It’s easy to think of branding as something superficial. But at its core, a brand is really just a relationship, as Cynthia Round explains on this week’s session. A brand creates an inherently emotional connection that inspires loyalty and ongoing action. Why does your audience connect with your organization? Asking qualitative questions that seek to answer how people identify with a brand helped Cynthia in her work at organizations like United Way Worldwide and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She uses past experience to illustrate the importance of identifying the audience that understands you and knows why they connect with an organization.
She and Beth discuss:
- Why brands may be more important for nonprofits than for-profits
- How a brand becomes more than an image or perception
- How to study what underlies the passion and the loyalty of your most loyal users
- And what kind of questions should you be asking your loyal users in order to understand your ideal audience?
- How to get people thinking about what is different about your organization that sets it apart and creates an emotional connection
- What is what Cynthia calls “the burning question”?
Resources:
- Find Cynthia on Twitter and LinkedIn
- The Met’s website
- Procter & Gamble website
- United Way Worldwide website
- Interbrand brand consultancy
- “An Emotional Connection Matters More than Customer Satisfaction” from Harvard Business Review
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