Telling your story helps create your brand
A brand is arguably an organisation’s most vital asset. It’s a customers’ first touch point with the organisation, and first impressions matter. Its job is to represent the values, ethics, and ultimately, what the company or product stands for. It’s no wonder then that some of the most successful organisations have invested substantial resources into developing a strong brand.
Having a powerful brand is important in any sector but never more so than for charities, as they arguably have to work that much harder to grab people’s attention and more importantly, evoke change.
While FMCG or fashion brands also have to battle it out for consumer attention, in the end they have something to offer - a product or a service. Ultimately, if a consumer is thirsty, they will buy a drink. The challenge for drinks brands for example, is to simply sway the choice between one drink to another. For charities however, the challenge to sway the decision between one to the other is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Less experiential
What charities are ultimately asking people to do, is something they don’t "need" to do, at a cost to them – whether it be donating items, time or money. Simply put, charities are less experiential as the benefit experienced by the donor by giving their money or time remains intangible. This is where a strong brand starts to play a key part in a charity’s success, by offering a visual touch point which can instantly do that all important thing. Tell a story.
The ultimate goal for a charity is to get people to stop and think, and to stir their emotions enough to win their support, subsequently leading them to action. Therefore the importance of having a strong brand is becoming increasingly recognised by many charities, but it’s not an easy task to undertake.
Ultimately, the rules for branding a charity are the same as in any other sector. Furthermore, like a number of industries, the third sector is also incredibly noisy. There are so many charities supporting so many different causes both locally and globally, all fighting for the public’s attention. It simply becomes impossible for people to make a quiet choice, so more often than not, they go for the one they have heard of rather than one that they would otherwise choose.
Herein lies the challenge for charities - the brand they create needs to not only be strong enough to catch people’s attention but also garner a deeper relationship. They are effectively asking for greater commitment and unlike consumer brands, charities rarely have the opportunity or the resources to offer supporters an experiential element. So what do charities need to keep in mind?
A story is only as good as the storyteller. Before you can develop a brand, you have to be clear about what you want to say. Charities need to make sure they develop a defined purpose, with a clear mission and a strong set of values, which will help people instantly understand what the charity is trying to do and why it is trying to do it. Alongside this comes the need for a clear personality and tone of voice, which will help the public understand why they should get involved.
Easily comprehend
Once a charity has a clear purpose, it then becomes about building a narrative which people can easily comprehend and trust. Clarity and consistency help to establish and maintain a sense of trust which is crucial for any charity and a key factor in creating the emotional pull, as it helps drive people to donate their time and money to a cause. But, as with all good stories there is a subtle balance between emotion and logic which must be maintained. Too logical and people won’t care. Too emotional and they’ll feel pressured.
While an emotive tone of voice is crucial, there is still a need for charities to maintain the logical stance of cause-problem-solution, helping drive supporters to action and offering a brand experience that makes them feel like they’re part of something bigger.
There are some charities which are brilliant at offering that wider experience to the public. Think about those which have developed events, dedicated days, runs, dress codes. All of which have grown to become part of something people can really engage with and are proud to show their support for. A group of friends wear onesies to work to raise money. A family runs 15k in memory of their dad. A superstar takes a selfie soaking wet, after throwing a bucket of ice-water over themselves.
All of these become touch points with an organisation – reasons to engage, trust and then action because you support the cause, and not just because you’ve heard of the charity.
Once you have clarified the purpose and audience, and established what the charity stands for, you can develop a tone of voice and messaging that communicate the brand. What a charity represents will form a key part of this messaging and way of communicating with the public. Those representing vulnerable groups such as children, elderly people and animals are most likely to go down the emotive route. It plays on the natural human instinct to want to protect such groups. It fits.
Different approach
A charity representing a disease may take a totally different approach as its purpose and the thing it is representing is very different. Cultivating a "we can beat this together" attitude amongst viewers is a trend one is noticing a number of charities within this sector adopting. It really seeks to get people behind a cause as a united group to bring an end to a disease or condition, which arguably is not self inflicted or inflicted by other people, but rather something that we can’t necessarily control. It makes people want to be part of something bigger. Again, it fits.
However, developing a brand is not always that simple for many charities. They have to have the resource needed to not only craft a strong brand but also stick to it. Furthermore, measuring brand success for a charity is not as clear as in the private sector. A drinks company relaunches its brand - sales rise; social engagement climbs; and the share price rises. A success by anyone’s standards. But for a charity, measuring the success of a brand is as much about positive advocacy and consumer participation as it is about financial donations.
Overall, what charities have to keep in mind when looking to create a brand, or indeed rebrand, is that success will be equally about boosting brand awareness and presence within the marketplace, as it will be about increasing donations. And while it may be harder to measure the overall success, it by no means makes it ignorable. A brand will act as a window into the charity. It tells its story to the world. And whoever said “never judge a book by its cover”, clearly never put much faith in their story.
