination brand practitioner, discusses the challenges of creating place brand strategies for completely new types of urban development using the example of the emergence of places that combine retail, leisure, entertainment, sports, cultural and heritage facilities to a greater extent than has been seen hitherto.

How to Improve the Chances of Successfully Developing and Implementing a Place Brand Strategy
by Sicco van Gelder
This paper tries to answer critical questions by describing the criteria and factors that contribute to successful place branding. By assessing the place, the players and the plans they make, it is possible to predict the likely success of a place branding initiative.

An Introduction to Storytelling in Employee Branding
by Tony Quinlan
The real power and opportunity for using stories in organizations is in listening to stories, helping others to create their own authentic stories and making sense of the stories told.

Issues and Challenges of Developing and Managing Brand Strategy in a Not-for-proﬁt (Chartered) Body
by Ian Ryder
The rules are different for chartered bodies. Not the fundamentals of brand strategy, clearly, but the processes and procedures of development and execution, as the author reveals.

Mythology, Leaders and Leadership
by Tony Quinlan
The author challenges the myths of leadership deﬁnitions, and puts forward research on leadership that works, requiring the support of legends, communication and role-modelling.

The Next Wave of Sustainability Hits Swedish Brands
by Thomas Gad and Stanley Moss
This article introduces the argument that Swedish brands have moved beyond other countries’ positions on sustainability.

A Participative Approach to Brand-Building
by Nicholas Ind
The argument of this paper is a simple one: creating value for customers is an organization-wide responsibility. The author reconsiders the market orientation papers of Narver and Slater and Kohli and Jaworski and introduces the concept of Participatory Market Orientation.

Saving Detroit, by Not Making the Same Old Mistakes
by Jack Yan
Detroit has not ever used a brand orientation in its automakers’ marketing strategies, and it talks of trimming brands and numbers to allow it to compete. The author believes in being more focused on brands and not losing economies of scale, and building more of what consumers want. The tools are there, such as consumer-targeted blogs, but manufacturers need to use them.

We the People
by Patrick Harris
This paper considers the importance of employees in the process of building customer experience. It states that internal investment is rewarded with consistent, quality customer exchanges. Brand values are presented as the currency to measure the worth of exchanges between organizations and their customers. The paper concludes by presenting a case study of the mobile operator, Orange, during the period 1994–2003.

About the Medinge Group
Founded in 2002, the Medinge Group ﬁrst published a brand manifesto of eight statements encapsulating a vision of healthy brands for the future. In 2003, the group authored a collection of essays entitled Beyond Branding, which explored the ways in which brands could add value within alternative business and social models. In 2004, the group established the annual Brands with a Conscience list to recognize organizations who epitomize humanistic behaviour; in 2006, Medinge added a special category of recognition named in honour of its late colleague Colin Morley, which acknowledges excellence by an NGO, in keeping with Colin’s humanistic vision. The Medinge Group maintains an online, automated speakers’ and experts’ bureau accessible through its web site, www.medinge.org. In 2007 Medinge launched an online resource, The Journal of the Medinge Group, a digital anthology of papers and articles written by Medinge members.

International think-tank announces 2008 Brands with a Conscience

2008-01-03T12:14:00.000+01:00

Stockholm, Seal Beach, Calif. and Wellington, January 4 (JY&A Media) The Medinge Group, an international think-tank on branding and business, today releases its ﬁfth annual Brands with a Conscience list. In the Group’s opinion, these eight diverse organizations show that it is possible for brands to succeed as they contribute to the betterment of the society by sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic behaviour.
The international collective of brand practitioners meets annually in August at a secluded location outside Stockholm, Sweden, and collaborate on the list, judging nominees on principles of humanity and ethics, rather than ﬁnancial worth. The Brands with a Conscience list is shaped around criteria including evidence of the human implications of the brand and considering the question of whether the brand takes risks in line with its beliefs. Evaluations are made based on reputation, self-representation, history, direct experience, contacts with individuals within the organizations, media and analysts and an assessment of the expressed values of sustainability.
Last year, the group added a unique category commendation, the Colin Morley Award, recognizing exceptional achievement by an NGO. Mr Morley, a member of the Medinge Group, died in the London Underground bombings on July 7, 2005. The award commemorates his visionary work in humanistic branding.
For 2008, the group has singled out the following organizations:

Aveda
Chocolonely
Hennes & Mauritz
Happy Computers
International Watch Co.
Pret a Manger
Dame Anita Roddick

and the 2008 Colin Morley Award for a non-governmental organization is given to Star School.

Announcing the 2008 Brands with a Conscience, Stanley Moss, CEO of the Medinge Group and chairman of the initiative, called them ‘solid indications of the trend towards humanistic branding—this year’s list shows a renewed interest in ethical conduct, accountability and outcome. The 2008 winners remind us that at their essence, brands are for people.’
‘Branding has a huge role to play in creating a better and more sustainable world,’ remarked Thomas Gad, Chairman of the Medinge Group. ‘There already exist alternative technologies and products with less damaging impact on the environment, climate and people’s lives. But new green products and alternatives need to become attractive in the minds of people, in spite of their sometimes being more expensive and different. That is why the Medinge Group’s annual Brands With a Conscience Award is more relevant and important than ever. Branding can become a true-flag bearer for a better world.’
‘For the last four years, the Medinge Group has named Brands with a Conscience, forerunners to the social responsibility curve, long before the mass media came to champion their causes. This year’s mixture of companies again represents those leading the way, including some who pushed the humanist agenda for years without recognition.
‘In particular, we posthumously award a BWAC to Dame Anita Roddick for her lifelong contribution to ﬁghting injustices. This is a recognition that Dame Anita had successfully developed her name into a brand with a reputation, one which had an immediate resonance to many. Star School’s recognition as our Colin Morley Award winner for 2008 is ﬁtting: this is the sort of organization we think Colin himself would have endorsed for its work in combating HIV and Aids in Zululand, by targeting 40,000 high school students,’ said Jack Yan, a founder and director of the Medinge Group.
Ian Ryder, a founding member and director of the Medinge Group, commented, ‘Each year since we began these awards, the whole world has become increasingly concerned about planetary sustainability. World leaders are meeting in Bali as we issue this year’s winners list. Some of our featured brands have been concerned for years about issues like these. They have actually demonstrated their commitment and not just talked about it. The standard just keeps getting better.’
Patrick Harris, a director of the Medinge Group, added, ‘Medinge’s Brands with a Conscience winners are not peripheral, fad-based organizations. They are thriving, successful, humanity-centric entities. They are market-forming and world-changing. Together, they are a glimpse of the future of brands. Today’s Brands with a Conscience are embracing an era of generational thinking. They perform the ultimate recycling effort, that of discarding the current disposable, short-sighted generation of thought and replacing it with one of longevity and humanity at its core.’
‘The continued shift away from “branding-as-persuasion-to-buy” to “branding-as-how-we-improve-the-world”—with authentic, human considerations at the core of the organization—really gathers pace,’ observed Tony Quinlan, a Medinge member. ‘This year's award winners effectively counter the ridiculousness of the proﬁt-above-all approach which too many organizations take. Congratulations to such a diverse group, working in diverse sectors—all deserving of our praise and gratitude.’

The winners in detail
Aveda
www.aveda.com
An impressive sustainability-committed body and hair care brand. Its mission positions Aveda as a catalyst for awareness and change at all levels. The company gave its original endorsement to the Valdez Principles (later the CERES Principles) in 1989. Individual responsibility is core to Aveda’s culture. The company regards its employees as change agents with the power to change the course of human civilization.

Chocolonely
www.chocolonely.com
Tony Chocolonely produces 100 per cent slave-free chocolate. Most chocolate is harvested under slave conditions (often by children) in west Africa. Dutch journalist Teun van der Keuken set out to make chocolate products that are certiﬁed slave-free. As he has shown in his TV programmes, that is not easy. He even went so far as to start a court case against himself (which he lost), as a consumer of slave chocolate, to shame chocolate producers.

Hennes & Mauritz
www.hm.com
Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) has taken a leading position in crucial issues and earned acclaim for it internationally. The company operates in 28 countries and has more than 60,000 employees all working to the same philosophy. Alongside commercial success, this company demonstrates solid principles of entrepreneurship and a strong sustainability credentials, all the more difﬁcult in a business where unnecessary over-consumption, cost-shaving, and issues of ethical production will be the inevitable accusations. H&M has grown into one of the most demanding fashion producers in the world, and today stands as a benchmark of standards for the industry.

Happy Computers
www.happy.co.uk
Happy is a training company, that makes learning about IT an enjoyable and helps companies create great workplaces. Ethics are at the core of the business, with every new employee introduced to this through the company’s Corporate Scruples game at their induction. Happy has sent trainers to Uganda, Nigeria and Cambodia to, pro bono, to support the creation of local sustainable training centres. In London they provide support to a range of local charities, employ a deaf trainer to deliver IT training in British Sign Language and have been carbon-offsetting since 1991 (long before the term was in use).
Although only employing 50 people, Happy has previously been rated the best company in the UK for customer service (Management Today, 2003), the best small business in terms of positive impact on society (Business in the Community, 2006) and the second-best place to work for (Financial Times, 2007).

International Watch Company
www.iwc.com
Since 1868, a brand of the utmost integrity, dedicated to the manufacture of quality timepieces. A beacon for the watchmaking craft, which offers three- to four-year apprenticeships in the discipline. Creates limited quantities. Number of employees in 1869: 196; number of employees in 2006: 390. Pursues a strong social and ecological policy as part of its CSR initiatives, and in partnership with adventurer and environmentalist David de Rothschild (Adventure Ecology). With structural measures and alternative energies, IWC is cutting its carbon dioxide emissions by at least 50 per cent. Certiﬁed as climate-neutral business, at the same time a driving force behind the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, a global organization whose aim is to open up new prospects in life for underprivileged children.

Pret a Manger
www.pret.com
Good food with organic (where possible), non-GM ingredients. Leftovers to homeless. First coffee for free each day—in every shop—to remind of the importance of the customer. Several charities supported, also a foundation, a great working environment to all staff. The company is not too bothered about proﬁts. On its website, it states that someday, it hopes to earn 9 per cent proﬁt, but hasn’t yet.

Dame Anita Roddick
www.anitaroddick.com
Dame Anita Roddick showed admirable leadership not only in the Body Shop but as an advocate for Fair Trade, the environment, corporate social responsibility, free speech and other causes through her personal work. Much of this can be found at anitaroddick.com, which was updated personally until her passing. All of this reﬂects a personal brand that is consistent and honed, supported by causes, many of which are compatible with the Medinge Group’s own aims. Anita Roddick believed in living her own personal brand as much as for her audiences, including the media, and had few detractors, something which cannot be said for many other high-proﬁle types.

The Colin Morley Award for excellence by an NGO: Star School starschool.brimstone.net/document.asp?levelid=180
Star School works with 40,000 high school students in HIV–Aids-stricken Zululand, South Africa. This schools-based intervention encourages learners to build their future through informed decision-making. The group works within existing structures—in this case, the school system. The NGO is financed by the Swedish entrepreneur Dan Olofsson, endorsed by the South African government. Star Schools are now spreading out on the African continent. The project was launched in 2005, and has since been rolled out to 40 schools in the Umkhanyakude district of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Images
Images for this release may be downloaded from <http://jya.net/080103pr0.htm>.

2007 BWAC Committee
Thanks to:
Malcolm Allan
Paulina Borsook
Thomas Gad
Sicco van Gelder
Ava Hakim
Patrick Harris
Pierre d’Huy
Nicholas Ind
Tim Kitchin
Johnnie Moore
Stanley Moss (chairman)
Simon Paterson
Tony Quinlan
Anette Rosencreutz
Ian Ryder
Erika Ufﬁndell
Jack Yan
Ton Zijlstra

About the Medinge Group
Founded in 2002, the Medinge Group ﬁrst published a brand manifesto of eight statements encapsulating a vision of healthy brands for the future. In 2003, the group authored a collection of essays entitled Beyond Branding, which explored the ways in which brands could add value within alternative business and social models. In 2004, the group established the annual Brands with a Conscience list to recognize organizations who epitomize humanistic behaviour; in 2006, Medinge added a special category of recognition named in honour of its late colleague Colin Morley, which acknowledges excellence by an NGO, in keeping with Colin’s humanistic vision. The Medinge Group maintains an online, automated speakers’ and experts’ bureau accessible through its web site, www.medinge.org. In 2007 Medinge launched an online resource, The Journal of the Medinge Group, a digital anthology of papers and articles written by Medinge members.

International think-tank announces The Journal of the Medinge Group

2007-08-15T01:32:00.000+02:00

Stockholm, Seal Beach, Calif. and Wellington, August 15 (JY&A Media) The Medinge Group, a Stockholm-based think-tank on international branding, today launches its new yearly online publication, The Journal of the Medinge Group at <http://medinge.org/journal>. Exclusively digital, the collection of essays and thought provides a window into the think-tank’s evolving vision of humanistic branding.
Medinge is closely watched in the business community for its vanguard thought. In 2003 the group inaugurated the yearly Brands with a Conscience award, which is frequently cited in international media. Medinge’s gurus are sought after for their cross-category expertise.
The ﬁrst issue of the online Journal contains articles by 10 members of the group, on interdisciplinary subjects ranging from internet branding, strategy, PowerPoint, design, place branding to innovation. There is also an article authored by the late Colin Morley, a Medinge member who died in the 2005 London Underground bombings, and whose 2004 ‘On Conscience’ is considered a seminal essay on the topic.
The ﬁrst issue consists of:

Place Branding
by Malcolm Allan
Places—countries, regions and cities—are increasingly developing strategies for brands. This is because they find themselves in competition with each other to retain and attract talented and creative people, innovative businesses, investors and consumers. The goal: offer valuable services and meaningful experiences to those they seek to inﬂuence.

Business, Brand, Innovation and Design
by Ava Maria Hakim
This article looks at the design system and its impact on value creation, business and brand. Several informative diagrams and charts included.

PowerPoint—Rhetoric Machine (French)
by Pierre d’Huy
Is PowerPoint an aid to communication or destructive force in the art of rhetoric? This essay in French deconstructs the controversial Microsoft presentation program from the point of view of a mediologist, making references to works by Roland Barthes and Régis Debray to support its conclusions.

PowerPoint—Rhetoric Machine (English)
translated by Stanley Moss
Pierre d’Huy’s commentary of the ubiquitous application, tailored to English speakers.

Giving Strategy Some Momentum
by Patrick Harris
Many strategies built by organizations are ineffective. Organizations tend to build snapshots instead of harnessing momentum.

Abstraction–Cubism
by Nicholas Ind
This paper argues that rather than relying on the abstraction of research to get close to the customer, brand managers should work at building genuine relationships with customers by opening up the boundaries of the organization.

On Conscience
by Colin Morley
An historically signiﬁcant article written in 2004 examining the intellectual and semiotic underpinnings of brands with conscience. It is published with the permission of the estate of Colin Morley; his vision helped shaped Medinge’s yearly Brands with a Conscience awards, inspiring our yearly presentation to an NGO, named in his memory.

Linking Vision
by Ian Ryder
Organizations often experience failure, either because of a ﬂawed vision, or a shortfall of values. How then do we align internal and external communications to create sustainable competitive advantage as a route to a strong brand reputation?

Online Branding
by Jack Yan
In the world of Web 2·0, the process surrounding vision, research, exposition and image differ slightly, even if the ingredients of brand equity remain the same. Loose vision, informal research and tapping into consumer advocacy all play a critical role.

Images
Images for this release may be downloaded from <http://jya.net/070813pr0.htm>.

About the Medinge Group
The Medinge Group was founded in 2000 as a not-for-proﬁt collective of brand professionals, dedicated to innovative thought in the promotion of humanistic branding. In 2002, the Medinge Group published a Brand Manifesto of eight statements encapsulating a vision of healthy brands for the future. In 2003, the group authored a collection of essays entitled Beyond Branding (London: Kogan Page) which explored the ways in which brands could add value within alternative business and social models. In 2004 the group established the annual Brands with a Conscience list. In addition to the ongoing BWAC initiative, in January 2005 the Medinge Group launched an online, automated speakers’ and experts’ bureau accessible through its website, www.medinge.org.

A day with the Medinge Group

2007-01-18T12:51:00.000+01:00

At MIP, the Management Institute of Paris

A dream team of international brand gurus is set to unleash their contrarian thinking on an unsuspecting group of managers in Paris this month.
The Medinge Group, a Stockholm-based high-level think-tank on international branding, will deliver a one-day seminar at MIP, the Management Institute of Paris, on Friday, January 26, 2007. The event for MIP students and faculty will feature presentations and dialogue with six of Medinge’s resident thinkers, all experts in their own sub-disciplines of branding, and all active practitioners in what one Medinge guru has called ‘the most misunderstood subject in business today.’ It’s viewed as a total-immersion all-day event, held behind closed doors.
The Medinge dream team consists of Thomas Gad, Chairman; Stanley Moss, CEO; and directors Pierre d’Huy, Patrick Harris, Nicholas Ind, and Ian K. Ryder. Mr Ryder is credited with coining—in 1997—the most widely applied deﬁnition in the ﬁeld: ‘A brand is a promise.’
Medinge’s team plans to cover the following topics, and more:

• humanity-based strategy;
• personal branding;
• branding for NGOs;
• brandovation.

Founded in 2002, the Medinge Group ﬁrst published a brand manifesto of eight statements encapsulating a vision of healthy brands for the future. In 2003, the group authored a collection of essays entitled Beyond Branding, which explored the ways in which brands could add value within alternative business and social models. In 2004, the group established the annual Brands with a Conscience list to recognize organizations who epitomize humanistic behaviour; in 2006 Medinge added a special category of recognition, named in honour of its late colleague Colin Morley, which acknowledges excellence by an NGO, in keeping with his humanistic vision.
The Medinge Group maintains an online, automated speakers’ and experts’ bureau, accessible through its website at www.medinge.org. In 2007, Medinge launches its newest online resource, The Journal of the Medinge Group, a digital anthology of papers and publications by Medinge members.

MIP: Management Institute of Paris
26 bis, rue de Lübeck
75016 Paris
France
Phone: 33 1 56-90-30-80
www.mip-paris.com

Transcript from Medinge Group discussion on innovation appears in Journal of the Stockholm School of Economics

2007-01-06T23:54:00.000+01:00

In August, Sergei Mitrofanov, COO of Brandﬂight in Moscow led a panel discussion on innovation with members of the Medinge Group during the annual retreat of the Stockholm-based think-tank. An English translation of high points from the round table has now been published in both online and print editions of the Journal of the Stockholm School of Economics. Excerpts from Medinge Group panel discussion on innovation can be found at
english.u-journal.com/sections/brand-code/6(12)/313/.

International think-tank announces 2007 Brands with a Conscience

2006-12-21T07:03:00.000+01:00

Stockholm, Seal Beach, Calif. and Wellington, December 21 (JY&A Media) The Medinge Group, an international think-tank on branding and business, today releases its fourth annual Brands with a Conscience list. In the Group’s opinion, these nine diverse organizations show that it is possible for brands to succeed as they contribute to the betterment of the society by sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic behaviour.
The international collective of brand practitioners meets annually in August at a secluded location outside Stockholm, Sweden, and collaborate on the list, judging nominees on principles of humanity and ethics, rather than financial worth. The Brands with a Conscience list is evaluated on criteria, including evidence of the human implications of the brand and considering the question of whether the brand takes risks in line with its beliefs. Evaluations
are made based on reputation, self-representation, history, direct experience, contacts with individuals within the organizations, media and analysts and an assessment of the expressed values of sustainability.
This year, the group added a unique category commendation, the Colin Morley Award, recognizing exceptional achievement by an NGO. Mr Morley, a member of the Medinge Group, died in the London Underground bombings in July 2005. The award commemorates his visionary work in humanistic branding.
For 2007, the group has singled out the following organizations:

Adnams
Ecover
Fetzer Vineyards
Freeplay
IKEA
RED
Virgin Group/Virgin Fuels
Whole Foods

The first Colin Morley Award for a non-governmental organization is given to Shakespeare's Globe.

Announcing the 2007 Brands with a Conscience, Stanley Moss, CEO of the Medinge Group and chairman of the initiative, called them ‘evidence of the increasing embrace of humanistic branding as a critical component of corporate behaviour. The list shows that today we are seeing successful brands demonstrate deeper ethical understanding, commitment to sustainability and greater brand complexity.’
‘By definition, all NGO-brands should be brands with conscience,’ remarked Thomas Gad, Chairman of the Medinge Group. ‘This year we innovate an award which supports the importance of branding them. The first Colin Morley Award is given to Shakespeare’s Globe of London, and honours a cultural project as a brand of conscience. The commercial awards this year show a good mix of large organizations and smaller entrepreneurs. We favour the idea that brand conscience is not exclusively for enthusiastic smaller companies. It is equally important for large organizations—and for those possibly much more difficult.’
Nicholas Ind, a founding member of the group, said, ‘This has been the year that the corporate world really discovered the imperative of action on the environment. We have recognized this in our choice of Brands with a Conscience. Among this year's winners there are some powerful examples of what can be achieved when a genuine commitment is made to sustainability.’
‘Brands with a Conscience has regularly shown that it is possible to achieve international recognition while living one's most heartfelt aims,’ said Jack Yan, a founder and Director of the Medinge Group. ‘This year's winners may be a mixed bag in terms of their industries, but share a joint vision to make their part on the planet a better, happier one.’
Ian Ryder, a founding member and Director of the Medinge Group, commented, ‘The Brands with a Conscience awards have truly come of age this year. The range and quality of entries was high and the judging was hard, but any one of this year's winning organizations, large or small, demonstrates that active, "conscience-driven" brand management helps customers, partners, communities and the world at large. Significantly, they help in the essential act of
achieving commercial success. Well done, and thanks, to all the nominees for trying, and to the winners for being just that little bit better.’
Patrick Harris, a Director of the Medinge Group added, ‘As the first recipient of the Colin Morley Award, Shakespeare’s Globe is well positioned as a humanity-focused organization and as a leading brand. Through its efforts of studying Shakespeare in performance, it encourages individuals to find personal relevance, and to realize the effects of a timeless commentator on the human condition.’

The winners in detail

Adnams
http://www.adnams.co.uk/index.html
A local brewer in Suffolk, England, Adnams is recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development, and regularly features in the UK list of top 50 places to work. In October 2006, it unveiled the UK’s greenest warehouse, the first commercial building built from sustainable hemp blocks, with the UK’s largest sedum roof, drawing 80 per cent of its hot water needs from solar panels. An energy-efficient brew house is slated for completion in March 2007. Adnams has been brewing in Suffolk since 1872, today employs 280, has a charity arm, and focuses on sustainability because it wants to.

Ecover
www.ecover.com/gb/en/default_home.aspx
Ecover is the world’s largest producer of ecological detergents and cleansing products, a pioneering, innovative company founded in 1980 in Belgium. Their progressive environmental and social policy is at the heart of their business success. In their vision statement they say: ‘Ecover is a company that strives to optimize economic value. We regard the environment as an inseparable part of the economy … job performance as a means to foster the social well-being and personal development of its direct and indirect employees.’ The Medinge Group also recognizes Ecover’s visual identity which combines a strong brand mark with appropriate environmental signals like transparent packaging.

Fetzer Vineyards
http://www.fetzer.com/
The sixth-largest seller of prize-winning premium wines in the US—and the largest grower of organic grapes in northern California, committed to going all-organic by 2010. Fetzer uses nothing but renewable power and water treated without chlorine; has reduced its waste by 94 per cent since 1990; earns Salmon-Safe and Fish-Friendly certificates for its vineyard practices; is a charter member of Climate Leaders, an industry-government partnership; and has helped influence its parent company, Brown-Forman, towards sustainable business practices.

Freeplay
www.freeplayenergy.com
Established in 1994 and driven by its core purpose of making energy available to everybody all of the time, Freeplay Energy plc seeks to maintain its leadership in creating and developing the international market for self-sufﬁcient energy products. Its commitment to this objective is demonstrated by the establishment of its product range and the formation of strategic alliances with partners that bring compatible technology and market leadership. The application of the company’s technology has had a signiﬁcant role in promoting education and access to life-changing information to isolated communities in the developing world: to date, over 100,000 Lifeline radios (powered by Freeplay technology) are being used in humanitarian projects in over 20 countries.

IKEA
http://www.ikea.com/
Highly ambitious and detailed work is being done by this huge concern with some 150 retail stores around the globe. Especially interesting is IKEA's firm stance against corruption,
perhaps the most serious obstacle for a better world in developing countries. In Russia an invited group of 350 VIPs, including the Swedish ambassador, returned home after IKEA refused to pay bribes to the local government needed to obtain the permit to open a new Moscow store, an incident later reported in The Financial Times. The Medinge Group further acknowledges IKEA’s extensive programmes for ecology and social responsibility.

Red
http://www.joinred.com/
A brand which demonstrates the power of collective action and a simple idea that everyone can get. It’s a business model (not a charity) that works for both people and business, and for the image of ubiquitous founder Bono. As their manifesto says: ‘If you buy a Red product or service, at no cost to you a Red company will give some of its profit to buy and distribute anti-retroviral medicine to people dying of Aids in Africa.’ A modern, inclusive brand, Red has a distinctive and attractive identity that is shared by like-minded brands. It’s a brand that partners personalize and promote on their own sites. And it is a brand where you can easily see the results of your actions. As MySpace, one its sponsors says, ‘Collectively, we can do good in a big way’.

Virgin Group/Virgin Fuels
www.virgin.com/aboutvirgin
www.virgin.com/news/default.asp?sy=2003&ey=2006&sm=6&em=9&cid=0&nr=12&p=1&kwd=-&newsId=786
On September 10, 2006, Virgin Group announced that they will apportion 100 per cent of all of their transport-related profits over the next three years into a new enterprise called Virgin Fuels. This equates to approximately $400 million in renewable initiatives over three years. Virgin Group and Richard Branson have the brand strength, voice and financial muscle to make a massive difference in this high polluting and otherwise lethargic sector. Virgin Group and its companies already have an enormously healthy and well-recognized position as an innovative, exciting employer with a humane focus on its staff and customers. Virgin Fuels has taken a thought-leading position that only a handful of organizations can occupy.

Whole Foods
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Among its many laudable initiatives, the world’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods recently committed to ongoing contractual relationships with local farmers to help supply each of its stores, thus truly supporting sustainable (and energy- or transport-efficient) agriculture.

The Colin Morley Award for excellence by an NGO: Shakespeare’s Globe
www.shakespeares-globe.org
Shakespeare’s Globe is an educational charity whose founding purpose is dedicated to the study of Shakespeare in performance. Aspects of interpretation and the attainment of personal relevance are central to its activities. At its home on London’s Bankside, the Globe manifests its purpose in three main operational areas: Theatre, Education and Exhibition. The theatre space itself is the most celebrated and architecturally sensitive Elizabethan reconstruction in existence; an inextricable linkage to London past and present. The Globe functions without Arts Council funding, thus, it is a business model for the arts. It explores the humanity of Shakespeare, himself a timeless commentator of the human condition, on the only site that can ever be the home of his performances. A genuine concept, it is wholly inclusive in how it tries to involve the world (e.g. Zulu Macbeth, a touring Tent for Peace made from love-or peace-themed Ophelia handkerchiefs)—perhaps the UK’s most underutilized, but potentially potent brand.

Images
Images for this release may be downloaded from <http://www.jyanet.com/061221pr0.htm>.

2006 BWAC Committee
Malcolm Allan
Paulina Borsook
Pierre d’Huy
Ava Maria Hakim
Thomas Gad
Sicco van Gelder
Patrick Harris
Nicholas Ind
Tim Kitchin
Johnnie Moore
Stanley Moss (chairman)
Simon Paterson
Tony Quinlan
Anette Rosencreutz
Ian Ryder
Jack Yan

About the Medinge Group
Founded in 2002, the Medinge Group first published a brand manifesto of eight statements encapsulating a vision of healthy brands for the future. In 2003, the group authored a collection of essays entitled Beyond Branding, which explored the ways in which brands could add value within alternative business and social models. In 2004, the group established the annual Brands with a Conscience list to recognize organizations who epitomize humanistic behaviour; in 2006, Medinge added a special category of recognition named in honour of its late colleague Colin Morley, which acknowledges excellence by an NGO, in keeping with Colin’s humanistic vision. The Medinge Group maintains an online, automated speakers’ and experts’ bureau
accessible through its web site, www.medinge.org.
In 2007, Medinge launches its newest online resource, The Journal of the Medinge Group, a digital anthology of papers and publications by Medinge members.

Related sites
The Medinge Group http://medinge.org
Medinge Säteri www.medinge.com

Related documents
The Medinge Group fact sheet
The Medinge Group Q&A
Brands with a Conscience criteria
The Medinge Group Brand Manifesto
The Medinge Group members’ roster

Online branding explained in new paper

2006-08-21T03:15:00.000+02:00

Wellington, August 21 (JY&A Media) After finding that there were few resources explaining the nature of online branding, Jack Yan decided to write his own for his consulting firm, JY&A Consulting, and for the Medinge Group branding think-tank in Sweden, meeting at the end of this month.
‘There were anecdotal articles,’ he explains, ‘and there were resources in some academic journals, but hardly anyone had bothered to explain, in a clear and concise way, the process online brands take to become successful.’
Now available for downloading at CAP Online (jya.net/cap) and through his blog (jackyan.com/blog), ‘Online Branding: a Definitive Guide’ is a follow-up to his 2001 academic paper, ‘Online Branding: an Antipodean Experience’, delivered as part of the Human Society and the Internet conference in Seoul that year.
The paper has been updated to include references to Web 2.0 phenomena, such as Flickr.com and Snakes on a Plane, the Samuel L. Jackson starrer that premièred last week.
‘Since I wrote “Antipodean Experience”, the internet has become mainstream and we are seeing its original promises fulfilled,’ says Mr Yan.
‘How has that affected the usual process of vision-setting, research, and brand exposition—and how do they in turn affect image and business performance?’
Some of his earlier experience with the fashion magazine Lucire, which began online and made an unprecedented move to print, helped inform his experience.
Mr Yan’s paper is being officially presented at the 2006 Medinge Group conference in Medinge, Sweden, but was made available for public downloading over the weekend.
It was finalized in late March and some of its predictions for the success of Snakes on a Plane have come to pass.
The Medinge Group is arguably the world’s leading collective of brand experts, who meet annually to discuss new developments in their profession. They also announce, each year, their choices for Brands with a Conscience, highlighting companies that have excelled at corporate social responsibility.
Mr Yan is a director of the Group and had co-authored, with Medinge colleagues, Beyond Branding, published by Kogan Page in 2004.

Images
Images for this release may be downloaded at <http://jya.net/060820pr0.htm>.

About Jack Yan
Jack Yan founded Jack Yan & Associates (http://jya.net), one of the world’s first virtual firms, in 1987. His company is based or represented in over a dozen countries worldwide. Among his company’s interests are business consulting, imaging, software and media, including the fashion magazine brand Lucire. He writes on topics, ranging from branding and business responsibility to fashion and typography, in numerous publications worldwide and is a regular international speaker. His personal site is at www.jackyan.com, and features a highly regarded blog.

About JY&A Consulting
JY&A Consulting (http://jya.net/consulting) is part of Jack Yan & Associates, an independent global communications company founded in 1987. With representation in Wellington, Christchurch, New York, San Francisco, London, Essex, Stockholm, Milano and Jerusalem, JY&A Consulting tailors solutions using researched business principles, based around the organization’s vision and identity. The company specializes in identity, branding, marketing strategy and global strategy. Its clients have included small businesses, non-profit organizations and Fortune 500 companies. JY&A Consulting staff and alumni regularly contribute to the house journal, CAP, published in print, and online at <http://jya.net/cap/>.

About the Medinge Group
The Medinge Group is a top-level think tank of brand professionals who meet annually to exchange ideas about theory, strategy and trends in international branding. The group meets in August at Medinge, Sweden and in January at an alternative European location.
The Medinge Group strives to influence businesses from inside—and outside—to become more human, and more humane. The group believes it possible to accelerate change across enterprises and societies by acting on principles of compassionate branding.
The Group’s web site can be found at www.medinge.org.

Related sites
The Medinge Group www.medinge.org
Beyond Branding www.beyond-branding.com
Medinge Säteri www.medinge.com

Notes to editors
Lucire is a registered trademark of Jack Yan & Associates and subject to protection in certain jurisdictions. The JY&A three-stroke logo is a trademark of Jack Yan & Associates and is subject to protection in certain jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners and are only used in a descriptive fashion without any intention to infringe.

Malcolm Allan to address Mackinac Policy Conference in June 2006

2006-05-05T13:01:00.000+02:00

Stockholm, Seal Beach, Calif., and Wellington, May 5 (JY&A Media) Malcolm Allan, a member of the Medinge Group, has accepted an invitation to address the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual Mackinac Policy Conference on Thursday, June 1, 2006. The Detroit Regional Chamber is the largest metro chamber in the USA and their Mackinac Policy Conference is considered to be one of the premier public policy conferences in the country.
Mr Allan will present remarks on creating a regional brand, and draw together the effect of personal brand leadership by entrepreneurs, the brands of companies and organizations and the brands of cities and their mayors.
The Medinge Group is a not-for-profit think-tank headquartered in Sweden, an interdisciplinary body engaging issues of international branding. The group meets twice a year, in January in Paris, and in August in Sweden.
Founded in 2001, the group originally published a brand manifesto, which urged modern organizations to pursue humanistic principles in brand-building. The Medinge Group later authored a book entitled Beyond Branding (Kogan Page, London, 2003) in which individual members explained their collective views.
In 2002, the Medinge Group innovated the Brands with a Conscience programme, publishing a yearly list which singles out exceptional examples of humanistic or sustainable branding all over the world. Currently the group maintains an online speakers’ bureau, and is developing a student fellowship programme.
Malcolm Allan is founding member of the Medinge Group.

Images
Images for this release may be downloaded from <http://jya.net/060505pr0.htm>.

About the Medinge Group
The Medinge Group is a top-level think tank of brand professionals who meet annually to exchange ideas about theory, strategy and trends in international branding. The group meets in August at Medinge, Sweden and in January at an alternative European location.
The Medinge Group strives to influence businesses from inside—and outside—to become more human, and more humane. The group believes it possible to accelerate change across enterprises and societies by acting on principles of compassionate branding.
The Group’s web site can be found at www.medinge.org.

Related sites
The Medinge Group www.medinge.org
Beyond Branding www.beyond-branding.com
Medinge Säteri www.medinge.com

Related documents
The Medinge Group fact sheet
The Medinge Group Q&A
‘Top Brands with a Conscience’ criteria
The Medinge Group Brand Manifesto
The Medinge Group members’ roster