Building Your Brand
Emerging Program Institute | February 15-17, 2009
Hosted by HUB-BUB and McColl Center for Visual Arts
What is a brand?
Trusted promise
Encapsulates a Big Idea
Examples
Name Product Big Idea
Shoes Winning
Furnishings Better living for the masses
Airline Irreverence
Coffee Sociability & consistency
Involves the whole organization
More than just materials: all communications, partnerships, programs, etc.
Requires mass buy-in: all staff, board, and volunteers
Reflected in alumni and audience
Who cares about your brand?
Board Staff & volunteers Artists Foundations Individual donors Community leaders/partners Other program participants
Branding
Defines you relative to the competition A view from the outside looking in Takes into account the needs and
motivations of the customers Answers “What do I have that’s worth
attention, time, effort, and money?”
Benefits of branding
Promises you are unique Projects your values Makes you recognizable Builds reputation Builds trust Gives you an expressway into the target’s mind Makes communications more efficient Builds loyalty Celebrates differences
Effective branding is...
Repetitive Consistent Highly focused Makes a connection
Branding components
Customer: Who needs to know about you?
Competitive Advantage: Who do you compete with for their time/money?
Core Competency: How can you make the mission relevant in their lives?
Step 1: The Customer
Who are they demographically? What are their wants, needs, desires,
attitudes, interests, barriers, concerns, pressures?
How could you benefit them? Solve a problem?
What, if any, position or image do you conjure in their minds already?
How to get customer info
Artist applications and exit surveys Alumni surveys Donor relationships Foundation research – Chronicle of
Philanthropy, Foundation Center, local Donor’s Forums
Targeting your message
Who needs to know about you? What do they need to know?
Example: Donors need to know you are professional and socially relevant
Example: Artists need to know you are supportive. Depending on your target artists, what else might they need to know? scenic, fun, accommodating, hands-on, hands-off...
Exercise – Defining your customer
What kind of artists do you want to attract? (disciplines, demographics, temperament, values, etc.)
What do they need to know about you?
Step 2: The Competition
What are the competition’s strengths in the customer’s mind? Weaknesses?
Where is the competition on the customer’s mental ladder? (How much familiarity do you have to overcome?)
How do you compare? Contrast? Is there an unoccupied position you
could claim?
Who is your competition?
Who do you compete with for artists? Who do you compete with for funds? Who do you compete with for
community support? What is the comparison (from the
customer’s perspective)?
Exercise – Competition
Identify one competitor for each category: competing for artists, for funds, for community support Think beyond other residencies, e.g.,
what are artists doing if they’re not coming to your residency?
Identify one comparison in your favor and one in your competition’s favor Is this from the customer’s perspective?
Artist competition
Staying home, working in own studio Other artists’ residencies Personal/work obligations What else?
Foundation/donor competition
Non-arts issues – poverty, hunger, environment, education, health, etc.
Other arts organizations – presenters, museums, community-based centers
Other artists’ communities/residency programs
Community support competition
Other local events Other arts organizations What matters to your community?
What impresses your community?
Differentiation in the field
As funders and artists become more savvy about artists’ residencies, how you differentiate yourself from other residencies is increasingly important
How well do you know the field?
Step 3: Core competency
What do you do really, really well? What impression do people have of
you now? What is unique versus the
competition? Where are you vulnerable? What do others need to know about
you to buy-in to the organization?
Knowing your vulnerabilities...
Is critical to your trusted promise Allows customers to self-select Sets up appropriate expectations Example: Art Farm
Vulnerabilities: Extremely rustic, isolated, antiquated, few creature comfortsBranding: “Time is measured by sun and night sky, not by clock or calendar. Space finds its borders by proximity to sound and silence. The sky and your ears are full of sounds and shapes of birds and bugs. And, like it or not, the weather will be your collaborator in all undertakings.”
Exercise - Vulnerabilities
Where are you vulnerable? How can you turn that into a benefit?
Communicating uniqueness
Once you know what makes your organization unique, how well do you communicate it? Messages Materials
Kitchen table test
Spread out all of your communications materials, and all of your competitions’, and ask: Does it speak to the heart? Is it clear who the audience is? Is there a consistent aesthetic? Does it stand out?
Example – Kitchen table test
Director’s quotes – Unique?
“The Residency program provides artists with focused time for unfettered exploration and completion of work in a supportive setting. The program encourages personal growth and interchange between artists.”
“The XXX Center is a place where artists are granted the opportunity to be productive in a supportive environment conducive to self-challenge and experimentation.”
“Our desire is to provide a place that is both supportive and nurturing; one that encourages creativity, collaboration and experimentation.”
Director’s Quotes – Unique?
“Time at XXX is an opportunity to work, relax, reflect, and be inspired by the quiet refuge of the countryside.”
“The program provides the ideal combination of seclusion and community in a setting of truly inspirational beauty.”
“The solitude, uninterrupted time, and an appropriate workspace, all within a supportive community of other creative people, make for the perfect environment.”
“Artists have the opportunity to spend their residency in quiet, contemplative solitude and immerse themselves in their work.”
Director’s Quotes – Unique!
“Time is measured by sun and night sky, not by clock or calendar. Space finds its borders by proximity to sound and silence. The sky and your ears are full of sounds and shapes of birds and bugs. And, like it or not, the weather will be your collaborator in all undertakings.”
Art Farm
Example – Art Farm
www.artfarmnebraska.org
Director’s Quotes – Unique!
“Art Omi is guided by the vision that creative work is a vehicle for knowledge and understanding that transcends political and cultural boundaries. As an integral part of our programs, Omi broadens the scope of traditional retreats by hosting visiting New York critics, gallerists, publishers, collectors, curators and agents who help residents cultivate valuable career opportunities. Our strong commitment to fostering professional success and growth in the lives of serious artists, writers, dancers and musicians makes Omi unique.”
Art Omi
Example – Art Omi
www.artomi.org
Getting to your uniqueness
List 5 things your group, and only your group, is/does. Focus on benefits, not facts. If you move to another city, what do other
organizations there have to fear? If your organization died tomorrow, how
would it be eulogized?