Your Brand is Your Nonprofit’s Personality: What Does Yours Say About You?

Lose the Lipstick! Your Brand is More Than a Cosmetic.

Starbucks

Target

DSW

American Diabetes Association

Habitat for Humanity

YMCA

Salvation Army

Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Boys Scouts of America

Agenda

• What’s a brand?• So what and who cares? • How to build a brand or change the one you’ve got.• Ready. Set. Express yourself! • Let’s recap.

What’s a brand?

Brands are to organizations what personalities are to people. They can be exciting or dull. Direct or obtuse. Smart or dumb.

What’s a brand?

But brands are more than cosmetic. They are your organization’s DNA.

So what and who cares?

A strong, differentiated, relevant brand can help you:– Attract more funding or retain the funding you

have.– Gain greater political clout.– Attract the best talent.– Get the recognition you deserve.– Become more focused and effective.

Why worry?Whether or not we want to be, we are a brand.

We’re out there – people will form opinions about us. Those opinions will be positive, negative, or ambiguous.They’re probably not going to be neutral.

We’re going to be visible or invisible.We’ll get credit for the things we do, or we’ll continue to do things and not get credit.We’ll be either understood or misunderstood.

We can be either a good brand or a bad brand;A clear brand or a confusing brand; a helpful brand or an irritating brand:A responsible brand or an irresponsible brand.

- From Branding the AIGA in Branding for Nonprofits by DK Holland

News flash!

You already have a brand.

It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room.

“Everyone has a brand by design or default.” – Lida Citroen

Raise your hand if…

Your logo and other elements of your brand identity were created by an amateur.

Your website, brochures and other communications tools are created on an ad hoc bassis and don’t look like they come from the same organization

You DON’T repurpose content. Every time you create new content you start from scratch.

Your brand is generic. You organization looks and sounds pretty much like everyone else.

Seriously…we can do better! Aka How to build a brand or change

the one you’ve got.

Do an audit.

– What is our vision and mission?

– What are our values, i.e. what do we stand for?

– What do we do better than anyone else?

Assess your competition.

Keep your audience(s) in mind

Use your assets wisely.

What are our tools?

Our name,our mission, initiatives, and values,our visual identifier (aka logo),and the talents, understanding, and hard work of the people who create, administer, service, design, write, edit, govern, and deliver all that we do.

Name

• Choose your name wisely– Acronyms only if they

make sense, e.g. MADD

Logo• Get a professionally

designed logo.

Text

• Write good (no GREAT!) copy– Active vs. passive tense– Tell stories– Use proper grammar– Edit, edit and edit some more!

Images

• Use beautiful photos and video – EVERYWHERE– Flickr.com– Google Images

• REMEMBER: Design and create content for your audience, not for yourself!

You

Your organization will be judged by the “color its skin” but you will also be judged your character.

Ready. Set. Express Yourself!

Create a website that people WANT to visit.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

Shoot video or die!

Use REAL photography EVERYWHERE!

Use REAL photography EVERYWHERE!

Community Cradle

Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley

Albany Med Faculty Physicians

Let’s recap.

Key concept #1

Branding is important. Brands are to organizations what personalities are to people. They and can make or break your organization.

Key concept #2

Creating a brand involves assessing the WHOLE of your organization and the environment in which your work. Do this BEFORE applying cosmetics.

Key concept #3

Build your brand with your audience(s) in mind because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You are not designing for you!

Key concept #4

You organization will be judged by the “color of its skin” but it will also be judged by the content of its character. Make every interaction count.

Learn more

• Branding for Success: A Roadmap for Raising the Visibility and Value of Your Nonprofit Organization and Aha! Moments in Brand Management by Larry Checco

• Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money Through Smart Communications by Sarah Durham– Check out their Branding Scorecard at

http://www.bigducknyc.com/free_nonprofit_marketing_resource

• Branding for Nonprofits: Developing Identity With Integrity by DK Holland

• Into Focus: A Benchmark Guide to Effective Nonprofit Video by See3, YouTube, and Edelman

Connect with me!

Jocelyn HarmonEmail: jocelyn_harmon@yahoo.com

Blog: www.marketingfornonprofits.orgLinkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelynharmon

Twitter: @jocelynharmon