image, brand & messaging for your non-profit
TRANSCRIPT
IMAGE, BRAND & MESSAGING
IT’S MORE THAN YOUR LOGO
ABOUT USAH is a professional services firm that specializes in helping non-profit organizations achieve their mission, create value, and advance their causes, industries, and professions.
We have four main divisions within AH: A full-service association management company (AMC); a marketing and communications agency; a meetings and events management team; and a division that focuses on other custom solutions, such as education, strategic planning, website builds, database integrations, public affairs, certification management, and growing non-dues revenue.
www.AHredchair.com
Note:
• AH webinars are delivered by experienced association executives who will share information in an easy to relate to fashion.
• The sessions do not provide official legal or insurance advice, rather just necessary information so you will feel more confident in being able to ask the right questions.
We offer various live and on-demand webinars with topics ranging from board governance to content marketing.
Today’s Topic: IMAGE, BRAND & MESSAGING FOR YOUR NON-PROFIT
Your non-profit's brand is more than your logo. It has to do with your members and stakeholders' experiences with and recognition of your organization.
After attending this webinar, attendees will:
• Understand branding definitions• Get ideas for explaining the importance of branding and general buy-in from your Board• Take away a number of branding essentials for your organization• See branding examples from other non-profits
YOUR PRESENTER
If AH's Senior Director of MarCom, Kim Karagosian, could walk around to a theme song all day, it would be Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" because a) she likes a great 80s band and b) the initiatives that her team of marketing, PR, design, digital media, and editorial professionals do are memorable and creative. The ideas just go on, and on, and on, and on...
Kim’s expertise spans from industry and trend analysis to social media, new product development, branding, and anything in between. Kim is frequently called upon to share her knowledge at the Mid-Atlantic Society of Association Executives (MASAE) Annual Conference, American Society of Association Executive (ASAE) Annual Conference, and AH’s leadership and marketing events. In addition to her experience with professional associations, Kim has over 13 years of corporate B2B and B2C experience and has a strong background in conference marketing, digital marketing, and market research.
Kim resides in New York City with her four-pound Maltese, Buttah, and enjoys boxing, cooking, traveling, and, obviously, listening to great music.
Agenda• Branding definitions• Getting buy-in• Essentials in Branding
Definitions
BRAND DEFINITIONSThe American Marketing Association defines brand and branding as: “A customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary.”
BRAND DEFINITIONS
Brand Identity vs. Brand Image
• Brand Identity is the 'internal' view of the brand - i.e. how the organization perceives and communicates the brand's image to the market place and how the organization wants the brand to be perceived.
• Brand's Image is the 'personality' of the brand - i.e. how it is viewed in the marketplace and by consumers.
• A successful brand image is therefore one that matches the brand identity.
• The identity is how the brand wishes to be known, whereas image is how it is perceived.
ExerciseWhat personality traits come to mind when you think of McDonald's?
Branding is more than a logo
• As you think about your organization’s brand, you must analyze and understand your org’s purpose, target audience, and how you want to be perceived. MORE importantly than that, it includes helping your audience to see the importance of knowing these things about your organization.
• Branding is everything you are putting out into the world in regards to your organization, and works to build recognition, loyalty, and trust.
• Visually, it does include the logo. But, it also includes how you tweet, what your sidebar graphics look like on your website, and whether or not your images have a lot white space in them, and so on. Outside of visuals it includes understanding what your mission is, where you want your org to go, and who you serve. Most importantly, it all ties together in a cohesive and memorable way.
Getting Buy-in
How can you get buy-in from your Board on the importance of branding?
• Products have life cycles. Brands outlive products. Remain relevant.
• Brands convey a uniform quality, credibility and experience.Show your authority.
• Brands are valuable. Many for-profit organizations put the value of their brand on their balance sheet.Strong branding enhances current and new product offerings and revenue.
• Branding helps with differentiation.How are you different from your for-profit and non-profit competition?
• Gives chapters and SIGs a foundation to build fromProvide them with a strong starting point for growth so that they aren’t recreating the wheel.
Example
ExampleWhen Four Seasons Hotels, Inc., sold for billions of dollars, what did they buy? Locations? Restaurants? Staff? Beach front property?
No, they bought the brand.
Loyalty to Brands
• People don’t have relationships with products, they are loyal to brands.
• Think of brands as Russian nesting dolls, with many layers that can create great followings of people who find them relevant.
• Brands can activate a passionate group of people to do something bigger than themselves... Like your associations!
• Products can’t really do that.
Essentials in Branding
1. Scalable LogoBest Practices: Logo Design • Scalability - a logo should be visually appealing and readable at extremely small or large
sizes.• Simplicity – a clear and simple message. A logo that has several design elements and
tricks will be hard to see at small sizes and become dated quickly. Simple logos are the most memorable.
• Versatile - easily and quickly readable, large or small, in black and white or full color in any medium
• Recognizable – logos build brand recognition. The goal of the logo is to instantly call the brand to mind.
• Appropriate – a logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. It should suit the company/organization.
• Typography – another important aspect of the logo. It should fit the brand. One to two fonts are ideal. Avoid more than two. Size, script, italics, bold, serifs, are all considerations.
• Colors – use colors to your advantage. Colors near each other on the color wheel. The logo must also look good in black and white.
2. Branding Guide• Mission, vision• Color palette• Typography• Logo usage
3. Style Guide• Acronyms• Capitalization• Certifications• Contractions• Dashes• Dates• Footnotes• Hyphenate• Numbers, percentages• Phone numbers• Quotes• URLs
4. Spokesperson Handbook • Consistent messaging• How to field questions on behalf of the brand• Sound bites
– Facts about the association– Facts about the industry– General and product information
• Good for volunteer leaders and staff
5. Social Media Policy• This is determined by each organization, but consider including:
– Goal of social media channel– Grounds for Deletion of Comment– Posts/Comments in a Different Language– Scenarios
On NAPO’s FB page:The goal of the NAPO Facebook page is to give its members and organizing enthusiasts a place where they can share ideas and learn in an open forum. Ask questions about the industry and receive advice on a peer to peer level. Whether the question is about running their business or a specific organizational challenge they are dealing with, this is the best resource for help.
– Interested in a career as a professional organizer? Please visit http://www.napo.net/our_profession/ for more information.
NAPO ExampleGuidelines for Facebook CommunityWelcome to National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) Facebook page. We’re glad you are here.
This page provides a place to discuss the NAPO news and activities, learn about the variety of services our members offer, our Corporate Associate member’s products and services, about becoming a professional organizer and how to get organizational assistance in your area. NAPO has a zero-tolerance policy for SPAM. We know the definition of SPAM can be interpreted in many different ways. The following guidelines are designed to help provide a quality environment for our fans and so it's clear to everyone and no-one worries about doing it accidentally. Please take a minute to read them and keep them in mind whenever you participate. By using or accessing this page, you agree to comply with Facebook’s Terms and Conditions. While we are excited to hear from everyone, it is important to note that postings by fans to NAPO’s Facebook page do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NAPO, nor does NAPO confirm their accuracy.We welcome all questions and commentary, including constructive feedback. We don’t take decisions on moderating posts lightly. But we do expect that participants post content and commentary that is both relevant and respectful to this community as a whole, even if you disagree with them. NAPO reserves the right to remove any posts that don’t adhere to our guidelines and to block anyone who violates them repeatedly. Specifically, we do not tolerate these kinds of posts:• Abusive, harassing, stalking, threatening or attacking others• Defamatory, offensive, obscene, vulgar or depicting violence• Hateful in language targeting race/ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality or political beliefs• Fraudulent, deceptive, misleading or unlawful• Trolling or deliberate disruption of discussion• Violations of any intellectual property rights• Spamming in nature, advertising by non NAPO members. Posts with links in the post which have no reason to be there, are not relevant for the discussion and seem to be only there to raise search engine ratings/get people to click on them.• Uploading files that contain viruses or programs that could damage the operation of other people’s computers• Commercial solicitation or solicitation of donations• Link baiting (embedding a link in your post to draw traffic to your own site)
• Ensure you are being consistent• Look at all your channels (print, web, social media, etc.)• Types of photos and images that are being used• Typography
6. Brand Review
7. Orientation for New Stakeholders
• If new staff, board, committee, chapter, SIG, or task force leaders join your organization, it’s important to have a check list of what’s included in their orientation
• Branding should be included and provide them with a pre-recorded branding webinar (or live), branding guide, style guide, and spokesperson handbook
