You’re eager to be a pioneering social entrepreneur and this enthusiasm has generated a lot of attention for your company. You are doing great. You’re excited to get your product out there, the ideas are popping, and you want to put them into action – fast. Which means, you tend to try and do it all. From the website to the social media posts to the marketing strategy. And if you’re not doing it all yourself, you find the cheapest help out there so you can save a few bucks.

The problem is that this approach will not deliver the impact you envision.

It does, on the other hand, confuse your potential customers with scattered messaging and inconsistent design.

There’s no clarity about who your brand actually is and how to bring your product to the market. Who are the people you are trying to reach? Do they know what your brand stands for or do you send out multiple messages? As they say, the confused mind doesn’t buy.

Without focus in your communication efforts, the result is sub-par professional creative work that does not appeal to customers.

You need to:

• step back to see the bigger picture and take your marketing seriously.
• Get clear on your brand positioning, define your values, make a proper marketing strategy and then
• find a team of kick ass creatives that really lift your brand to the next level.

This takes serious professional and strategic support. Sorry, there’s no quick fixes or cheap solutions for this one. If you’re really serious about making your brand meaningful in people’s lives and growing it into a Unilever 2.0, then it’s time to pause for a moment.

But, what I also know is that your brand is like a natural ecosystem – it takes a group of just the right people to take it to that next level.

And when this happens, not only does your business thrive, but you, as a social entrepreneur, thrive.

Your brand is impactful and has meaning in people’s lives. It gives them an action perspective. In our new and improved minimalistic life-styles we don’t need a lot, but IF people buy a product at all, yours is the one they go for.

Your brand becomes what I call a WHOLEBRAND. A brand that is a natural, holistic part of our world. It is regenerative: improving the natural world around us and making people feel purposeful, nourished and connected.

In 2010 working for Albert Heijn I had a strong urge to use the power of marketing for something better than promoting heaps of discounted groceries (Hamsteren in Dutch) or littering the streets with pictures of soccer heroes. We all know the successful Albert Heijn campaigns and brands like KitKat and Smarties because they have brilliant commercial minds behind them.

Right then and there I decided to work for brands that are actually in the business of helping people and nature. You, as a social entrepreneur have a big vision and ambitions we all should know about. You have developed a great product and the first consumers love it. But you lack the professional marketing expertise to bring it to a bigger audience and really achieve the impact we are all waiting for.

• 10 year of experience in large FMCG and retail companies (Nestle, Albert Heijn, Henkel)
• 8 years of experience building successful impact driven brands like Marie-Stella-Maris, Yoni and many others.
• Originally trained as a psychologist, I enjoy coaching and guiding my clients.
• Cooking, yoga, Ayurveda and Permaculture enthusiast; building a tiny food forest in our back yard.
• Over the past 3 years I have become passionate about building landscape brands, like Wilder Land and Grutto. Brands emerging from landscape restoration projects initiated by Grounded, Commonland, Wij.land and Soil Heroes. 

Partners that have brought brands to their greatest creative hights. Amongst others: Thonik, …,Staat, Heldergroen, John Weich and Willa Stoutenbeek. Inspirators on my journey to reconnect to nature: Willem Ferwerda, Thekla Teunis, Gijs Boers, Danielle de Nie, John van Duursen, Matthijs Westerwoudt en Daan van Diepen.

Coaches who continuously make me and our clients a better person everyday. Korrie de Vet, Tom Elffers and Julie Wolk.