- 1. Win over the sceptics
- 2. Use multiple channels of internal communication and roll out the new brand face-to-face with workshops or presentations.
- 3. Ensure your senior management team are visibly involved
- 4. Create inspiring values that are easy to remember
- 5. Make sure staff and volunteers can sum up your charity on the spot
- 6. Bring your brand to life
- 7. Recruit Brand Champions and set up a Brand Steering Group
- 8. Give staff and partners tools to manage the brand and protect your Intellectual Property in contract
- 9. Make sure staff behaviour and customer service matter
- 10. Create an effective creative briefing process and monitor your brand at regular intervals
6. Bring your brand to life.
You should bring your brand to life to help staff remember what lies at the heart of the organisation. Posters promoting your vision, mission and values are a cheap and cost-effective way to spread the word across the organisation. It is also well worth illustrating your values with examples in internal communications.
If staff struggle to understand your values you may wish to consider exploring them in workshops.
At the heart of every great brand is a compelling story. When we buy Nike shoes we are also buying a story rooted in the history of sporting endeavour, and a chance ‘to win’. Similarly Harley-Davidson doesn’t just sell motorbikes, but the story of you as a Hell’s Angel on the open road. In comparison Cancer Research UK provide supporters the opportunity to ‘beat cancer’ and the NSPCC to ‘end cruelty to children’.
Thinking of brands as a story or a character is powerful stuff. I may feel I am being descriptive if I say my brand is crusading, rebellious and charismatic. But being rebellious can mean different things to different people. We assume common understanding, when in reality our vision of the brand could be fundamentally at odds. If however, I said my brand is Robin Hood, the champion of the underdog, everything becomes clear, all ambiguity is removed. Everyone understands the character and the values of the brand. Workshops where staff can explore the brand through characters and story telling are a great way to bring a brand to life.