Branding Challenges

Branding Only Looks Easy

Branding looks easy. Everything appears to be straightforward; a pastor just needs to come up with a good name, a creative logo, and a catchy slogan. In reality, however, creating and building brands are two of the greatest challenges – and most important challenges – a pastor will face. For every James River, Willow Creek or Saddleback, there are hundreds of sorry excuses for church brands. There are a lot of reasons why creating a powerful brand is challenging but the core issues are the same. The key challenges are cash, consistency, and clutter.

The Challenge of Cash

The challenge of cash is dealing with short-term financial goals, in your case, having to deal with retiring debt and the incumbent pressure of having to deliver short-term results. But the problem is that brands are long-term assets.

Virtually all of an organization’s brand value is in the future, but the name change and brand migration is something we have to do now. We could do a name change and re-branding initiative that in the short run is very successful, but in the process create some very negative long-term issues if we are not careful.

In the long-term, a weak brand creates disappointing results. A ministry is put in the position of having to implement more short-term dog and pony shows to keep the organization afloat, and this continues the doom loop, sending the brand into a dangerous downward spiral.

Dealing with short-term financial conditions is one of the most critical challenges of branding. We want to do a successful re-branding campaign but not at the expense of building a long-term brand.

The Challenge of Consistency

The second challenge of brand management is consistency, or getting an entire organization to embrace the brand and live up to the brand promise. It’s not enough for the pastor to understand the DNA of the brand. If the church doesn’t understand, believe in, and own the brand – if it’s not consistent – the vision will remain unfulfilled.

A brand has a lot of touch points. Every time a pastor gets up to preach, or the musicians lead in praise and worship, or a greeter welcomes a person to a Celebration Service, a touch point is created where people interact with your brand and they form associations. This means that almost every person in the church and every detail of the church experience has an impact on the brand. From the way you answer a phone to the feel of your business card, the way your leaders do business in the marketplace to how difficult it is for people to find the church office – everything – it’s all part of the brand.

In short, a church will succeed by offering the congregation a consistent experience with their brand at every touch point. Consistency matters, and it matters at every turn.

The Challenge of Clutter

The third great challenge of branding is clutter. We live in an over-communicated society. Consumers are bombarded every day by thousands of jingles, promotions, and ploys. Breaking though this clutter is a tough assignment. It’s hard to get anyone to pay attention to your brand, and really tough to get them to make any meaningful associations. To stand out, the church brand needs to be razor focused and different. Strategic focus and out-of-the-box creativity are essential as a ministry begins to roll out its new brand: without both its brand will be lost in the clutter.

Steeple provides fund raising and organizational development services to faith-based and community-based organizations of the nonprofit sector. Our efforts are dedicated to putting nonprofit managers and trustees in touch with the tools and resources they need to develop their organizations and to conduct successful capital campaigns. Our work with clients is for the long-term—to build internal capacity, to create brand equity, and to attract and retain funding. Since 2007, we’ve helped nonprofit organizations like yours raise more than $14 million.

• Add to Delicious
• Add Delicious
• Click to Stumbleupon
• Click Stumbleupon
• Tweet this
• Tweet
• Share on Facebook
• Share on Facebook