Regardless of where you are in terms of brand development, your brand must be actively managed (and if you’re not doing the management, your marketplace is doing it for you!). This session is designed to help organizations of all types and sizes: - Deliver on your brand…how to make sure that your board, staff, volunteers, etc. all can communicate and live your brand in a consistent, high impact manner. - Communicate your brand…building and executing a cost-effective integrated communications plan. - Measure success…how to know what’s working, and equally important, what’s not.

1. Getting the most out of your
branding and marketing communications
Michele Levy
www.brand-strat.com
Use Twitter Hashtag #npweb
Special Thanks To Our Sponsors

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3. Meet today’s speakers
• Presenter: Michele Levy, brand strategy consultant
• Hosting: Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership
• Assisting with chat questions: Chris Dumas,
FirstGiving

4. It’s a fact of (brand) life…
Regardless of where you are
in terms of brand development,
your brand must be actively managed
(and if you’re not
doing the management,
your marketplace is doing it for you!).

5. Agenda
• Delivering on your brand....how to make
sure that your board, staff, volunteers, etc.
all communicate and live your brand in a
consistent, high impact manner.
• Communicating your brand…building and
executing a cost-effective integrated
communications plan.

6. A caveat
Assuming that you have already
built a strong foundation…that you:
– Are clear on how you want to be perceived
– Understand what your target audience segments
need from you
– Understand what other resources you compete
with for your audiences’ time, attention and
affection

7. Delivering on your brand

8. "I reckon about 20 percent of a brand is
its physical attributes,
like a logo, color, letterheads.
The rest is all about behavior.
Employees bring a brand to life;
they are its ultimate custodians.”
-Ian Buckingham, Interbrand

9. “Internal branding is designed to instill employees with an
organization’s brand vision and provide them with the tools to
translate that vision to the customer.” (CMO Magazine)
“Internal branding is the process of aligning day-to-day
activities, business processes, job designs, and
recognition & rewards with the brand identity to drive
business results. It is part of a focused brand strategy
that helps employees understand and integrate brand
value(s) in their respective roles to ensure they can
effectively deliver on the brand promise.” (Edelman, Inc.)
“What goes on inside an organization is critical to any
branding effort; the employees are the organization and
embody the brand values. Without them, a brand is
merely a hollow shell, and it will be obvious to the world
that there’s nothing there to support it.” (Hampton
Bridwell, branding consultant)

10. It’s not easy…
• Challenges of internal branding
– Getting people’s attention (and in some cases, just getting
to them…think large volunteer or chapter-based orgs)
– Making the brand real for employees and other internal
stakeholders: clients, board members, donors
– Balancing competing needs, initiatives and priorities
– Helping people understand the value of changing their
ways
– Avoiding brand fatigue
• What’s fulfilling?
– Hearing when the message sticks, and when it inspires the
appropriate response
– Having a real influence on the organization
– Seeing the concrete results of a strong brand and
consistent brand behavior

11. A quick example…
• Ritz-Carlton's reputation represents "brand equity that
has built up over the years, obviously, and a lot of it is
defined by the service element that we offer.”*
• An increasingly competitive marketplace, even at the
higher end of the market (boutique luxury hotels,
excess inventory in many cities)
• Diminishing business travel budgets, decline in
personal travel
*Bruce Himelstein, Vice President, Marketing

12. “Putting on the Ritz”
• An empowered staff
– "Each person is responsible for finding and recording the
preferences of individual clients…so that they can get things
before the client even knows they need it. And each employee is
empowered to break away from whatever they're doing if a client
needs something. When you've built up that kind of culture over
the years, it all starts to stick.”
• A consistent approach
– "The Ritz-Carlton Basics," is 20 “rules to live by” every single
employee is expected to read, memorize and act upon
– The Three Steps of Service…Proffer a warm and sincere
greeting, using the client’s name; anticipate and comply with all
of the client’s needs; and offer a fond farewell, again using the
client’s name.
– "Never lose a client," warns Basic (rule) No. 13. "Instant client
pacification is the responsibility of each employee. Whoever
receives a complaint will own it, resolve it to the client’s
satisfaction and record it.”

13. And keeping it on…
Ongoing training and reinforcement
– Annual training and certification required
– Collective responsibility for overall quality of
experience (cleanliness, responsiveness, etc.)

14. A recent example from the
nonprofit world

15. Some best practices
• Great PR coverage (just google it)
• A consistent set of talking points
• A comprehensive brand style guide
• Pre-launch and post-launch webinars
• Good balance of consistency and flexibility
• Ongoing support

16. So how can you do it???

17. Cover all the touchpoints
• Your brand perception results from every single
experience or contact a person has with your
organization.
• You build that brand perception on four key
foundational elements:
– A set of relevant, consistent core messages;
– A visual brand identity (logo, fonts, color palette, imagery)
that effectively (and efficiently) communicates the essence of
your brand;
– An agreed-upon set of consistent brand behaviors;
– An integrated plan to communicate the brand across all
touchpoints.

18. Provide a messaging and
visual foundation
• Context (why we dedicate resources to building our brand)
• Goals/objectives (what we hope to accomplish through
our marketing communications efforts)
• Competitive landscape (what other options do our
supporters have?)
• Audience insights (who are we communicating with?)
• Brand promise (internal rallying cry)
• Elevator pitch (answer to the question “who are you?”)
• Proof points (reasons to believe that elevator pitch)
• Message matrix (approved versions of messages to be
used as secondary points when talking with audience
segments)
• Brand personality (what’s it like to interact with us?)

19. Provide a messaging and
visual foundation
• Brand book
• Style guides/templates
• Samples of all creative

20. Translate brand attitudes into action
Brand attitude (“”I WILL”) Employee actions (“I DO”)
• "I appreciate your • Greet the client with
business.” enthusiasm. Use the client's
name.
• "I will devote my full • Focus on the client. Stop other
attention to your needs.” activities. Listen, and ask
clarifying questions.
• "I will take ownership of • Transfer the client no more
your needs.” than once; the first transfer will
own the issue.
• "I will be knowledgeable • Provide the client with insight
and professional.” and information to help him
achieve his goals.
• "I will be responsive to • Fulfill commitments in a timely
your questions and fashion. Recognize that the
requests." client's time is valuable.

21. OK…
but how do you bring it to life??

22. Behind every strong brand,
there’s a brand champion
• SOMEONE with the vision and clout to make it really
happen…and keep it happening
• SOMEONE who owns the brand and cares
passionately about its successful development and
maintenance
• Probably not at the Executive Director level
(although they have to clearly sponsor and support
the effort)
• Requires a strong presence, effective negotiation
skills, attention to detail, pragmatism and an
understanding of how to pick your battles!

23. Use the brand champions in your midst
• Identify internal and external stakeholders who “get it”
– They epitomize the brand
– They are well-respected
– They are enthusiastic about the organization and brand
– They embrace change
• Let them lead at the local level
– Crucial part of the initial discovery process, rollout and
ongoing measurement
– They understand and can help communicate context
and relevance
• Say thank you, conspicuously
– Reinforces their positive impact
– Encourages others to do the same

24. Make brand matter
• Make a little noise…
– Take a moment: An event (staff meeting, offsite
planning session, etc.)
– Share the tools: brand style guide, templates, FAQs
– Make it memorable: branded giveaway
• Maintain some volume…
– Brand training workshops
– Integrate into new hire orientation, etc.
– Incorporate brand updates into staff meetings,
leadership team meetings, internal communications

25. The goal…
everyone’s a brand champion
• Identify and “manage” naysayers
– Listen to them
– Respect their opinions
– Ignore them at your peril
• Help everyone understand their role as champions
of the brand
• Give them the stories, factoids, etc. that best
illustrate the brand
• Address issues as they arise

26. Remember to train your board
• They are some of your most passionate and
connected supporters (at least they should be)
• Include them in the brand rollout
• Make regular reports on progress of the rollout and
success against metrics

27. Give them the stories
• Framingham: A welcoming community (“where you
start the American dream”)
• Framingham: The classic American middle-class
town/the power of diversity
• Framingham: A vital crossroads
• Framingham: A tradition of volunteerism
• Framingham: An economic engine for the region
• Framingham’s place in the history of the nation

28. Build the brand through those stories
Campinelli
• Framingham: A welcoming First Catholic church
community (“where you start the Immigrants then and now
American dream”) Refugees
• Framingham: The classic Academy
American middle class town/the Clinton visit
power of diversity
• Framingham: A vital crossroads Railways, water, highways
• Framingham: A tradition of Heart Study, militia, veterans
volunteerism
• Framingham: An economic Mills; corporations then and now
engine for the region “Creative economy” effort
Bonnets
• Framingham’s place in the
history of the nation

29. A quick sidebar on consistency
• Consistency = impact
• Think about it…if your communications are not
consistent (look and feel, as well as tone and
messaging), you are reintroducing yourself every
single time
• There is room for variety, for versioning by type of
product, by audience, etc.
– But there has to be a master plan!
• Consistency is NOT boring for your stakeholders
– One of the biggest mistakes organizations make?
They get bored with their brand and want to change it

30. Critical success factors
• Help people connect the dots to the bigger picture…Why are we doing this? How will
it impact the organization?
• Make it relevant to them…Why it is important to me that we have a strong, visible
brand?
• Reassure them that this does not mean a change in the mission (unless, of course, it
does)
• Make it easy to “do it the right way” and hard to “do it the wrong way”
• Keep it top of mind
• Keep it coming from the top
• Show you mean it (correct brand misbehaviors, consider killing off an effort that’s
clearly not on brand, etc)
• Be consistent…but adapt as organizational goals and external factors change. And
never adapt in a vacuum.
• Pick your battles. Carefully.
• Measure, recognize, reward.
• Brand never sleeps.

31. For example…
Why does brand matter to you
and your staff?
• Efficiency: faster to create the communications tools you
already need to create (no need to make it up every time!)
• Impact: a strong master brand, and clear linkage between
your services and that master brand, allows you to build
greater prominence for your services
• Focus: like an effective mission, a strong brand can help
staff stay focused on what’s most important to the
organization
• Momentum: the strongest brands become increasingly
compelling to those most important to you

32. Communicating your brand
(the abridged version)

33. Now tell your brand story…
• An effective communications plan is:
– Targeted….you’re not wasting money reaching people
not in your target audience
– Holistic…”surrounding” that target with a variety of
media likely to reach them
– Compelling….with a strong call to action
– Integrated….reflected across all your touchpoints
– Measurable…grounded in strategic goals and
evaluated against those goals

34. Sample: Plan table of contents
• Brand blueprint (elevator pitch, message matrix, proof points,
brand attributes, etc.)
• Target audience (who your audience segments are, their needs
and expectations)
• Competitive landscape (a brief overview of alternative options
available to your served populations and supporters)
• Communications goals (what you want your activities to
accomplish)
• Communications strategies (the high level ways you plan to
accomplish your goals)
• Communications tactics (specific activities you will engage in,
with timing)
• Measurement and evaluation (how you plan to track results)
• Budget
• Editorial calendar
• Communications calendar

35. SAMPLE: Communications strategies
Leverage the opening Continue to build the
(and related activities) relationship with those
PHASE I to re-engage with who re-engage as a
current stakeholders result of opening
activities
Leverage exhibits and Continue to build the
PHASE II re-installation to begin relationships…
to engage with new:
New stakeholders from
current audiences, as
well as new audiences
June - September October - December Spring semester
Ongoing Brand awareness activities (buzz)

36. Sample: Marketing communications tactics
Leverage opening celebration (and related Continue to build the relationship with those
activities) to re-engage with current who re-engage as a result of opening activities
PHASE I stakeholders
Print collateral eNewsletter (3x/year, all) NOTE: throughout, make
TACTICS Invitations to opening with targeted phone follow up eBlasts (as relevant, all)
Guide to the Reinstallation Events
every effort to track results in
Flyers/posters Museum printed piece (replaces order to have a better
Friends of Art brochure Calendar of Events, ready to mail understanding of what’s
E-collateral October)
Evite working, and what’s not (and
e-flyers to adjust tactics as
e-flyer for Family Day necessary). Each tactic will
Signage (decisions to be made)
Kiosk support a different tracking
Banner/windows mechanism:
Sandwich boards • Track press success with
Plasma Screen
Campus Center signage press clips
Media • Track print advertising and
Paid media (see page 18) arts calendar via data
Press Releases
Calendar Listings collection with on-site events
E-communications form.
Newsletters, as appropriate • Track events listing via click
Other
Personal attendance at meetings with targeted academic,
through to web site (make
administration and union sure event is listed on site!)
Letter writing campaign to targeted groups
First – Year Orientation Aug 27
June - September October - December
Ongoing Brand awareness activities (buzz)

37. If you do nothing else…

38. How do I know it’s working?

39. Well….what were your goals?
• Clarify your success metrics (tangible and intangible)
• Tie the metrics to strategic goals
• Think broadly and creatively (e.g. visitor traffic, referral
volume, inbound inquiries, hits to Web site)
• Set reasonable timeframes, based on communications
volume and timing
• Measure against your own baseline, as well as industry
benchmarks
• Keep the dialogue going internally and externally
– Understanding and acceptance of brand, messaging,
communications tactics, etc.
• Track what works and what doesn’t, then refine as
appropriate