Monday, October 22, 2012
The Smallest Nonprofits Should Have The Most Powerful Brands
Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation: Red. Charity:Water. Toms Shoes. These are just a few of the big brands that engage millions in efforts to address some aspect of poverty at the global level. But at the local level, a lack of strong branding means small grassroots groups don’t get the credit they deserve for being the world’s frontline soldiers in the struggle against poverty.
There’s plenty of discussion and research about the growing role of branding for large nonprofits based in wealthy countries--see Harvard’s Hauser Center for the Study of Nonprofits or a long article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review from spring of 2012. But among smaller groups in the developing world, the lack of time, money, and understanding remain major obstacles to branding at their level.
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4 comments:
I agree. I do think the little homegrown organizations could use brand names. It helps the smaller and lesser known companies form more of an identity, which is essential for their growth in a smaller community, which will eventually lead to their growth in a larger community. I think it's also wonderful that there are nonprofit organizations helping other nonprofit organizations, because without these groups helping each other, they'd have a harder time growing. It takes one to give to help the other give even more to the communities. I think of all the smaller community theatres and how identifiable they are by their names and where they would be without names. Including brand names brings in a stronger sense of community I think, which can be connected back to theatre, because that is a large part of theatre is all about.
I think branding is important regardless of what you do. Its how people know and view you. When the recession first happened, big companies like Walmart and Giant started a trend of changed their branding. They chose softer, less edgier or linear fonts. They also chose lighter colors instead of darker ones. They did that as a reaction to seem friendlier in a hard time.
It's so important because it is how the public "knows" you.
I agree tremendously that sometimes, in order to make a name for yourself, you must focus a good amount of energy on your branding, whereas, how you present yourself to the world. And I feel that with small non for profits especially, it is imperative to communicate your message clearly and concisely to the world- because you must make sure the world knows what you are about. I think that also, some of the smallest non for profits could possibly have the most specific missions, and could therefor be the most helpful to the world. Branding therefor is tremendously important, granted, branding in a way that is promoting all that your mission entails, not just making it familiar and thus likeable to the world around you.
I agree with this article, but I think it will be difficult for most small non-profits to get this kind of marketing out into the world. They can use different tactics to do that, but will they have the time and money to pay a marketing manager? Maybe a head of Marketing should be one of the more important roles in a small non-profit organization. Typically non-profit work revolves around an idea, or a type of work, so that is where all the time is given. Starting any company is hard. Starting a company with no money and no hope of making any would be terrifying.
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