Cooper-ation | Resourcing Your Ministry: Three Essentials for Strategic Church or Ministry Branding

Good article on "branding" for your church. May be a little more than some churches are ready for, but we should always challenge ourselves a little bit.
Be sure to check out Mediasalt andMinistry Marketing Coach as they both have further articles on these topics.
Jason Cooper | @cooperjason
Cooper-ation Resourcing

Three Essentials for Strategic Church or Ministry Branding
By Guest Blogger Wednesday October 7, 2009

Ministries and churches have the opportunity to reach their communities with the love and truth of Christ and to amplify their efforts through strategic brand development.
Yet at a leadership level, there seems to be a lot of confusion about branding. What is it? Why does it matter? How do we do it? Is it different than marketing? Everyday, in consulting with ministry leaders throughout the country, these and many other questions surface.
Branding concepts can be inherently elusive and difficult to define. For some leaders, there’s also resistance toward something that smacks of the questionable methods of Corporate America. This mindset reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of branding.
Once past these mental barriers, ministry leaders can begin to leverage the strengths of strategic brand development and harness its raw power.

1. Understand branding concepts as tools to do ministry more effectively.
It’s important to correctly understand and properly define branding. How many times have you heard someone describe a church logo as its brand? Yet branding is much more than a logo. A logo is just one of many brand identifiers, but not the brand itself. I talk more about this here.
Here are a few definitions of branding that illustrate the difficulty in nailing this down:

To burn a distinctive mark into or upon with a hot iron, to indicate quality, ownership, etc., or to mark as infamous (as a convict).

A person’s perception of a product, service, experience or organization. The Dictionary of Brand A-Z

A distinguishing symbol, mark, logo, name, word, sentence, or a combination of these items that companies use to distinguish their product from others in the market.

A promise to your members or constituents.

Branding is the art of becoming knowable, likable and trustable. Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch

2. Stay focused on the stuff that matters.
Ultimately, good ministry branding is about speaking the truth in love in such a way that it resonates with people. It’s about loving them truthfully. These two spiritual dynamics connect them with the people of God and the heart of God. It is true that humans want and need love, but they also want to be challenged by the truth claims of the Gospel. These are the alluring twins of ministry that when combined and intentionally nurtured, connect with the hearts and minds of mortals. Ministries can’t go wrong when they stay centered here.
But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head—Christ. (Ephesians 4:15 HCSB)

3. Distinguish between brand identity and brand story.
Corporate identities, logos, websites, marketing collateral, etc., are all part of a brand’s identity. Identities serve to express a brand’s essence and ethos. They are simply visual and tangible symbolic representations of the brand.
The brand story, is a coherent set of messages that articulate the meaning of a brand. The tighter the messages, along with the strategies and execution of sharing those messages, the more clarity there will be surrounding the ministry’s brand story.
So, you want to build a vibrant and effective church or ministry brand? Foster a spirit and environment where truth and love permeate every inch of the place. Then, articulate your brand story and develop a brand identity that beautifully reflects and communicates that spirit.
That’s good branding.
Today’s post was written by Kerry Bural, the principal of The Resonate Group, a church and ministry brand consulting and development firm. Kerry blogs at Ministry Marketing Coach . You can follow him@KerryBural.