Deliberately Building your Brand

By J. Sebastian Traeger
July 1, 2004

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title.” In Shakespeare’s time, it might have been okay for Juliet to think that ordering twelve red rhododendrons for Valentine’s Day or calling Romeo Robert wouldn’t matter—but in the modern world of branding, renaming is not an ingredient for repositioning.

Of course Juliet would probably have figured this out if she actually tried to change Romeo’s name: while he might still retain his dear perfection, I don’t think “Robert and Juliet” would have retained its dear perfection in our hearts and minds throughout the years.

Let’s think about Branding. Now brand building is a complicated topic—so read this article with an eye to being inspired and with a desire to continue reading and researching. Scott Bedbury, the man responsible for building both the Nike and Starbucks brands, wrote in Brand New World: “Building a brand is the most challenging, complicated and painstaking process that a company can embark on. It’s more intuitive than analytical, and most of the time it can’t be seen. But it can always be felt.”

While branding is a complicated topic, it is also an incredibly important one in a changing world. Ministries in particular need to think carefully about how they position themselves in a crowded marketplace of ideas (both Christian and secular) to a limited pool of potential donors and to an increasingly skeptical culture. Most importantly, they have a theological and Biblical need to be careful of what they say and how they say it.

This is basically the advice Paul gave to his young protégé Timothy: “Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Persevere in them.” While I don’t want to reduce Paul’s teaching to marketing principles, I do think Christian organizations—by virtue of the message that we have been entrusted with and of the calling on our lives—have a special obligation to consider how we are understood by our various audiences. This, in essence, is branding.

My hope is that this article will help you answer these two simple questions: What makes up a brand? And how can I begin to position and refine my organization’s brand?

There are four facets to building a brand. Just like a stool will wobble (or fail to stand) if all the legs aren’t in place, so your brand will wobble unless you address all four of these areas.

1. Your brand is an outgrowth of who you are—your mission, vision and internal culture

The first place to start in developing your brand is to ask who you are. What is your mission and vision? Why does your organization exist? Focus on who you are. If who you are is not who you want to be, then begin a strategic, brand building campaign to get to where you need to be.

Part of who you are is also your internal culture—the values you espouse, the characteristics that describe you. As Chris Riley, CEO of branding company Studioriley says: “Branding is a way or articulating the core values of the corporation. Companies need to project into the world who they really are.” What does your organization stand for? How do you carry out your work? What are the important cultural distinctives that you adopt?

These values also need to be infused throughout your organization. Your employees—from the CEO to the volunteers—need to understand and articulate your mission and your vision and how you carry it out. Your brand should be clear in the way everyone who has anything to do with delivering your teaching, conferences, social services, training or products to your constituents’ works and acts.

Starbucks is a famous example of this. Bedbury summarizes how their internal culture contributes to their brand: “Starbucks employees know how to behave. Their training, benefits, sense of solidarity—and therefore their attitude and presentation—are a cut above those of employees in the rest of the fast-food industry….If you understand your brand—its values, its mission, its reason for being—and integrate it consistently into everything you do, your entire organization will know how to behave in virtually any and all situations.”

I have been encouraged by the Christian organizations with whom I meet. A sense of mission is typically a strongly shared value. I want to encourage your organization to go to extra lengths to make sure your culture is clearly understood, articulated and lived out by everyone. This is the central building block of a strong brand.

2. Authenticate your brand by delivering on your brand promise

We are increasingly growing into a cynical society and so authenticity is at a premium. Consumers are more skeptical and scrutinize the brands they use. Do these brands deliver what they promise? Are they saying one thing and doing another? As Christians, we understand the importance of our lives backing up what our lips confess. As Christian organizations, we need to be mindful that we are delivering on who we are. Over time, our behavior and the quality of our work will either build trust or erode it.

Leslie Kilgore, the Chief Marketing Officer for Netflix, understands the importance of delivering on your brand promise. She says: “Customer service, convenience and selection are the essence of our brand…Customers have a level of enthusiasm because we have a great experience, and that’s why constantly improving the quality of the service is an obsessive part of our culture.” Your brand is only as good as your ability to deliver on what you say you will.

I think that truthfulness, sincerity and excellence should be hallmarks of every Christian brand. Our culture already labels Christians as hypocrites and charlatans. Let’s begin, one organization and one brand at a time, to reflect Christ truthfully, sincerely and with excellence.

3. Communicate your brand clearly and consistently

Most people reduce their brand to a specific logo, a trademark, or perhaps an advertising slogan. These are certainly part of your brand—but hopefully you see that your corporate identity—your logos, letterhead, print collateral, website—are all outward expressions of your brand. They are symbols meant to summarize with words and visuals who you are. They are the fruit of talented creative people translating who you are and what you do into visual images. As Bedbury says: “[Creative Identity and] advertising should help to confirm what already is, not what should be.”

Your goal in creating a website is not to project an image of who you’d like to be. Instead, the goal should be to create an accurate, excellent representation of who you are that captures the minds and hearts of your audience.

As our Creative Director likes to say: “You can put lipstick and dress on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”

Don’t put lipstick on a pig. Either stop being a pig or shine it up and take it to the county fair. Your image is a reflection of your brand. Understand your brand, your brand promise and your position to create consistent communication materials that accurately reflect this.

4. Constituent perception (and hopefully loyalty) is the fruit of your overall branding efforts

Do you really want to know what your brand represents? It’s easy. Just ask your constituents. Find out who your most passionate constituents are and listen to them. How would they describe their experiences with you? What adjectives would they use to describe your organization? Your constituents evaluate you on metrics such as performance, trust, reputation and love (or how you make them feel). While most people won’t scrutinize you so analytically, the image you project in the service that you provide is the intangible quality we call brand. Your constituent perceptions are the fruit of your brand. And, at the end of the day, it’s really all that matters. What kind of fruit are you producing?

Yana Kushner of Clif Bar understands that building brand loyalty is the fruit of all your efforts. She describes the “Luna Movement” this way: “I think the first layer of loyalty is that they love how the bar tastes, the nutrients in it, that it’s all natural. But beyond that, they quickly move up and join the Luna movement: social purpose, balance, healthy living, wanting it all. These are the values that we stand for, and because we have that in common with them, they feel like they’ve found a friend.”

It is my hope that Christian organizations become just as intentional in building their brands. We need to be truthful in the message we convey, and we need to be thoughtful about how we say it.

I would encourage you to use this article as a diagnostic tool. Which leg of the stool is wobbly for you? How can you fix it? Work hard to understand your mission and vision; to deliver on your brand promise; to communicate clearly and truthfully; and to take the pulse of your constituents.

The scope of this article hasn’t allowed me to delve into more complex issues such as how to improve your brand or how to reposition it. Nor have I dealt with complex organizational questions related to multiple brands and how to differentiate between your organization’s overall brand with specific product or program brands. If you are dealing with these issues, I do hope that this article is at least a springboard. And, if you would like additional resources, I would encourage you to read the Bedbury book that I referenced earlier; to subscribe to the magazine Fast Company; or to call us to help you refine your organization’s brand.

If you would like to find out more about how to implement these strategies and ideas in your organization, please take a moment to let us know a little about your needs.