10 keys to aligning organizations and brand promises for non-profit campaigns: a Cal Hep B Free case study

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Branding is crucial for an organization to be successful in marketing its products to the masses. For instance, let’s take Apple, a technology company everyone knows about with the motto “Think different.” What message does its brand convey and how does it distinguish its products from competitors that also make laptops and media players?

A few adjectives that immediately come to mind are: cool, hip, and different. Nevertheless, this image painted by Apple can be attributed to Apple’s branding, which probably took millions of dollars, many creative minds, and many years to develop. So when someone buys an iPod or MacBook at the local Apple store, he or she is not really buying just another tech gadget, but a slice of societal “cool” that their peers will continually talk about.

Now let’s shift gears and talk about how branding applies to non-profit or advocacy-based entities—a subject I’ve been exploring recently due to my involvement in the Cal Hep B Free campaign.

For non-profit or advocacy-based entities, the “products” are usually a message or call to action rather than a commercial good or service. For instance, Cal Hep B Free would like to sell its message to students at UC Berkeley and urge them to get a blood test for Hepatitis B. Another related campaign, Project Michelle, urges students to do a cheek swab and register themselves on the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry. Why you may ask? Read this previous post.

As a graduate from the College of Engineering, I should be as keen on the branding and marketing strategies as my expertise in cosmetology or Guitar Hero Intermediate Mode. That’s why I rely on Google and peers that actually took marketing classes for insights…

The following are ten keys critical to the success of brand building which my Steering Group has recently applied to Cal Hep B Free in preparation for an upcoming large event next week...

1. RIGHT RESEARCH-INFORMED PROMISE
   
2. CONSENSUS BUILDING PROCESS
   
3. BRAND PROMISE TRANSLATED TO BRAND IDENTITY
   
4. CUSTOMER TOUCHPOINT DESIGN
   
5. INTERNAL COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATION
   
6. EMPLOYEE REWARD/RECOGNITION SYSTEM
   
7. BUILDING BRAND MEASURES INTO EMPLOYEES MEASURES
   
8. CULTURE THAT ALIGNS WITH THE INTENDED BRAND PERSONALITY
   
9. INTERNAL SURVEYS
   
10. CEO SUPPORT
    

I should note that it was my friend Derek (B.S. Business Administration ’09 / B.A. Mass Communications ’09) who have brought these points to my attention last month. Since then I have recruited him to be Cal Hep B Free’s effective "Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)” and our Steering Group has been developing strategies since with hopes of giving the campaign a partial branding makeover.

1) RIGHT RESEARCH-INFORMED PROMISE: Your brand’s promise must be based upon customer, competitor and internal insight. This can be achieved through qualitative and quantitative research and an honest assessment of internal strengths, weaknesses, core competencies and strategic intent. The promise must be unique, compelling and believable.

COMPETITOR RESEARCH AND RELATIONS

In the context of the non-profit campaigns, I define "competitor" as any entity that may compete for publicity and resources (funding, volunteers, venue reservations etc.). Labelling another entity as a "competitor" may elicit hostile intentions, but I assure you that this is absolutely not the case for our campaign.

One of the first things I did after the event dates were finalized was to investigate whether any competitors may hold events or other functions on those dates as well that may hinder our chances for success.

Potential competitors: Red Cross, Project Michelle, Peace Not Prejudice coalition

Awhile back, I heard a CEO from somewhere say, “If you can’t compete with your competitor, partner with them.” I'm not a business expert so I cannot tell you whether this strategy is optimal for all cases; however, the concept has primed me to always ask "how can I work with the competitor to advance both our agendas?" (as opposed something along the lines of "how can I take advantage of the competitor?"). It has not been until recently that I have noticed partnership with two of Cal Hep B Free's competitors has led to win-win scenarios for all of our organizations.

Case #1: Project Michelle

Partnering with Project Michelle have allowed Cal Hep B Free to generate additional publicity and support for both our campaigns among students, student groups, and student government leaders. More importantly, holding a joint event and emphasizing the common ground between both campaigns (i.e. both campaigns aim to save lives caused by cancers with simple solutions; and the issues of chronic hepatitis B infection and lack of bone marrow donors for ethnic minorities are urgent issues that need to be addressed.)

Case #2: Project Rishi/American Red Cross

It was not until last week that I discovered Project Rishi, a health/service-based student group, has made plans to collaborate with the Red Cross to organize a blood drive on November 17 and 18, the same day as our event. After a meeting with Project Rishi, we've reached a compromise where both our organizations agree to publicize for each other and share volunteers for both our events. In addition, the Red Cross has decided to hold their event at the Alumni House, a good distance away from Upper Sproul where we'll be running our event. Hopefully, the distance will minimize confusion among passerbys and competition over publicity. Project Rishi has also agreed to become a Community Partner for Cal Hep B Free and are open to collaborating with our campaign in the near future.

DEVELOPING A BRAND PROMISE

Our Steering Group also discussed marketing and branding strategies used by our competitors and brainstormed what Cal Hep B Free should do to when launching our event next week.

Possible campaign marketing positions we considered:

• You’re smart so help yourself
• Save (others’) lives (ex: Stand Up 2 Cancer, Project Michelle, Red Cross)
• Be educated and aware (ex: Live Strong, TRUTH anti-smoking ads)
• Be cool and hip (ex: Apple, (RED) branding campaign, Jabawockeez)
• Have fun and make friends (ex: Coca Cola)
• Win/get free stuff

After much deliberation, we decided that Cal Hep B Free’s branding position should be a hybrid of “You’re smart so help yourself (by getting tested)” and “Be educated and aware” to distinguish ourselves from other related competitors. In general, we want to keep all our messages positive and not threatening.

On the other hand, we also decided that we wanted to steer clear of a message that urges people to get vaccinated for Hep B to minimize confusion between vaccinations and testing (though I should note that it's also very important to get vaccinated if you are uninfected but not immune to Hep B -- a blood test can tell you whether you are or not).

Issues with current/potential marketing materials (also see #3):

1. SMART, TESTED, FREE t-shirts: The first thing on people's minds is that they look like Jabbawockeez shirts. Jabbawockeez is associated with "cool" and "fun" which is NOT our branding position. The second issue with the shirts is that the design is not consistent with the branding promise other than using the jade color. Lastly, the black shirt, as cool as it may look, gives off a dark, gloomy vibe which doesn't go with the positive message and light colored flyers and posters (which are white and jade colored). With this in mind, our Steering Group has decided to stop producing these shirts and phase out the remainder as soon as possible by liquidating them at discounted prices. We'll revisit shirts and a new design at the end of the year in preparation for the campaign's 2009 Spring launch.

   

2. $1,000 CHALLENGE CONTEST: This emphasizes the "Win/get free stuff" branding position which detracts from what we want students to associate our campaign with. Consequently, we have immediately discontinued the contest (which not many people actually knew about or participated in as of now because we have not yet began widespread marketing of the contest). Rather, we'll consider allocating the $1,000 toward other areas of the campaign as a way to better use the money.

   

3. Other free giveaways at events: Same as #2.
4. Using the Superman "B" logo from San Francisco Hep B Free: This would be random and confuse customers because the logo is not used any where else and is not consistent with our brand promise or position.

   vs.

2) CONSENSUS BUILDING PROCESS: Your brand’s promise must be developed through a consensus-building process that includes (at a minimum) your organization’s chief executive officer (CEO) and his or her staff and its top marketing executives. Don’t leave this step to an internal marketing department or an external marketing agency (unless they accomplish this through a consensus building process). Brand strategy and positioning is closely tied to organizational strategy, especially for organization level brands.

How many people are ideal to or a team or task force to make marketing/branding decisions for a campaign or event? I discovered that the answer is FIVE and they should be comprised of individuals with the following roles:

• "Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)": One with marketing and branding experience that directs the meeting.
  
• "Chief Executive Officer (CEO)": A leader that oversees the overall campaign/entity and can make on-the-spot decisions based on the campaign or entity's collective interest.
  
• Stakeholder representative: A leader from the stakeholder or partnering entity whose members would most likely contribute to the majority of "customers." For our case, this was someone representing the Asian American Association, the most likely source of most of our volunteers and event participants.
• Creative consultant: An individual with lots of creativity and intuition to think outside the box.
  
• Graphics designer: An individual that can draw or Photoshop so ideas thought up on-the-spot can be visualized by everyone.
  

FIVE is generally the magic number because an odd number of people are needed to break ties when voting; 7 people are way too many and 3 too little to have an effective board-room style meeting.

I should also emphasize the importance of having a stakeholder representative at the meeting because he/she often oversees the volunteers for the event/campaign that will be doing the "selling" or interaction with potential customers. It would be counterproductive if your salespeople are not clear on their pitch or what to "sell".

3) BRAND PROMISE TRANSLATED TO BRAND IDENTITY: The brand promise should be translated into a supporting brand identity, including logo, tagline and elevator speech among other key components. This should be integrated into a system that includes brand architecture and naming conventions. These should then take the form of guidelines that are available to all employees and business partners through an online platform. Digital asset management systems provide for even greater consistency control.

Brand promise: The association between the jade color and Hepatitis B.

Logo: The jade ribbon, the jade colored “B", or a combination of both.

Tagline: B smart, B tested, B free!

4) CUSTOMER TOUCHPOINT DESIGN: Involve your employees in brainstorming how you can bring your brand’s promise to life at each point of customer contact and how you can create new points of customer contact prior to the purchase, at the point of purchase, immediately after the purchase and on an ongoing basis during product/service usage and beyond. The brand’s promise must come to life in more than just its identity and in its marketing communications.

We plan to have Cal Hep B Free's brand promise come to life at the 11/18 benefit concert. This will be for most people, the first and only true interaction with the brand. So we need to make sure every little detail is thought out if we want the event to generate reasonable publicity, buzz, and momentum in the UC Berkeley community for Cal Hep B Free.

5) INTERNAL COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATION: At a minimum, you should communicate to and educate employees and business partners about your brand’s promise. This can best be accomplished through a multiple year (2+) integrated communications and education plan and campaign that touches each employee at least seven times. Tactically, one can build key brand messages into all existing employee communication and training vehicles. One can also post the brand promise or elevator speech in the most visible locations throughout the organization’s workspace. There are also numerous ways to put it into each employee’s workspace (screensavers, posters, mouse pads, etc.).

Obviously, there won’t be years to develop our internal communication. But making sure our Steering Group and Advisory Board know exactly what this campaign is intending to accomplish (see #1) will help a long way in knowing how we interact with each volunteer and "customer."Two tools that have really helped us out with internal communications include:

• Google Groups
• Google Sites

6) EMPLOYEE REWARD/RECOGNITION SYSTEM: Fully customizable online employee reward/recognition systems that can help align employees in support of the brand’s promise are now available to be leased or purchased. They state brand promise goals clearly and concisely and provide rewards (gift certificates, merchandise, etc.) and recognition for employees who are caught bringing the brand’s promise to life. The systems encourage employee involvement and provide a mechanism for manager involvement and oversight.

Students most involved with the campaign must be rewarded because they are truly the most valuable asset. Some of the rewards may include...

• Good things to write on their resumes and work references
• Networking and job opportunities
• Free t-shirts and goodies
• End-of-semester banquet invitation
• A rewarding experience for accomplishing ambitious tasks
  

7) BUILDING BRAND MEASURES INTO EMPLOYEES MEASURES: Peter Drucker said, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” This is true of brand alignment as well. Build key brand measures into organization common measures or translate them into individual measures for the positions most likely to impact customers (product development, marketing, sales, customer service, etc.).

How are we going to measure success?

1. Number of people pledged at the 11/17-18 event.
2. Turnout for concert on 11/18.
3. Number of people that went to get tested for Hep B as a result of our efforts.

How are we NOT going to measure success?

1. Number of t-shirts sold (see #6)

The following last 3 keys to branding success don’t apply here so much (or we haven't had the time and resources to explore them) but they’re listed any way…

8) CULTURE THAT ALIGNS WITH THE INTENDED BRAND PERSONALITY: In a seminal study on corporate brand strategy success, The Conference Board discovered that alignment of organization culture with brand personality is highly correlated with brand strategy success. This can be achieved in the following ways:

• Choosing brand personality traits that are both compelling to customers and natural for the organization to deliver upon, that is, ones that seem to be built into the organization’s “DNA.”
• Being honest about whether senior management can live in alignment with the intended brand personality.
• Where there are alignment gaps, pursuing a culture change project to align employees with the intended brand personality).
  

9) INTERNAL SURVEYS: Periodically survey employees to understand how well they can articulate the brand promise, whether they know how they can positively affect the brand and whether they have personally pursued actions to enhance the brand.

This area has been slightly explored thru various online polls and feedback requests to members of our Task Force and Planning Group thru email and Google Groups. For instance, we polled others on different versions of the flyer and logos by asking what they think would be more effective toward persuading them to get tested or participating in our events.

10) CEO SUPPORT: When the CEO understands the power of strong brands and uses the brand promise to align all of the activities of the organization, you are halfway to your goal of creating an organization filled with brand champions. Assigning responsibility for day-to-day management of the brand to a senior executive also is very helpful. And communicating to employees that they are all expected to be brand champions rounds out brand ownership from the top to the bottom of the organization.

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