Branding 1, 2, 3

Branding is about communicating a sense of value and a set of values. For organizations doing good work, it should be a no-brainer. “For a nonprofit, that’s pretty easy because they have mission statements, they’re clearly focused on an objective that’s almost always in the interest of the public good, whereas the corporate side, you try to do the same thing but it may be a little bit harder to justify that sort of value proposition,” says Christopher Simmons, principal/creative director for MINE, a San Francisco-based design firm specializing in identity, print, environmental graphics and Web design.

Simmons offers the following tips to nonprofit organizations seeking to enhance their branding:

1. Understand clearly who you are as an organization and what you stand for.

2. Understand who you’re speaking to and what sort of messages they want or need to hear.

3. Make your message as specific as possible.

To this third point, Simmons says a common failing he sees in for-profits and nonprofits alike is trying to be too broad. If your organization can make a specific claim that it can defend in terms of its mission — e.g., being focused on K through 12 education reform, rather than preschool through college — your message will be clearer, as will your target audience. Your brand is the messenger that telegraphs your message to your audience.

Simmons recommends nonprofits enlist the help of creative and brand consultants because the objectivity of a third party can help them see the brand more clearly.

“[Third parties are] not really subject to any sort of internal politics, any sort of preconceptions of how sophisticated your audience may be,” Simmons says.

A lot of times companies and nonprofits make assumptions that people already know a bit about them, or that their audience has certain political or demographic leanings.

“When [someone comes] in more objectively and take a more analytical stance on it, [they] can sort of re-analyze those things and in a way question what the organization thinks it knows to see how much of that is true,” he adds.

Don’t be afraid to be strategic. Simmons says he often sees nonprofit clients concerned about how slick or polished their brand is because they don’t want to appear to be corporate or look as though they aren’t managing their funds properly. It’s about striking a balance.

“There should be no shame for a nonprofit organization to act and present themselves professionally,” Simmons says. “The last hurdle often seems to be either design, advertising, marketing, PR, branding, those sort of creative services tend to be viewed for some reason in a slightly different light. There’s a fear that the perception will be that they’re either spending too much arbitrarily or not allocating resources in terms of their time and energy appropriately — putting too much towards image, not enough towards substance.”

Christopher Simmons can be reached via www.minesf.com