Why don’t great ideas for social or environmental impact always get the attention they deserve, designer Anne Miltenburg asked herself one evening when driving home. Late at night, on a niche radio station she just heard about such a great idea: an app that helps diagnose eye disease and prevent blindness.

Lack of marketing budget is often mentioned as an answer to Miltenburg’s question. But, she thought while driving home, it might be that a lack of branding expertise could be even more important. ‘We assume bad products need branding, and good products just sell themselves’, she thought.

Miltenburg, who has an extensive track record in branding for both large companies and smaller cultural and social organisations, then decided to make her knowledge available for starting social entrepreneurs and change makers. The elaborate branding toolkit she developed is now available for everyone in the book Brand the Change. The Branding Guide for Social Entrepreneurs, Disruptors, Not-For-Profits and Corporate Troublemakers(BIS, 2018).

The book unpacks the brand building process in practical steps. It offers 23 tools and exercises to build your own brand and offers a rich array of tips from trademarking to digital marketing. Fourteen case studies of successful change making brands and seven guest essays from experts provide additional inspiration.

‘Brand the Change’ will be available at the Athenaeum bookstand at WDCD Live Amsterdam and can be ordered through Athenaeum.nl.