U.N.C.F. Shows Why “Branding” Isn’t a Dirty Word for Nonprofits
Many people at the nonprofit where I worked for 10 years in two separate stints shuddered when they heard the word “branding,” as immersed as it is in corporate marketing projects. Yet nonprofits face the same challenge as businesses do: an increasingly crowded marketplace filled with consumers who are overcommitted and underfocused. Cutting through the clutter with a tightly targeted message is paramount. Which is why the United Negro College Fund is launching an effort to emphasize its initials and its educational mission and downplay the outdated second word in its name. This is not about removing reference to a politically incorrect term; it is a business issue:
The nomenclature issue is a decades-old predicament for U.N.C.F., which has long struggled to keep up with younger generations of African-Americans without abandoning nearly 70 years of hard-won brand equity.
‘We want to hold on to our heritage, but we also want to find a way to say who we are that speaks directly and positively to a younger generation,” [president and chief executive Michael L.] Lomax said. “I think we’ve found a happy medium.”
The effort is a comprehensive one. U.N.C.F. may be a nonprofit, but it has approached this very necessary step as strategically as any well-run company would:
The centerpiece of the rebranding effort — which is its first since the motto was written by a copy supervisor at Young & Rubicam in 1972 — is the logo. The organization’s familiar torch, which has been in black and white, will now be in several shades of orange and blue, representing metaphorically the varied ethnicities served by the organization.
The torch is accompanied by the initials rather than the group’s full name, and the motto is featured prominently below that. …
Surveys conducted for the organization suggest that the “A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste” motto enjoys “exceptionally strong” recognition by the public, but that only 56 percent of people make the connection between the slogan and U.N.C.F. Mr. Lomax hopes the new campaign will tie everything together in the mind of the public. …
The redesign is the work of Landor Associates, the branding unit of U.N.C.F.’s longtime ad agency Young & Rubicam, which is a part of the WPP Group. Hayes Roth, the chief marketing officer at Landor, gave credit to Mr. Lomax, who took the top job at U.N.C.F. in 2004, with initiating the rebranding.
Surveys? Ad agencies? Rebranding? Necessary parts of the 2008 nonprofit’s toolkit. | 501(c)
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