|
****
Durham: A great exercise to get leadership on board: Try looking at your peers' websites together, then yours, and see how you compare.
****
Durham: Any organization (small/big) can rebrand — it’s a question of how robust the help you’ll get will be.
****
Durham: Hiring an experienced pro to facilitate the process may be smoother than doing it in-house with limited resources/experience, but both can work.
McFadden: Yes, but outside consultants often carry more weight with the board and executive director than insider, Sarah.
****
Durham: Types of useful research to inform branding: interviews with board and staff leadership, online surveys to all staff and volunteers, calls to donors, landscape of peers.
Be sure to ask your audiences how they like to communicate. For instance, do your clients use Facebook? If so, maybe you should reach them there.
****
Q: How do you know if your organization needs to rebrand?
Durham: Most organizations rebrand in times of change. For instance, when it’s time to reach a new donor base, programs have changed or strategic planning has shifted the focus of the work.
****
Durham: Too often branding is viewed as just a logo, but I’d argue that it’s the entire way your organization communicates … PLUS the reputation you’ve got.
Even the way you abbreviate your org’s name has branding implications. Acronyms are often bad — they are insider-speak.
****
Davey: Executive buy-in is critical. I was fortunate to have strong support, but I also saw attention can wander and some second-guessing after the rebrand was in action.
****
Durham: When considering rebranding, try to identify, through research, where you’ve got equity. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater by changing the parts that people know you for that are working. Instead, plug the gaps in your communications and refine the things that can be better.
McFadden: Rebranding requires discipline — toeing the line about look/feel/speak once the work is done. There must be a gatekeeper, preferably several to act as guard on what’s been developed, designed and launched.
Companies Mentioned:
 |
|
