Branding As Memorable As A Holiday 5400

Branding As Memorable As A Holiday

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When you think of your favorite holiday, what distinctive sights, sounds, and smells come to mind? Maybe red, white, blue, and the smell of barbecues for Independence Day, or heart-shaped chocolate boxes for Valentine’s Day. But what else embodies a holiday’s brand? What feelings or memories does it remind you of? Holidays can teach us a lot about branding and what constitutes creating a full brand.

But do social good organizations need to think about branding?

Yes!

Your supporters see you as a brand (strong or weak, good or bad).

Think about the images, feelings, and memories you want your brand to invoke. Now, compare these symbols to what your brand currently invokes in people. Do they match?

If there’s room for improvement, then you need to determine where the disconnect is between what supporters see, and what you want them to see in your brand.

Brand includes logos, slogans, and distinctive colors or fonts, but at a brand’s very core is the mission and value it stands for. These elements all work together to not only motivate someone to buy, but truly believe in a product or service.

However, for organizations like yours, it’s really more than this. A social good organization’s brand tells a story and promotes a mission to do good. A brand is powerful and can give credibility to things you choose to associate your organization with. Your brand needs to encompass your mission, your vision, and your core values as an organization. You aren’t just trying to get someone to buy your product or service, but to buy into the shared vision for a better world. Through your brand, you’re helping supporters connect with your organization over a common goal and mission. You are inviting supporters to partner with you to make a change.

How can you shape your brand to match your mission? And then, how can you share your brand (and everything that is attached to it) to your current and potential supporters? Blackbaud University is here to help with our Organizational Best Practices: Marketing—Brand workshop. Learn more about how to fine-tune your brand for the social good space, identify areas for improvement, and discuss ways to become one with your brand, inside and outside of your building.

What social good organization’s brand do you envy, and why? Tell us in the Organizational Best Practices Community >

 
News Organizational Best Practices Blog 02/14/2019 9:00am EST

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4 Comments
The magic sauce for any branding really comes down to evoking emotions from your audience. I know that is easier said than done, of course!
We recently completed our rebranding process - new logo, etc. I didn't realize it would affect everything from the fonts we use in our thank-you letters, to the spacing of our margins, etc. on all communications. Wow. It's great, for providing a unified image, though.
We are in the beginning stages of branding our Scholarship Reception and thinking about holidays will be helpful!
Great things for me to process and be reminded of as I head into branding conversations with our team this next week!

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