How do your members feel about your brand? When you talk about the organization does it reflect the way they feel? Do they feel affinity with the brand? Is it something they like associating themselves with? Do you even have a brand?

3 Articles on better branding

Brand building for any organization is tough. It’s a complex process because it’s your members that own the brand not you. If you are wondering how to build or leverage your organization’s brand here is a triad of articles that I published on SocialFish that can help you.

What is a brand?

A brand is a shortcut. It’s the combination of all ways your members think about your organization, products, events and offerings. It’s emotional too. How do members feel about you? When you see Disney what do you think and feel? That’s their brand. Your organization’s brand has 5 key elements: product, promise, look, voice and story. All to often we agonize over the look but there’s so much more to get right. 5 Elements Of Your Association’s Brand.

What is this I hear about rebranding?

Is it time for a brand facelift? Is your brand not serving you well? Organizations that have been around for decades often have legacy brands. Brands that look, sound and feel the same as they did decades ago. Is there an institutional or 1980’s-ish or a bureaucratic-feel to your brand? It may be time to update. As you get started on your rebranding initiative ask yourself the questions in this article: Your Brand Is Not A Logo.

How do I craft a brand story?

A big part of branding is being able to communicate the brand. What do you stand for? Why does this matter? Why should your members care (hint: they care about what is in it for them). Crafting a brand story is key. Often organizations write brand stories about the organization. Being decades old, being the premier, being the only; these things don’t galvanize members into action. What they want to know is what will membership do for me now? I have these goals to meet and these problems to solve. Can you help me? Ask yourself these kinds of questions and you will be on your way to Crafting A Better Brand Story.

Does your current brand connect with your members? Your organization’s brand can be a powerful tool that you can leverage to gain member attention, renewal and engagement.

Tuesday, June 17th at 4PM John Chen and I will be talking about “Boosting The Power Of Your Brand” at ASAE’s Membership, Marketing & Communication’s conference. I hope to see you there!