Alexander Scott, brand and content consultant Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Big brand thinking for small
charities

2. Because Apple is the clearest example of how a brand goes way beyond product.
It creates relevance, affinity and support. When treated properly, your brand is
your biggest business asset. It can affect your bottom line more than anything else
Warning. This deck uses Apple as an example of awesome brand
strategy.

3. What is a brand?

4. NOT
BRANDS
These are not brands. These are logos and brand
names and brand colours and fonts which are all part
of the brand IDENTITY. But they are nowhere near the
whole brand. If only it were that easy. The trouble with
brands is you’re only partly in control of it because...

5. Your brand is what someone
feels and thinks about you
Takeout #1

6. 1. what connects you as an organisation to the outside world and
those who work for you, support you, use your services,
volunteer for you and advocate on your behalf
2. based on the experience someone has with any and every part of
your organisation through any and every touchpoint
3. a person’s perception created by them in their own minds and
hearts
4. the idea of you, the thought of you, the memory of you, the
feeling of you within your audience
Your brand is...

7. Therefore you’re never going to have full control of your
brand because it’s made by the mind and heart and gut of
your audience as much as it by you

8. Decisions are made on an emotional level

9. FACT

10. That’s why your brand has to tell a
compelling, engaging, human story

11. Take Metrobank for example. Metrobank wear their brand on their sleeve, making sure a
positive customer experience is central to their proposition. It differentiates them from the other
high street banks and shows they are responding to customer demands. Ideas like opening
more branches, longer opening hours, a friendly welcome, children’s play areas and dog friendly
branches shows they’re a modern, progressive and above all human organisation.
This all plays into how they are viewed, what people feel about Metrobank. It’s a clear brand
statement and brand position. It makes them memorable, it makes them different, it makes them
stand out and it makes them relevant.
This is what your brand is for:
to build awareness,
understanding, salience,
differentiation and affinity.

12. RyanAir’s another great example - they don’t
trade on anything but being the cheapest - this
is their brand position. You can have the most
uncomfortable flight and end up miles from
your final destination and wait hours trying to
get through to customer service but it doesn’t
matter, because they only trade on the fact
they’re the cheapest. What their brand is about
is crystal clear.
They’re being honest and authentic and
relevant and responding to consumer
demands. You might not choose it, but you’re
clear on what the brand offer is.
And this clarity means people spend less time trying to work out what
they’re about and whether or not they’re right for them.

13. And it doesn’t just apply to large organisations. Charity: water has only just launched in the UK with 2
staff but they have a great understanding of the UK charity sector and what audiences want to see.
They’ve very clearly focused on the impact they make in the field and complete transparency around
financials and project costs.
For example, they’ve integrated Google Maps and back end data into their website so you can see real
time how well their field projects are performing, things like uptime, maintenance, usage etc, which
means you already trust the brand more because you feel assured your money is going to the people
that need it.

14. And it’s not about being good or ethical or the best - it’s about being clear and consistent and
different. Humans want to connect to something and see themselves and their belief system
played back to them.
That’s why a major part of branding is being true to who you are and how you operate. That’s
why when Trump says something no other politician could ever get away with, it just strengthens
his base support - because that’s his brand and that’s why people buy into him.

15. Brand value:
net worth - tangible assets
And just to illustrate why it’s worth investing in your brand, let’s look at Apple
again. Apple is valued at $869bn. But its tangible assets - stuff it can sell like
equipment, property and products - are only worth $33bn, so the rest of that
worth is brand equity, which has been built up over nearly 50 years. $836bn
of stuff you can’t touch.

16. “Your brand is what other
people say about you when
you’re not in the room”
Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder,
Amazon (worth $105bn)

17. What impacts on your brand?

18. What impacts on your brand?
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19. Everything you do impacts on
your brand
Takeout #2

20. For example, Nike want
everyone to think of them
as empowering the world to
release their inner athlete
whilst at the same time
enabling the world’s top
sportspeople to fulfil their
natural skills

21. But because of decisions around production, workers’ rights and employment strategy,
they’re still dogged by an image of being ruthless, capitalist bastards and employing kids in
sweatshops.

22. Oxfam want to
portray a brand
focussed on
pulling
communities out
of poverty

23. But all anyone thinks of at the moment is the Haiti sex scandal. Your brand tells people who you
are and what you stand for - if what you are in real life runs counter to that, then you’re in trouble.
This can be as simple as poorly produced printed material with a stretched logo, but most
people will be pretty forgiving about that - the bigger problem is when you fundamentally act in a
way that goes against what people think and feel about you.

24. The good news is, it works both
ways. Unilever, who were
traditionally seen as a
monolithic and uncaring
corporate monster has spent a
lot of time and money and
effort in creating a very credible
CSR programme and finding
and articulating a deep
altruistic purpose that delivers
on a triple bottom line
(economic, social,
environmental). They have
demonstrated real commitment
to their cause and it’s done
wonders for their brand

25. Consistency and clarity are
crucial
Takeout #3
You need to be clear in who you are, why you are and how you are different and you need
to be clear at every single point where someone can interact with you. Be it the customer
service contact centre, the website, the PR coverage, the nurses, the fundraising volunteers,
the job description - it all has to feel like it’s coming from the same place and that place has
to be clearly defined and clearly communicated. This is why your identity is a very small part
of the brand story.

26. Macmillan are a great example. When they rebranded 10 years ago they were ruthless about
developing an incredibly clear brand proposition (Macmillan cancer support) and
implementing it absolutely consistently across all their services, communications, internal
teams and the partners they worked with.

27. And even though they’re still number 1 in the charity brand index, they’ve decided to keep
developing the brand and brand story to make sure it’s relevant, engaging and
representative of who they are. This is a good example of how a big change to a brand story
doesn’t mean a big change to an identity. Hopefully you’re seeing your brand is more than
your logo...

28. And this definitely isn’t about budget, it doesn’t matter who you are or how much you’re worth or
how much branded estate you have, you can all have a brand that is clear about who you are and
what you stand for. And you can all make sure it’s implemented with consistency. Help for Heroes
were a tiny campaign when they first started but their brand, through their story, their proposition,
their brand character, visual identity, PR strategy and celebrity associations made it clear who they
are, what they stand for and how they’re different.

29. You wouldn’t delivery services without a strategy
or conduct research
or fundraise
or run an organisation
It doesn’t matter who you are - because everyone has a brand,
everyone should have a brand strategy.
Remember...

30. so why doesn’t everyone have a brand strategy?

31. Everyone should have a
brand strategy
Takeout #4

32. There’s lots of different things you can add into a brand
strategy and because agencies can make money by
pretending they know more than you, there’s lots of
different names for the same thing.
But if you don’t have anything else you should have the
following:

33. 1. Brand story
2. Proposition
3. Positioning statement
4. Essence
5. Character

34. 1. Brand story
Let’s start with your brand story - it’s literally that, a quick, 1-2
sides of who you are, where you came from, what your vision
is and why, your mission statement is and why, what you’re
doing to make the mission successful and how you’re relevant
to your audience - not just in terms of your service offering but
why you’re doing it. It’s articulating what drives you.

35. Apple has a fantastic brand story: “Apple is more than just a company because its
founding has some of the qualities of myth. Apple is two guys in a garage
undertaking the mission of bringing computing power, once reserved for big
corporations, to ordinary individuals with ordinary budgets. The company's
growth from two guys to a billion-dollar corporation exemplifies the American
Dream. Even as a large corporation, Apple plays David to IBM's Goliath, and thus
has the sympathetic role in that myth.”
And from their Chief Design Officer, Jony Ive: “What people are responding to is
much bigger than the object. They are responding to something rare; a group of
people who do more than simply make something work, they make the very best
products they possibly can. It's a demonstration against thoughtlessness and
carelessness”

36. 2. Proposition
Sometimes called your value proposition, what is it that your
organising is proposing to the world that will make life better
for your “customers”. You need to think about your
proposition from the point of view of your supporters - why
should they give you their time or money or effort?

37. SAVE MONEY, LIVE BETTER
BEAT CANCER, SOONER
For example, ASDA’s is “save money, live better”.
Clear, simple, attractive. It’s showing the value that
people will get if they spend money with ASDA. They
will save money and they will live better. CRUK’s is
just as simple. Give us money and we will beat cancer
sooner.
Neither one of these talk about what they do, ASDA
aren’t saying “buy our groceries”. CRUK don’t mention
research. They focus on the VALUE that their
proposition gives the audience. Beating cancer.
Saving money. Living better.

38. 3. Positioning
We’re talking here about the position you want to take in the
market against your competitors. And even if you’re the only
charity who does what you do, you have competitors. There are
other brands out there who people can choose to give their time
and money and effort to rather than you. You’re always competing
against what else people can devote their time to, that’s why it’s
imperative to tell a strong, compelling story.

39. For (target audience), (your brand) is the
only (frame of reference) that (benefits
delivered) because (reasons to believe)
A good way to start is to use this template.
For example, Anthony Nolan’s positioning statement is “If you want to
help people with blood cancer live longer, healthier lives, Anthony Nolan
is the only charity that can deliver a second chance of life for because
we’ve got 40 years experience in research, innovation and support”

40. Alexander Scott Consulting
And once you’ve got it agreed, you can use it to help shape all your copy
and remain consistent across all your platforms, however unusual they are

41. 4. Essence
The one single concept that you want to plant inside people’s hearts
and brains and stomachs so when they think of you, they think of
your essence. And this isn’t category recognition, because that
doesn’t drive loyalty, it’s about going to that emotional, intangible
place that makes people want to choose you over anyone else. It’s
about understanding what’s that essential, authentic connection that
pulls people to you and keeps them there. Essentially, it’s...

42. When I think of [your brand], I think of ____

43. When I think of CRUK, I think of cure

44. When I think of Netflix, I think of choice

45. When I think of John Lewis, I think of quality

46. When I think of Coppafeel I think of action

47. When I think of [your brand], I think of ____
So, what is your essence? And is that true to who you are,
what you do and how and why you do it?

48. 5. Character
If your charity were a person, what kind of personality would they
have?
And this has to be authentic to HOW you operate, not WHAT you
do, for example, Breast Cancer Now and Breast Cancer Care are
both there to improve the lives of people with breast cancer and it
doesn’t matter that one is research focused and the other care
focused, the fact is they project themselves very differently.

49. The Anthony Nolan brand very much mirrors the character of Shirley Nolan,
Anthony’s mother who founded the blood cancer register in 1974 - she was
tenacious, outspoken, well informed, challenging, resourceful and loud (when she
needed to be) - and that’s exactly how the organisation tries to conduct itself.

50. What is your character?
Are you authoritative, informal, serious, assertive,
collaborative, reserved, ambitious, intellectual, down to earth?
You need to think about what you do, what you say and how
you say it.
Again, at the end of the day, it has to be authentic to who
you are, this is the best way to increase trust.

51. Where to put your effort - research:
- talk to your staff, volunteers, supporters and trustees about
what makes you, you and why people support you and
what would make people support you more. You are sitting
on so much insight it’s incredible and it’s usually incredibly
easy to get to and make use of.
You need to base everything in good, solid insight otherwise it
won’t be authentic to who you are as an organisation

52. Where to put your effort - creative and testing:
- come up with a set of different ideas to test. This is part
science, part art, so you need to spend time on how you
articulate succinctly but emotively who and why you are,
what difference you make, why it’s vital people support
you and why you’re the best people to fulfil your mission

53. Where to put your effort - planning and action:
- don’t just create a document. Your brand strategy sits at
the same level as your organisational strategy, in fact it’s
the outward facing side of the same coin. It needs to be
used to direct all your other outward facing strategies as
much as your org strategy, so make sure it’s brought
alive through your planning

54. alexscottcomms@gmail.com
alexanderscottconsulting.com
linkedin.com/in/alexandercommunications

55. 11 July 2018
London
#CCsmallcharity
Small charities
communications
conference

56. Visit the CharityComms
website to view slides from
past events, see what events
we have coming up and to
check out what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk