Brand Aid: Simple Strategies to Improve Your Brand Today
Guest Blog by Susan K. Hughes, Principal & Creative Director, Orgonomic, and Associate Member of Maryland Nonprofits
Read the original blog here.
Did your marketing materials come together on-the-fly? Do you long for stunning and unified communications that serve as a beacon of hope for your nonprofit? You’re not alone. Most nonprofits are working with limited resources. Many don’t have a communications department let alone a graphic designer. Newsletters, websites, brochures, emails, and social media come together on the run. Over time this reactive approach to communication takes its toll on your brand.
Until you’re able to work a rebrand into the budget, here are some useful tips to help strengthen your image today.
#1 Understand the difference between your logo and your brand
First and foremost: your logo is not your brand.
It helps to imagine a brand as a person. A person has a vision, goals, values, and their own personality. They have a unique way of talking and their own fashion sense. They have quirks and some bad habits too. As Apple illustrated in their Mac vs PC guy ads, your brand is the impression you make. The impression that you make is largely based on what you do, how you look, and what you say.
Being lazy about your brand is like going to work in your pajamas.
To start, take some time to develop your brand platform. A brand platform is a document that clearly and simply states your mission, vision, objectives, values, personality, competitive advantage, and tone of voice. Maybe you’re a forward thinking environmental organization that is hopeful and excited about the future of the Chesapeake Bay, or perhaps your a nonprofit that provides free legal services to to woman subjected to domestic violence – two very different people!
#2 Have an EPS file of your logo
Every organization must have a version of their logo in an EPS format (encapsulated postscript). Too often organizations only have a JPEG or GIF, which are commonly used image formats. The trouble with a JPEG/GIF is that they cannot be resized without loosing quality. If you don’t have an EPS version, and you plan to continue using your logo you will need to have a graphic designer recreate it for you in Adobe Illustrator.
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