Brands Come Face-to-Face With Survival

Screen Shot 2017 10 16 at 10.36.19 AMAcross the country, many brands are either dealing with a crisis and trying to survive it, or emerging as stalwarts of survival for the greater good. Here are three scenarios, each with a unique brand connection to perseverance. Make way for the new economy called survival.

The NFL

While American football fans and fantasy team captains hang on to their hopes for a winning season, the National Football League faces its latest challenge as individual expression competes with sportsmanlike conduct and team unity.

It’s too early to tell whether fan loyalty will result in disdain and longterm loss for the league or if the drama along the sideline will actually draw more broadcast viewers and social media followers of the intrigue. Headlines about player and coach behavior seem to be garnering more attention than scores and stats. Commissioner Roger Goodell will need to flex his muscle and leadership when the team owners convene soon to express their obvious differences. It’s all Goodell can do to keep the media at bay as other national voices push the league closer toward its own goal in a defensive posture.

Some would say the NFL barely survived the concussion catastrophe, but this issue is a horse of a different color. We’ll soon see whether the league is more about individual voices or clear expectation of respecting the flag, despite the disrespectful behavior of some who live under it.

The Refuge
The horror of human trafficking is a growing reality that reaches closer and closer to home. In Texas alone, approximately 79,000 minors and youth are victims of sex trafficking, according to a recent study by the Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault. Its study combines formally reported cases with cases that portray obvious abuse, but for complex reasons, the victims hesitate to self-identify with the violent assault. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that for every reported missing child, one in six are or will become human trafficking victims. There is no discrimination with regard to race, education, or socio-economic background.

In Texas, The Refuge is one of only a handful of places nationally that is gaining momentum to help young survivors of sex trafficking find safety, proper medical and therapeutic services for healing from the trauma, and educational opportunity to move toward normalcy. The collaborative effort will bring onto the premises expert medical care for each individual provided by People’s Community Clinic, and a special charter school of The University of Texas to help re-engage the girls in educational goals and opportunities that provide them hope for the future.

The Refuge is a brand providing role model behavior for replication across America, but awareness of the existing atrocity must come first. Learn what you can do to help.

Black Tree
No one wants to be a soft target. Not many people understood the term until another term, active shooter, captured the headline news with growing frequency. Now a growing demand for personal safety opens the door for teaching the right techniques and introducing a warrior’s mindset for survival.

Black Tree emerges as a frontrunner in developing a comprehensive curriculum and providing experiential training that prepares individuals to be more aware of their surroundings and instill self-confidence if they should encounter a life-threatening circumstance. Its elite cadre of active or former US Navy SEAL, Marine Corps., and Army Green Berets instructors help participants discover new ways of understanding situational awareness and responding to potential threats.

In today’s experiential economy, Black Tree incorporates virtual reality as a teaching tool that puts participants in real-life scenarios and tests their awareness and reaction. The value of its courses exceeds mere survival tactics. There is depth in the training that includes self-defense, gun handling and control, and applications to everyday life.

Survival may define the future economy because terror is out of the bag and it’s showing up in places and in ways we never imagined.