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| Getting
behind your identity |
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| Far
from simply being the logo which appears on its letterhead,
an organisation’s brand encompasses the mindset, mission
and character of that organisation. Maintaining that brand
is not always an easy task. Anastasia Kershaw finds that having
the minds of every member of an organisation focused on furthering
that brand is one of the keys to success |
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Fighting
for funds, and day-to-day office life, can make the idea of
an organisation’s brand easy to forget. But losing sight
of one’s core values and aims leads to corrosion of
the organisation. It can happen anytime: in a flash through
bad judgement of an individual campaigner or slowly, by neglecting
and forgetting what an organisation is actually trying to
accomplish.
The most high profile damage to a brand this year was the
campaign by Fathers for Justice that imploded in January,
after one of its more radical associates suggested kidnapping
Leo Blair. Suddenly the stunts, such as throwing flour at
Tony Blair, which had started to engage people in the cause
became scandalous.
Max du Bois, director of branding agency Spencer du Bois,
explains: “When talking to an audience you should be
able to have empathy with them. And if using shock tactics
you have to make sure the shock rams home a message and there
is a positive outcome.”
Most charitable organisations don’t use such extreme
shock tactics, but may go wrong elsewhere. Graham Hales, executive
director of branding at Interbrand, stresses the importance
of communicating in the right way to the public. “There
is still a tendency to write brand messages in a long, complicated
and worthy manner, which can become dull and cumbersome,”
he says. “People suffer from saying what they think
they should be saying, rather than having the confidence to
truly say what’s important to them.”
The ideas behind branding should also move with the times
or risk becoming dated. In April this year, Macmillan Cancer
Relief rebranded, responding to the changing cancer demographic
of an aging population. “We discovered that while seventh
in the CAF index of fundraising charities we were number 28
when measured by awareness. People got our name wrong and
didn’t recognise the logo,” says Judy Beard, director
of communications.
In response to the threat of becoming dated it became Macmillan
Cancer Support,
with a new look and remit of providing more practical, emotional
and financial help.
Beard describes Macmillan’s rebranding as a “profound”
experience that involved far more than the logo and focussed
the mind on the core values held in the organisation. “We
had a good response from staff and it has created excitement
and energy. The rebranding has helped to focus our minds,
and internal communications will be an important part of ensuring
that it is embedded throughout the organisation.”
To be effective you need to ensure that everyone feels involved
in brand delivery. Hales holds up a story about the US President
visiting NASA in the 1960s. “He asked a guy who was
sweeping the floor what he was doing. The man turns around
and says he’s helping to put a man on the moon. This
level of engagement in a mission is what organisations should
be aiming for if they want to create an effective brand.”
“Educating people is key,” agrees Serena Donne,
head of brand at Cancer Research UK. This then allows people
within the charity to become advocates of it and hopefully
protect its reputation. This is backed up with basic brand
management tools such as guidelines, templates and brand champions
in each area.
There are numerous other methods of encouraging internal cohesion.
For instance, Macmillan has a web-based facility so staff
and volunteers can download templates with the company look
and feel. Barnardos, for example, uses a number of methods.
“These include specific cross-departmental forward planning
meetings and day-to-day communications across teams,”
says Gillian Black, Barnardos’ head of brand and communication
services.
The NSPCC, as well, has a comprehensive strategy in place
to encourage cohesion. “Our communication strategies
are agreed by the directors of fundraising, services, policy
and communication. There is also a mirror group, meeting fortnightly,
for the people who are responsible for implementing the campaign,
and we are publishing a magazine for parents called Your Family
Magazine that reaches into the community,” says John
Grounds, director of communication at NSPCC.
“Branding values should even extend to recruitment,”
says Spencer du Bois’ du Bois. “For example, if
your values include ‘traditional’ and ‘caring’
then you will choose an employee with those natural personality
characteristics. “Then if you lay out your goals in
training it raises the brand to the top of people’s
minds and the way to reinforce it is through induction when
people arrive. But really if a brand is done properly from
the very top it gets ingrained in the budgeting systems, key
systems, key performance reviews, and key business indicators.”
Effective branding also means choosing the right kind of campaign
at the right time. Macmillan, for example, has a five-year
strategy and has carefully considered the types of campaigns
it will run. “Big splashes make big promises and you
have to be able to deliver. We have chosen a more incremental
approach so we will always be able to deliver against our
promises. The worst thing of all is to set yourself up as
one thing and then not be able to fulfil it,” says Macmillan’s
Beard.
Du Bois furthers this point saying a lot of the organisations
in his experience that do the best work do not do it with
big splashes, but by constantly focusing and working on their
brand and what that brand means. “Individual campaigns
can grab attention but maintaining the brand is about the
ongoing understanding of brand and how the whole organisation
can move the brand forward,” he says.
Interbrand’s Hales agrees: “Everyone who has a
message that they want the outside world to engage in needs
to be conscious of their brand. It’s as simple as recognising
the impression that you want to create and then working out
how to use every opportunity that you have to reinforce that
desired impression.”
Arguably, maintaining a brand is poles apart for large and
small operations with their more constrained budgets. But
Hales thinks smaller organisations have the advantage: “While
small organisations feel envious of those with bigger budgets,
small operations have a natural advantage in delivery. Fewer
people mean it can be more tightly controlled and therefore
easier to deliver and it is ultimately a more powerful entity.”
And Beard advises: “Get trustees on board because then
they are more likely to make wise long term decisions and
make money available.”
“Branding is like the holy grail,” says du Bois.
“You never really attain perfection but it’s the
knightly deeds you do along the way. It’s about understanding
how your brand makes an impact on the goals of the organisation
and not treating it as something separate.”
“Fathers for Justice was a successful media phenomena,”
adds du Bois. “But because it wasn’t well defined
and didn’t police its brand well it imploded on them.
The key to good branding is objectivity and you use passion
to drive that. It’s also realising that it’s bigger
than a logo.”
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