May 2009
Why is "Branding" an Issue?
Thu May 14 2009 Filed in: Marketing/Branding
By Jeff McLinden
Why is "branding" an issue you need to consider?
Well, how about "survival?"
Some ministry organizations are discovering that rethinking their brand is a necessity for surviving within a hyper-competitive marketplace. I'm not talking here about a simple change of a logo or adding a tag-line to the organization's stationery or even a new website. It's far more complex than that.
Some are seeing that "branding" means a complete change of identity that coincides with the implementation of a renewed vision and strategic objectives. Such an identity change includes the selection and promotion of a new name for the organization with accompanying creation and application of a strong visual identity across the ministry’s marketing, ministry and communications materials. But while establishing names and creating logos is the traditional view of “creating a corporate identity,” we believe that today’s highly competitive marketing and ministry environment demands a more comprehensive approach.
Even in the ministry world, strong brands increasingly have become the one and only sustainable competitive advantage. Brands must be viewed as the primary factor that differentiates a nonprofit organization from others with similar causes. In this respect, it is not the causal products with which customers or donors develop relationships… It is your brand. Powerful brands are created through a carefully crafted, and even more carefully managed, combination of visual AND experiential factors that work together to create indelible impressions and interactions in the minds and hearts of organizational stakeholders.
The problem is to craft a branding strategy that goes beyond mere satisfaction for various constituent groups… Rather, you must seek to create and implement an experientially superior brand/image/identity that will not only delight current stakeholders in your ministry (including missionaries, staff, donors, churches, board members, etc.) but will serve as a magnet to attract new missionaries, new donors, new church partners and more.
We view this process, not as merely a departmental issue or a communications strategy, but as an organizational imperative. Branding will affect the name, the look, the feel of your ministry, to be sure. But it will also affect the language of your organization, its customer/donor interfaces, its service to various stakeholder groups, how it recruits and follows-up new missionary candidates, etc.
The ultimate objective is not merely to establish a strong brand. Rather it is to establish and maintain strong brand loyalty. Creation of a strong brand identity is part of that task. Successful implementation of that brand identity is the result of creative applications across all marketing materials and customer/donor engagement arenas, and effective marketing and communications planning and execution.
How's your brand? Perhaps the best way to find out is to see how your competitors are doing. And how many of your stakeholders are leaving.
Why is "branding" an issue you need to consider?
Well, how about "survival?"
Some ministry organizations are discovering that rethinking their brand is a necessity for surviving within a hyper-competitive marketplace. I'm not talking here about a simple change of a logo or adding a tag-line to the organization's stationery or even a new website. It's far more complex than that.
Some are seeing that "branding" means a complete change of identity that coincides with the implementation of a renewed vision and strategic objectives. Such an identity change includes the selection and promotion of a new name for the organization with accompanying creation and application of a strong visual identity across the ministry’s marketing, ministry and communications materials. But while establishing names and creating logos is the traditional view of “creating a corporate identity,” we believe that today’s highly competitive marketing and ministry environment demands a more comprehensive approach.
Even in the ministry world, strong brands increasingly have become the one and only sustainable competitive advantage. Brands must be viewed as the primary factor that differentiates a nonprofit organization from others with similar causes. In this respect, it is not the causal products with which customers or donors develop relationships… It is your brand. Powerful brands are created through a carefully crafted, and even more carefully managed, combination of visual AND experiential factors that work together to create indelible impressions and interactions in the minds and hearts of organizational stakeholders.
The problem is to craft a branding strategy that goes beyond mere satisfaction for various constituent groups… Rather, you must seek to create and implement an experientially superior brand/image/identity that will not only delight current stakeholders in your ministry (including missionaries, staff, donors, churches, board members, etc.) but will serve as a magnet to attract new missionaries, new donors, new church partners and more.
We view this process, not as merely a departmental issue or a communications strategy, but as an organizational imperative. Branding will affect the name, the look, the feel of your ministry, to be sure. But it will also affect the language of your organization, its customer/donor interfaces, its service to various stakeholder groups, how it recruits and follows-up new missionary candidates, etc.
The ultimate objective is not merely to establish a strong brand. Rather it is to establish and maintain strong brand loyalty. Creation of a strong brand identity is part of that task. Successful implementation of that brand identity is the result of creative applications across all marketing materials and customer/donor engagement arenas, and effective marketing and communications planning and execution.
How's your brand? Perhaps the best way to find out is to see how your competitors are doing. And how many of your stakeholders are leaving.
0 Comments
Meaningful Conversations
Thu May 07 2009 Filed in: Donor Communications
By Jeff McLinden
If you're like me, you likely receive 20 to 50 pieces of nonprofit mail per week. Why is it that the vast majority of those pieces never make it to my desk? The round file catches the majority simply because they do a lousy job of catching my attention. Those that do get opened mostly suffer from the same disease -- they "talk at" me as a reader, rather than "talk with" me. I'm sure you know what I mean... Too much nonprofit mail -- and especially ministry mail -- tries to deliver a "message" instead of carrying on a conversation. This begs a simple question...
If "relationships" are what donor and partner development are really all about, then why do we ignore one of the fundamental principles of relationship development -- dialogue!
I'm convinced that most writers of ministry mail simply don't get it. We're not engaged in journalism here... We're having conversations! They write as if they were preparing an address to a vast congregation instead of writing a personal letter. And what makes a letter personal are the inflections that are part of a natural conversation. The stops. The starts. The pauses. The questions. The emphatic or dramatic elements that punctuate dialogue between two people in animated discussion.
Great communicators are not so because of profundity, dynamic oratory, complex sentence structures or grammatical perfection. What makes them great is the simple ability to capture attention, to hold it, to shape it. The ability to amuse, to stir emotions, and, especially, to motivate action. Engaging readers is what I'm talking about. Failure to engage is failure. It's like trying to race a car that's stuck in neutral. You just don't get very far.
Larry Johnston taught me many years ago that you can't bore people into giving. The best way to not be a bore is to realize that your donors are far more interested in their own priorities, needs and concerns than they are in you. Put them in the center of your communications and you'll discover something amazing -- they'll be far more interested in what you have to say!
If you're like me, you likely receive 20 to 50 pieces of nonprofit mail per week. Why is it that the vast majority of those pieces never make it to my desk? The round file catches the majority simply because they do a lousy job of catching my attention. Those that do get opened mostly suffer from the same disease -- they "talk at" me as a reader, rather than "talk with" me. I'm sure you know what I mean... Too much nonprofit mail -- and especially ministry mail -- tries to deliver a "message" instead of carrying on a conversation. This begs a simple question...
If "relationships" are what donor and partner development are really all about, then why do we ignore one of the fundamental principles of relationship development -- dialogue!
I'm convinced that most writers of ministry mail simply don't get it. We're not engaged in journalism here... We're having conversations! They write as if they were preparing an address to a vast congregation instead of writing a personal letter. And what makes a letter personal are the inflections that are part of a natural conversation. The stops. The starts. The pauses. The questions. The emphatic or dramatic elements that punctuate dialogue between two people in animated discussion.
Great communicators are not so because of profundity, dynamic oratory, complex sentence structures or grammatical perfection. What makes them great is the simple ability to capture attention, to hold it, to shape it. The ability to amuse, to stir emotions, and, especially, to motivate action. Engaging readers is what I'm talking about. Failure to engage is failure. It's like trying to race a car that's stuck in neutral. You just don't get very far.
Larry Johnston taught me many years ago that you can't bore people into giving. The best way to not be a bore is to realize that your donors are far more interested in their own priorities, needs and concerns than they are in you. Put them in the center of your communications and you'll discover something amazing -- they'll be far more interested in what you have to say!