A personal ‘top of the list’ bugbear is the move to in-house desktop publishing… newsletters, posters, brochures, flyers. All of these can come out of your computer with a few quick keyboard strokes… but… just because you’ve got the software, doesn’t make you a graphic designer!

We’ve all seen them: marketing collateral laden with clip-art. And let’s not have one millimetre of white space. Let each paragraph use a different font. And to really ramp up the visual pollution, let’s make each of those fonts a different colour. Or… let’s not.

Let’s get ourselves a proper designer (they are generally not that expensive). One that we can build a solid ongoing long term relationship with so each time we use them they learn more about us and our business and can continue to add value over the coming days weeks months years.

Let’s add value to our brand. Let’s build our brand through well-designed collateral that has readability, visual appeal and strong messaging.

Creating innovative, effective, value-for-money visual stories a NFP or charity can deliver results. These stories can be used across a range of media for a range of purposes… for example:

• TVC for broadcast and mass media – for a specific fundraising campaign or general awareness
• Web video to tell your story in the online environment
• CD or DVD mailer – again as part of a specific campaign or to form part of your organisation’s standard marketing collateral
• The core of a social media campaign
• Event audio-visual display
• Presentation to potential supporters or stakeholders

Many NFP’s discount film as a medium because of the perceived cost but in many instances the potentially higher initial investment will return its value many times over… it is far more adaptable than a static piece of print collateral.

The list includes insight from the founder of an amazing organisation, Ashoka. Check them out here

A quick and dirty way to start the process of brand value determination is a word exercise. This is best done in a workshop format with your team.

Each person writes 10 words to describe the organisation. Each of these words can then be assessed against your vision or purpose… and thinking about which would be most powerful in the eyes of your target market. There should be no more than 5 or 6 on the final list.

Put some descriptions around those words – what do they mean? Describe what they mean to your target audience, and internally. For example if ‘innovative’ is one… what does that mean to your client? Try to come up with a sentence, a benefit statement from your customer’s perspective. Then come up with a descriptor for internal use… what does innovation mean in terms of team behaviour and outputs?

This exercise should put you firmly in a customer-centric space… and will also start to build a solid foundation for development of marketing collateral.

1. A logo

2. A style guide

3. A corporate identity manual

4. A product

A brand is a mixed up bundle of feelings that your business or organisation creates inside your customers, your potential customers, your stakeholders… everyone.

If a ‘brand’ is something that exists externally, how do we create it or at least exercise some degree of control over it?  We first define our brand values very clearly and concisely… the things we want our business or organisation to stand for.  And then we build a business based on those values, ensuring every aspect of our business reflects them.  That doesn’t just mean marketing collateral.  It means the way our premises look, the way our team speak to themselves and others, the way our phone is answered… everything.  How do we go about defining brand values?  More on this next week.

The good news, of course, is that many social media tools can put organisations with limited marketing budgets on a level playing field with the bigger marketing machines in the corporate world.

In the past, NFP’s have struggled to find the resources to fund above-the-line campaigns for the mass media world. With social media tools you can get big bang for your buck.  If you think smart and think creative, you can build a campaign that synergises efforts across a number of media and see huge results.  If you subscribe to the philosophy (and we certainly do) that the ‘new marketing’ is about building close, two-way and significant relationships with people who are already open to receiving your message, then social media is built for you and your organisation.

We will talk more about this in future posts… but if you have any burning questions, don’t hesitate to email or tweet us.

BrandRE is a small but experienced and committed brand development business. We believe a brand is not just a logo, and our work involves discovering, REthinking and REvitalising the brand values of each organisation we work with.  We strongly believe a brand is an income-generating asset and our work is focused on increasing the value of that asset… leading to an increase in the value of a business or organisation.

We are passionate about building memorable and charismatic brands.  We create brands based in logic and magic – building on a solid foundation of mutually agreed brand values and organisational vision, we utilise our creative skills to develop visually compelling marketing collateral that not only tells the organisational story, but also makes a solid contribution to the bottom line. We believe in measurable and quantifiable outcomes, both in brand valuation and marketing activities.

We have special rates for NFP’s and charities…  and are happy to do a few hours work pro bono to prove our credentials and value.  Not-for-profits and arts organisations are our key areas of expertise, and cause-related marketing is our passion.

BrandREad is where we will talk about things of current interest to the NFP, NGO and arts marketing worlds.   Every week!  Check back with us, or follow us on Twitter so you can get instant updates.