Here are 10 ways that you can use to express your brand. These concepts are taken from a seminar I conducted on business and nonprofit branding at the Brooklyn Creative League.
1. Through a celebrity, personality or spokesperson that embodies your vision. Jimmy Carter has been bringing credence and visibility to Habitat for Humanity since 1984.
2. Through a tagline that inspires people to action. United Negro College Fund’s slogan was created in 1972 and has since become of the most famous taglines of all brands in the business and nonprofit sectors.
3. Through a consistent drumbeat of advertising that conveys your message in a memorable way. The Energizer Bunny has been racking up sales since 1989 through print and broadcast ads that have become iconic.
4. Through dramatic images that evoke human emotion. Save the Children, Feed the Children and other relief organizations have used images of starving children to stir the heart and appeal to human conscience, compassion and guilt to such an extent that these images have lost some of their effect.
5. Through a consistent use of color and symbol that becomes linked to your cause. Susan G. Komen for the Cure put breast cancer research on the map through their walks involving thousands, and have co-opted the color pink and the pink ribbon to symbolize breast cancer.
6. Through innovation that drives demand for your products or services. Apple consistently sets new standards with breakthroughs in the personal computers, portable music, and phones, as well as new methods that buck the industry, such as charging for individual song downloads.
7. Through a new business model that focuses on customer needs. The Doe Fund took homeless people off the street, trained them for a job and created an enterprise that generates revenue – solving social problems with a profit.
8. By being first with an idea to become a leader in your sector. Toyota launched the Prius in 1997, making it the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle and became a leader in both sales and caché.
9. Through a character that makes a serious message palatable. Smokey Bear’s message, “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires,” was created in 1944 and has become engrained in our national conscience.
10. Through dramatic action that captures the attention of the media. Greenpeace’s precision focus on a key message delivered dramatically (not always legally) at the right time and place has been a winning formula for keeping the pressure on decision-makers.
WAKE UP CALL: How many of these techniques are you using to convey your nonprofit brand?
