Here's someone else saying branding is dead, this time at ClickZ: Branding Today: Why It's Ineffective, Irrelevant, Irritating, and Impotent. Here's the main point:
Branding that involves made-up claims and fanciful brand smells, colors, or auras has been rendered completely impotent by the habits and expectations of modern consumers. What should an advertiser do in this Darwinian new world of empowered consumers? First, make a kick-ass product. Second, make a kick-ass product. Third, repeat one and two ....
What's a kick-ass product if you're a nonprofit? It's changing the world in a specific way that your supporters understand, love, and tell everyone they know about. For some organizations, that's just a matter of packaging. For others, it would take fundamental organizational changes to achieve "kick-ass" status.
But all the identity standards in the world won't move anyone one bit closer to that.
If I had a limited budget (as I do, and so do you), I'd spend it on my product, not my identity standards. I might start thinking about identity standards after I'd nailed that part.
(It's worth noting that the Neuromarketing blog has an interesting counterpoint to the ClickZ article: Is Branding Dead? Our Brains Say No!)
Technorati Tags: fundraising, marketing
Couldn't have said it better than J. Hoysi. Your org's brand is your work and impact, not the color of your logo! What's changed is the meaning of real branding, not its value.
Posted by: Nancy Schwartz | 01 September 2009 at 14:55
Branding dead? Not at all. We need it more than ever in the nonprofit sector.
Fou too often falls into the trap of focusing on branding tactics, rather than on the overall goal of branding: building strong, long-term relationships with consumers that lead to repeated sales.
As we know from Marketing 101, a brand isn't a logo - it's what people think and feel about a product, service, or organization.
Certainly, branding starts with the product (and always has). In the case of nonprofits, our products are our programs and services (though many of us sell stuff too). No amount of "branding" can overcome poor programs and services.
Assuming we have good programs, though, branding asks that we consider how we are telling our story and treating our clients, donors, and other constituents.
Branding reminds us that just about everything we do is part of building a brand, and many things we do hurt our brand. Hiring a crabby or aloof receptionist; having callers get lost in voice mail; or taking weeks to thank donors (if at all), can damage a brand as much (or more) as having a poor logo, website, or social media strategy.
Branding isn't something that can "die." Call it what you will, but building relationships with constituents will always be the key to longterm success.
Posted by: Soren Jensen | 01 September 2009 at 13:37
A lot of people blend together what charities sell (to one bunch of people) with what they deliver (to another bunch of people). Donors are the people charities *sell* to.
What do they sell? Community and communication. Connecting donors to the work, to the recipients of the work, and to each other.
What's a kick-ass product to a donor? One which pushes the limits of exploding, cheap, democratic digital technology to allow communities to communicate and change the world.
What's the big irony? The thing that makes branding obsolete is the thing that charities use to create a kick-ass 'product' - cheap, democratic, powerful communications; a social context for change.
What's the bigger irony? Digital media gives charities a natural advantage over commercial brands (which have nothing compelling to talk about), but they will likely squander this advantage by following commercial brands who are so hung over from mass media branding that they seem incapable of understanding that digital communications changed the game.
Ever wish the world would just speed up a little bit? Interesting times are a drag.
Posted by: Brad Bell | 01 September 2009 at 10:51
Anyone worth his salt in branding knows that it is more than just "packaging." Your brand IS your kick-ass product, your sales people and representatives selling your kick-ass product, the geniuses behind making your kick-ass product, and how your clients feel about your kick-ass product.
Those who feel branding is dead are those that have only come across hokey marketing "experts" who pitch infomercials and the like.
Posted by: jhoysi | 01 September 2009 at 10:22