Member Spotlight: Sandra de Jong
Dutch copywriter Sandra de Jong has been a member and supporter of Brand The Change from the early days. Sandra is one of the ‘silent forces’ in the community - she doesn’t speak out often, but when she does - we all listen. Sandra has a wealth of knowledge on how to promote your work ethically, and effectively. As a copywriter she does this directly with clients, and as the founder of the Ethical Marketing Academy (Integere Marketing Academie) she trains groups of entrepreneurs to build their own writing skills. Read about Sandra’s work and mission in this month’s member spotlight.
Picture taken by Hanneke Laaning
WG: What's the story of your name?
SJ: I use my name as my brand name: Sandra de Jong. That may sound super boring, but using your own name as an entrepreneur has pros and cons, and for me, the pros outweigh the cons.
The name doesn't mean anything in itself if you don't know me yet. A brand name such as Fairphone or Golden Blues, for example, evokes certain feelings and associations without needing context.
My name doesn't do that, I have to fill that part in with a descriptor or tagline and other branding elements. But that is also the exact advantage. You are more flexible.
When you use your own name as a brand name, you have more freedom to adjust that descriptor or tagline during your entrepreneurship. Not too much of course, then it will become messy in terms of positioning and people will no longer understand you. But small changes are possible.
This is my complete picture in text: Sandra de Jong – Ethical Marketing for idealistic entrepreneurs (I use it in Dutch, because I’m Dutch: Integere Marketing voor ondernemers met idealen). That does paint a first picture for people.
Last year I started the Integere Marketing Academie (Ethical Marketing Academy); an online school and community where entrepreneurs can learn and work together about marketing, writing and positioning. Like a sub-brand below the personal brand Sandra de Jong and that is slowly starting to have a life of its own.
Picture taken by Hanneke Laaning
WG: Name one thing that you love about the place where you live
SJ: I live in Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands. I live right on the edge of the city. In front of our house is a nature reserve with meadows, meadow birds, water birds, reeds and all kinds of plants and insects. The centre of town is only a quick 15-minute bike ride away. With theater, cafes and the Writers' School where I am a perpetual student for the past six years. For me the perfect combination of nature and liveliness, silence and interaction.
WG: What problem in the world keeps you up at night?
SJ: Pfew, what does NOT keep me awake at night? As I write this, war broke out in Israel and the Gaza Strip a few days ago. There is war in Yemen, in Nagorno-Karabakh, in Sudan and so many other sad and fearful places in the world. In addition, there is a climate crisis and countless animal species are becoming extinct.
Sometimes it all makes me desperate. But then I think of Rosa Luxemburg, who said that humans have a duty to hope, simply because we are able to do so. She pointed out that if we stop hoping, we have already given up and that hope is necessary to change things. So I keep hoping.
And I have to say, that my clients and students fuel that hope. They all do such beautiful and different things that make the world a more beautiful place in one way or another.
A story maker who shows how great the value of small things is, for example. Or a leadership coach who encourages female leaders to speak out about what matters to them. Or a systemic coach who helps people to feel at home in their feelings of displacement. And I could go on like this for a while. All entrepreneurs who bring something good to the world. With wisdom and with love.
WG: What is the big change you want to see in the world?
SJ: For me it is always about honesty and trust. I would like companies, organizations, politicians and people to be honest. Not perfect, but honest. In all their clumsiness.
I can’t stand it when I see a company that lies in its advertising. That pretends to be bigger, that pretends to be better than the competition in ways that I know it’s not. If suggestions are made that are incorrect.
Of course, you see this a lot in large companies that essentially make the world a worse place by default. Shell, for example, which uses advertising to suggest that they are working towards a sustainable future.
But you also see it with social and sustainable brands. Even they sometimes still fall for the temptation to pretend to be even more beautiful than they already are. I can’t stand that, because trust is something to be careful with. If people no longer believe each other, everything becomes more difficult.
Picture taken by Hanneke Laaning
WG: How are you working towards that change in your own way?
SJ: I want companies, organizations and entrepreneurs to no longer present themselves as anything other than what they really are. That they do not hide behind acting big, but also not behind acting small or unclear.
Because there are also plenty of brands and entrepreneurs who do not hide themselves behind hot air, but behind false modesty. And that is also (unintentionally) dishonest because it ensures that your customers cannot find and recognize you.
That's why I help entrepreneurs and organizations to have the courage to show clearly and honestly what they really care about. In their positioning, in their writing and in their marketing.
That's scary as hell and I know that better than anyone. I get anxious every time I publish a blog about something that is very close to my heart. But it is important and every time I notice that those things resonate.
WG: If you were a car brand, which brand would you be?
SJ: I would rather be a bicycle brand, is that OK? A classic Fongers, for example, is a bicycle brand from Groningen that no longer exists, but is still a famous name here in the region, especially for bicycle enthusiasts. Those bikes were completely made here in our own city, every part. With beautiful quality bicycles as an end result that you could use for generations. I love bikes like that.
WG: What is the biggest branding mistake you ever made?
SJ: I once teamed up with a client for a brand strategy project because that person really wanted it, while I felt on all sides that it wasn't going to work. And it wasn’t. This entrepreneur could not make a choice and kept changing his mind. Ultimately I suggested ending the process and refunding the deposit.
Brand strategy helps companies, organizations and entrepreneurs to focus on what they do and what they are about. But that is only possible if you are willing to choose. Step by step of course, and I’m helping – that’s my job. But if you don't want to choose, or don't dare, or it's not the right time - then it won't work.
WG: What is your biggest branding success?
SJ: Wow, a difficult question. Also because it sounds as if such a success is only my merit, and of course that is not the case. I guide the process, try to ask sharp, deep or refreshing questions and keep people focused. You will only get to good results when an entrepreneur is brave and honest during the process. And when people walk their talk ánd talk their walk. Brand strategy and marketing go hand in hand, one cannot exist without the other.
But if I had to choose one, I would choose Suseela Gorter and her sustainable Christmas trees, the Tiny-Trees. She did a branding project more than two years ago and then continued with writing and marketing. She was already doing great things and her Tiny-Trees already existed. And she could also already write very beautifully. But over the past two years, she has really built a personal brand. She has shared such inspiring stories in her marketing. About sustainability, Christmas, conviviality, loneliness and togetherness. In her own unique sweet-funny way. These messages resonate with many people and in addition to being good for the sales of her beautiful sustainable product, she inspires many people.
But again, I definitely wouldn't call that “my success”. It is something that I give a push to and in which I continue to be present - also through the community of the Integere Marketing Academie that she is part of. But the success is her own merit.
WG: What do you want people to think and feel about your brand?
SJ: I want people to think: “Sandra is the person to go to when I want to tell a clear and honest story about my company. And I can contact Sandra if I really want to learn to write about my work with a love for language.”
And I want people to feel that it is about honesty, creativity, courage and togetherness.
WG: What would you love to figure out about brand building that you still can't quite master?
SJ: If a brand has two or three very different target groups, that remains a challenge in branding and marketing. Fortunately, that doesn't happen that often, but at the moment I happen to be working on a project that involves that. It is then a matter of puzzling with brand promises and tone of voice. A fun challenge, but not always easy!
WG: What is your first memory of a brand?
SJ: That's not such a positive one. My grandmother always had a bottle of 'Robijn' detergent sitting on top of her washing machine. As a child I was jealous and wished that we had detergent at home with such a cozy and cute bear as a brand.
When I went to high school and became more interested in politics and the environment, I discovered how polluting regular detergents are. That the bear in the advertisement is frisking around in a green flower meadow full of butterflies, but behind it lies a factory that releases toxic substances and an enormous amount of plastic into the world.
Suddenly I had a lot more admiration for my mother who always bought boring detergent in cardboard packs.
WG: Which brand is totally overrated?
SJ: I'm afraid I will have to go for Tony's Chocolonely, even though I know that many people are huge fans.
I respect the awareness they have created of modern slavery and child labor within the cocoa industry, but, I struggle with the fact that there are brands that do it so much better. I worked in organic food for 15 years and know lots of great chocolate brands. Pioneers where all the ingredients are grown organically (so without poison for the farmer and the earth). And who have collaborations with cocoa farmers and sugar farmers for decades. Collaborations where farmers receive a decent income and where there are agricultural programs to learn and support.
I always find it difficult when new brands come up with large marketing budgets to tackle a problem that pioneers have been working on for so much longer and in a more thorough way. Especially because both could very well coexist and strengthen each other, but what often happens is that those new brands ignore the pioneers and do not give them any credit. They even pretend the pioneers don’t exist and suggest that they, as newcomers, are the first to tackle this subject. You also often see this with new sustainable detergents.
When I see things like that happen, I always want to climb on my soapbox. I think working and acting like that is a waste of opportunities and unfair to the brave and caring pioneers.
WG: What brand should finally get the attention it deserves?
SJ: The sustainable cleaning products brand Sonett. And I would really like to give them a budget for a visual rebranding.
Sonett is a German brand (but available in many countries) and has been making sustainable cleaning products for more than forty years. Products that are made with a deep conviction and tons of knowledge.
They are also super transparent on their website, and if you send them an email with a question, you will receive an immediate answer with a clear explanation. They really walk their talk and are one of the most honest brands I know.
I just think their labels are so outdated. The looks don't have to be super trendy, because that timelessness and their experience should be visible - but I think a different look would do a lot.
Picture taken by Hanneke Laaning
WG: Has being a member of BTC had any impact on the direction your practice is taking?
SJ: BTC is very important to me. I can still remember my very first online Meeting, years ago, very well. I was moved by the fact that we were talking about brand strategy with people from almost all continents. For example, there was someone from Vietnam, someone from Australia and someone from South Africa. It feels rich to be connected with colleagues from all over the world.
And BTC and specifically Anne motivated and inspired me to initially see the copywriting course that I was developing a few years ago as a prototype, instead of making it perfect before launching. The course was ready much faster and the process was more fun. That test round immediately proved successful and the course is now an important basis of my offering. It was such an insight in how you can develop products and services as an entrepreneur. So the community not only helps and inspires when it comes to branding, it is also really nice to be able to share things with fellow entrepreneurs and learn from each other in that area.
WG: What's your biggest takeaway from running your own community and courses?
SJ: Marketing and writing become so much more fun and so much better if you do it together. I work with small groups because you dare to be honest more quickly and can also go into depth online. Then you have the combination of fun and depth, and I really like that.
In every group course, students are amazed at how educational it is to experience from others what works and what doesn't work in texts and in talking about your positioning. And with every group course, the students become fans of each other. That is so valuable and supporting.
The second takeaway is that marketing, writing and positioning can be a kind of art. Something that makes people think, something that comforts, something that can shift things inside, something that gives meaning. And that is so much more fun and becomes so much more expressive if you do it together. Creativity, trying things out, standing for what you find important. The community helps people to explore the way they want to do marketing.
WG: Who is your biggest changemaker hero?
SJ: The one that immediately comes to mind may not fit the traditional branding definition of a change maker. In the sense that a change maker is often seen as a social entrepreneur who tries to solve a social or sustainable problem with her company.
My biggest change maker hero doesn't have her own company in that sense, because she is an artist. Joke van Leeuwen, a Dutch writer, poet, illustrator and performer. She has written almost a hundred books and won many awards. She is such an inspiration because she is so good at writing lightly about heavy topics and because she is very free in her genres.
She writes children's books, books for adults, theater, cabaret, poetry and informative books. She writes across all boundaries and is extremely creative. An inspiration for every creator, including brand strategists, copywriters and graphic designers.