on branding
Several years ago, I served with a team who rebranded the seminary I worked for. George Fox Evangelical Seminary became Portland Seminary of George Fox University. While the George Fox part of our brand was strong, the cultural meaning of ‘evangelical’ had shifted over the years and become a liability. Someone joked that we might as well have the word “confederate” in our name -- and George Fox Confederate Seminary definitely didn’t reflect who we were.
So we decided to leverage our regional presence and lean into our sense of place as a way to expand our national presence. Portland, while having a reputation as a liberal city, captured who we were as a community: quirky, offbeat, and fun. Being the Portlandia of seminaries had a winsomeness to it. While someone east of the Rocky Mountains wouldn’t be able to point out where George Fox was on a map, someone would have Portland Seminary narrowed down to Oregon or Maine. The change reflected our connection to a particular place - not a theological shift. We remained committed to sharing the good news of Jesus with the world -- but firmly rooted in our particular zip code.
Here are a few lessons I learned from that experience:
Keep it simple, keep it true. Don’t use a rebrand as a chance to be aspirational about who you want to become as an organization. If you truly wanted to be that then you would have already chosen to organize yourselves that particular way. Your brand needs to reflect who you are. If you try to fake it, people will smell that from a mile away. Authenticity is everything.
Finding your brand is a discovery process. Your organization is unique. It has its own culture. A distinct look and flavor. It has a distinct promise to its people and pillars that support that promise. The hard work you have done to clarify your mission and vision will play into your brand. Find a strategic partner to guide you along the way.
Your brand is your most important asset. For organizations to survive, cash is king -- but you won’t be able to survive financially without discovering, leveraging, and protecting your brand. It created the machine that keeps cash moving through the organization. The insight here is to treat your brand with the same amount of respect as you do with cash.
Storytelling helps people easily understand your brand. Human beings have been telling stories for as long as we can collectively remember -- because history is a form of storytelling. We live in an era where you can take a camera, create visual stories, and broadcast them across multiple platforms -- for free. You don’t have to fight to get your story on cable TV or written about in a book somewhere. You can control the narrative. In the musical Hamilton, there’s a line that says “you have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” While you don’t have control of the first two things, you definitely can control who tells your story because you can document your journey along the way and share it with the world. If storytelling isn’t your strength, work with someone who can help broadcast your story with the world.
tweets + links
A podcast we work with reflecting on this year:
Christmas recipe to try with our favorite chef Jamie Oliver:
ICYMI this year, do check out this editing marvel: