Nonprofit Brand Strategy, Positioning and Messaging

Author: Jono Smith on 9 February 2011 | 1 Comments

You wouldn't know it from looking at my bookshelf, but I hate marketing books. The one exception is just about anything Marty Neumeier writes.

His book Zag: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands is the best handbook I've read on positioning and differentiation. Instead of a theorist's view from the outside, Zag is a whiteboard-style overview of how to position and differentiate your organization or fundraising event.

Marty's publishes several of the insights from his book in a blog series called Steal This Idea.  Three of my favorite are his frameworks on brand strategy, positioning, and messaging.

Marty on Brand Strategy:

Brand strategy is really just a way of thinking about business. And since thinking is virtually free, it requires little in the way of special funding. Here are four questions to help you work through the recession, along with a simple chart to start the conversation among your team.

1. What makes you different?
The active ingredient in any brand is differentiation. If it’s not different, it’s not strategic. What can you do to increase your difference? How can you make your difference more meaningful and compelling?

2. How well are you focused?
Without focus, customers will have a hard time seeing your difference. What makes you the “only” in your category? Which of your offerings best support your difference? Which should be cut to make your focus stronger? What new offerings could be added as you pick up momentum?

3. What trend are you riding?
Tomorrow’s economy will create new trends. What wave are you riding? Is it a wave that’s still forming, or one that’s already crashed on the shore? Is it possible to ride more than one trend at a time? What new trends are barely visible yet inevitable?

4. Are you communicating clearly?
Good strategy paired with poor messaging is no better than poor strategy. What messages are your various constituents hearing from you? Do all your brand stories add up to one big story? Is your big story clear enough and bold enough to earn a place in their minds?

If you can respond to these four questions in a compelling manner, you’ll not only survive the recession, but be in a stronger market position when the dust settles. All it takes is the right kind of thinking.

Marty on Brand Positioning:

[Nonprofits] need positioning because customers have choices—and if you don’t stand out, you lose. Positioning is what differentiates a brand in the customer’s mind. To win the positioning game answer this simple question: What makes you the “only”?

The problem is, answering such a simple question isn’t that easy. One way to approach it is to think about why your brand matters. At Neutron, we take our clients through a series of steps to discover what makes them the only, which is nothing less than a journey to the core of their business. Remember, you can’t advertise your way to onliness—you have to start with it.

Use this simple slide in your next strategy meeting to get the conversation going about what makes you the only. You’ll be surprised how quickly you start talking about the things that really matter.

This isn’t the only way to find a powerful position in the market, but no matter how you get there, if you can’t say why your brand is both different and compelling in a few words, don’t fix your statement… fix your company.

Marty on Brand Messaging:

Ever wondered how a mission statement relates to a tagline, whom a purpose statement matters to, or what a trueline is?

Developing effective brand messaging is a complex task, but it’s crucial to articulate your brand’s value proposition to everyone—from employees to vendors to customers. Strong, clear messaging emanates from a strong, clear purpose. A carefully considered messaging system allows you to dramatize the uniqueness of your brand and spread the word effectively.

Use this simple slide to help illustrate how your brand’s messaging elements move outward from its core purpose.

Purpose (never changes)
The fundamental reason your company is in business beyond making money.

Mission (can change every 10-25 years)
An over-arching strategy for achieving your purpose.

Vision (can change every 7-15 years)
A bold picture of the future to focus everyone’s efforts on the mission.

Trueline (can change every 3-10 years)
An internal expression of your brand’s most compelling differentiator.

Tagline (can change every 1-5 years)
An out-facing expression of your trueline.

For more brand insights from Marty, visit the Liquid Brand Exchange blog.