Marketing + Branding

Successful organizations have tight brands and strong marketing plans for getting the word out. This section will show how to take the next step in getting your organization or cause noticed.

Boot Camp Video, November 2008

Branding and Marketing
Moderator: Jonathan Schilit, Do Something Marketing
Panelists: Liza Vadani, GOOD Magazine
Stacy Greco, Teen Vogue, Senior Integrated Marketing Manager
Makena Cahill, BBMG, Assistant Account Executive

11 Tips on Marketing + Branding

1. Draw up a brand hierarchy. This is a map that shows the relationship you have with partners, donors you already have, and partners you want to have based on what your brand stands for. And when you see that kind of a map you’re better equipped to make business decisions going forward.
2. Figure out your brand personality. What would your brand be like if it were a person, what would its personality be? What is the tone of that personality’s interaction with the audience? What are you? Don’t just look images, but look at language, taglines, or descriptions that reflect who you are, put them all up on a white board, and debate them: because these are the messages that are going to go out into the community. If your core team isn’t 100% united on how you look and what you’re saying, your brand identity is going to suffer.
3. Make yourself credible. You can do this through your brand hierarchy. What are your other sources of credibility? You may be a tiny organization but if you’ve received funding from Bill Gates let’s say, that’s something to talk about. Make use of that, but see where it fits in your brand messaging, because by the same token you don’t want your founders to overshadow what you are doing.
4. Measure up the competition. Who are you competing against for you audience’s hearts and minds? What are you saying that differentiates you? Make sure that you are easily distinguishable from similar organizations.
5. Make your brand strong for your target audience. Focus on what the expectations of your target audience, if you are meeting them, and if you are meeting them consistently. Remember: No one’s audience is everyone.
6. Write a brief. Outline your main goals and objective: this is what we want to accomplish, this is how we want to do it, this is who we’re targeting, and this is the media we’re going to use. Your objective could be anything from announcing your presence to the press, build audience awareness, drive traffic to the web, increase donations. Map it, and set the measure for success.
7. Start Small. Let’s say this is your first time, and your objective is to increase traffic to the web or engagement time. I would set a specific period of time in which you do what you’re going to do like an email campaign. The point is that you can’t track how effective you are unless you state your objective. Don’t become discouraged. You’ll find that sometimes you’re very successful on the objective you’re seeking, or that you’re not successful in the area you wanted. Maybe you didn’t increase traffic on your website but the number of press mentions went up. Marketing is not an exact science, but increasingly you are able to measure things like web traffic.
8. Find a corporate “match.” If you are looking for corporate sponsorship for your non-profit, you first need to understand the corporate objective. Not all companies will fit your brand. Do some research to see what kind of community projects they support. Also, see what their competitors are doing, and present this information to the company you are approaching. This will further show them the benefit of partnering with your organization.
9. Make your logo your own. First you need to register your name, trademark, and your logo. You don’t want a situation that is fine at the beginning, but as you expand someone in Europe is already using your logo. So go on the web and look at trademark registration, it’s worth a few hundred dollars to do a basic registration.
10. Keep up with changing times. You need to keep vigilance that your message still resonates with your audience because they will grow and change as well, and then their focus will change. Be aware that you have to keep recruiting the audience or changing your position. And if it gets to the point where your brand isn’t working, that’s ok. The worst thing you can do is stop responding to the outside world.
11. Don’t make it all about you. People are mortal and you don’t want your organization to be mortal, you want it to last even when you are no longer around.