Brand Communication
Are you sharing it with the right people? Is it motivating? Are you prepared if and when your brand is tested in the Court of Public Opinion?
- Your story is untold. Or it’s more like a mess than a message that motivates.
- When the threat of a crisis poses a risk, a loss, service disruption, damage to stakeholders.
- When you want to increase the value of your brand.
Crisis Response & Preparedness
Crisis response and preparedness is a signature expertise at LBH. As our senior counselor, Jon Higgins brings 30+ years of hands-on expertise. He has offered guidance at the highest levels of client organizations for intensely complex situations including contaminated food; product and safety issues; aviation disaster; campus unrest; and workplace violence, to single out a few.
Although we are frequently brought in when a crisis is in full bloom, our preference is to follow a process that has served clients well. First, intake sessions that produce a Heat Map that identifies and calibrates organizational vulnerabilities with likelihood; and a Central Narrative, our master guidebook containing the approved messaging and responses to stakeholder (including funder) groups in various scenarios. Finally, Media Training, in which we anticipate the worst and practice, practice, practice to achieve the best outcome.
We believe it is a best practice to involve sector experts, where appropriate. We maintain close ties with several top academic institutions, including Johns Hopkins University, where third-party expertise could potentially be tapped if that is deemed helpful.
Services Include:
Response
– 24/7 Triage
– Media Stewardship
– Constituent Communication
– Issues Counsel (often in parallel with legal)
Preparedness
– Heat Map, scenario assessment & planning
– Media Training
Building a Purpose Driven Brand. The Central Narrative Checklist
Brand Purpose
First, we need agreement on why we exist and why others should care.
“Why” engages our entire team and creates a meaningful connection with all of our stakeholders. It should have an emotional hook that conveys our authentic purpose. When our brand has a clear purpose, it will help us:
- Attract and retain exceptional talent
- Create an engaged community of followers
- Protect our core values
- Establish a foundation for financial stability and growth
+
Brand Vision
A clear Brand Vision is the roadmap to where our brand will continue to grow, continue to be relevant and win in the future marketplace.
Having a clear vision helps us determine our growth goals and will directly influence our business decisions. A bold vision should challenge and motivate but must be realistic and attainable. A compelling vision helps us:
- Dream big (but realistically) and inspire
- Make meaningful business decisions
- Stay “on brand”
+
Brand Values
What we believe, what we stand for, and, if necessary, fight for to protect. The “How” to Purpose’s “Why.”
These core values will help us create and maintain a culture that is a true reflection of our brand. In action, they comprise the heart and soul of our authentic brand reputation. As with Purpose and Vision, Brand Values are central to guiding our brand internally
+
Target Audiences
Identifying our audiences (or stakeholders), is easy. Understanding what motivates and influences them is the key because they, not us, are the keepers of our brand. Knowing them well gives us the best opportunity to address their problems and needs with relevant solutions.
Arguably the most important stakeholders are our Brand Ambassadors, those groups and individuals who have the most influence on our reputation.
Understanding our target audiences, their relationship to our brand (or lack of) is fundamental to establishing and positioning our brand in their hearts and minds. We must be as targeted in our research – and subsequent outreach – as resources will allow.
+
Brand Promise
A brand promise is the core problem we aim to solve for our target audience. It’s the sense of trust and connection we want people to feel when they think about our brand. To put it simply, a brand promise is what we want to be known for.
This is how we infuse meaning into our branding. Make a promise to our target audiences and deliver on it, consistently. It’s how we establish trust.
Good branding emphasizes the value and satisfaction people from experiencing our brand.
+
Brand Positioning
Armed with the above (what makes us compelling and special), now we must identify gaps and unmet needs in the marketplace. This isn’t guesswork. These opportunities are fact-based and uncovered by studying our competitive landscape. What aspects of our service offering provides a higher value and are objectively better than our competitors?
Analyzing the marketplace will help us differentiate our brand from the pack. We may also uncover uncontested opportunities.
Brand positioning ties together our brand promise and differentiation.
Positioning is how we define our place in the market. We can’t be generalists. We must do the hard work to figure out how our business is uniquely positioned to deliver the right solution to the right audience(s). .
What makes us stand out? What are we doing that direct competitors aren’t? How can we go a step further to make the customer experience special and memorable?
+
Goals & Measurement/OKRs
A purpose driven growth strategy is achieved by reaching our goals. Transformation occurs when we surpass them. This requires a planning and measurement system. We recommend the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) methodology for establishing clear, measurable steps for achieving our planned goals.
OKRs:
- Inspire confidence that everyone is working together
- Measure progress that is clear and unambiguous
- Focus everyone on the important, not the urgent
- Allow for a transparent view of what everyone is working on
- Are the same for a brand, a team or individuals
Brand Personality and Voice
Both should flow authentically from our brand values and culture. A Brand Personality is a fundamental requirement only for start-ups or dead brands in need of an overhaul.
It is a way to overtly humanize a brand in order to establish a connection with audiences, so above all, it must be a genuine reflection of a brand’s essence.
+
Strapline
The single, memorable line that summarizes our brand purpose, culture and experience to our key stakeholders
=
The Central Brand Narrative
Our master document. Our North Star. The Central Brand Narrative is exactly what it sounds like — the story that shapes our values and differentiation. Storytelling and messaging that helps us connect with our audiences on a deeper level and motivates them to stay engaged.
Why and who are we? What makes us unique? What has and continues to inspire us? How do we live our values? What obstacles and victories made us who we are today?
Good brand stories include a call to action that is tailored to our target audiences. Stories employ the right perspective to get a positive reaction. All our other brand elements expand and reinforce this story, so we can build lasting relationships and true engagement.
It’s true. If you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t need Waze or Google Maps. Purpose-led businesses grow twice as fast as those without.
Our journey together begins with tools to understand how your key audiences perceive your organization’s strengths and weaknesses. We identify opportunities as well as vulnerabilities. We uncover the messaging that will motivate (and those that irritate). We will help define and instill your Why into everything you do. Your What (Mission) and your Way (how you deliver through your unique values and principles). The result is a Strategic Growth Plan, backed by a simple but muscular measurement system that reinforces a culture of accountability while ensuring the urgent does not usurp what’s important.
The Case for the Value of a Purpose-Driven Brand in Non-Profit >
Partner with us when:
-
Your Strategic Growth Plan is collecting dust.
-
You’re considering a capital campaign, a marketing campaign or both.
-
You’re surrounded by the pack, not leading it.
The Case for the Value of a Purpose-Driven Brand in Non-Profit
Back in the old days, let’s say a decade or more ago, the primary goal of a brand in the nonprofit sector centered on communication for a single purpose – fundraising. Nonprofit leaders believed that a greater share of visibility and favorable positioning relative to competitors would equate to successful fundraising. Branding, therefore, was a kind of bolt-on tool for managing the external perception of an organization.
Today, the enlightened nonprofit sees the transformative effect of a brand, especially a Purpose- driven brand, when it is at the core of an organization, expressing its Purpose, Mission, relevance to its stakeholders, methods of Engagement and its values.
In the for-profit world, marketing professionals speak of creating “an immersive brand experience.” In the nonprofit world, our lingua franca begins with the “Why,” the “What,” the “Who” and the “How.”
Sound squishy? Let’s put it in commercial terms:
- A Purpose-driven brand engenders trust. This allows organizations to harness more and better resources. Trust provides credibility – the authority to have more freedom and flexibility for how these resources are deployed. Because nonprofit organizations rely on establishing trust with many external audiences, doing what you say you do and being who you say you are, is essential
- Thus, a Purpose-driven brand helps organizations acquire financial, human and social resources, and build key partnerships
- A Purpose-driven brand helps attract partners – potential collaborators, investors, acquisitions – because a strong brand brings greater credibility and trust – two irreplaceable values that act as irresistible magnets. It acts as a catalyst for the best people to want to come to the table
- A Purpose-driven brand is better able to withstand the vagaries of an increasingly volatile, unpredictable marketplace because it is grounded in a long-term Vision and Strategic Plan. Key stakeholders are all-in. You can flex easily to immediate needs and opportunities. If you don’t know where you’re going and why you are relevant, you are wasting time and money and you don’t have a brand
- The result of alignment in Purpose, Mission, Stakeholder Engagement and Values is a clear brand positioning and increased buy-in among diverse constituencies. When an organization’s network of employees, volunteers, members, donors all embrace a common brand identity, it creates Organizational Cohesion, concentrates its Mission and shared values. A Purpose-driven brand is the single greatest asset an organization has because it keeps everyone together while moving forward
Strong cohesion and high levels of trust contribute mightily to greater organizational capacity (the ability to get things done) and societal impact. A cohesive organization is able to make more efficient and focused use of existing resources. High external trust attracts additional talent, financing and authority. This increase in organizational capacity enhances an organization’s social impact. By leveraging the trust of partners, beneficiaries, and policymakers, an organization can make greater strides in achieving its mission.
On the flip side, those organizations that face challenges in terms of internal organizational coherence, or the erosion of trust (because of mismanagement, scandal, misperceptions) struggle across the board.
In Summary:
The rise of the Purpose-driven brand suggests a new role for directors and trustees of nonprofit organizations in the stewardship of their brand. Rather than asking how brand management is contributing to revenue-generating activities such as fundraising, Boards and potential donors alike are beginning to question, rightfully, how the brand is aligned with the Mission, Values and Strategy of an organization. They are asking about the alignment of image and identity, and they are asking about the contribution of brand to internal alignment and buy-in as well as to external trust.
Perhaps more importantly, Boards and potential donors are asking about the role of the brand in enhancing operational capacity, related efficiencies and, ultimately, driving social impact. They are asking for proof of effectiveness i.e. how brand management at these organizations measure increases in commitment and pride among staff and other key stakeholders, for example. Alert leaders of nonprofits are vigilant about regularly checking for alignment with its Vision, probing for signs that mission drift has been reduced and that choices about which projects, resources, and partnerships to pursue are aligned with Purpose and have been easier to make. A strong brand should increase both the speed and breadth of consensus decisions.
A strong Purpose-driven brand creates sustainable organizational cohesion. In today’s increasingly complicated and complex world, that’s a good thing.
Organizational Engagement
When Purpose, Mission and your Way conspire, it inspires and there is Engagement.
Nothing good lasts in a business without it. Our approach to OE is to make it authentic and enduring. Sustainable growth is about people and interdependence, not transactions. We can help you optimize your Operational Structure; expand your Service Offering to tap new revenue streams; stimulate excitement and forge deeper loyalty through both Talent and Client Engagement strategies; power up a multi-faceted Business Development engine. Each component is efficiently aligned with your Purpose-Driven Growth Plan.
Partner with us when:
- The fizz in the stakeholder champagne has fizzled.
- The other guys are winning.
- Who’s on 1st. Maybe is on 2nd, Sometimes on 3rd.
- When the Org is soaring – stay in that Jetstream!
Truth, perception and reality. These are complicated times. We believe the key to effective communication is understanding.
This is why everything we do is grounded in research. What do people believe? What do they really care about? What will inspire them to care about what you have to say? We’ll show you how to identify actionable insights, and how to transform change across the breadth of the organization.
My friend (and peerless measurement and evaluation partner) David likes to say, “It doesn’t count if you can’t count it. But not everything you can count counts.” We love data. We love a metric. Facts are impeccable.
Partner with us when:
- You need a problem-solving partner.
- Your big ideas are blowing up on the launch pad instead of blowing the doors off.
- You’re not getting “it” done.