Dawn Nicole Baldwin is CEO of AspireOne, which helps churches (mostly very large ones) with branding and web strategy. She’s a real authority on branding, particularly as it relates to the church world. She’s tightly associated with Willow Creek. Here are some tidbits from her afternoon session on branding.
- Ask, “What do we, as a church, want to be known for?” If we’re not intentional about defining who we are, others will do it for us.
- “Brand experience” includes many ways people interact with you: word of mouth, your website, mailers, publications, your logo, and much more. The brand is not just the logo.
- Brand strategy: ask these three questions: Who are you serving? What are your unique strengths? How do you reach people with impact.
- When ministry leaders say, “We need a brochure,”…do they really? I face that at the denominational level. Everyone wants a brochure, and I don’t think they’re all that valuable.
- Blanding: trying to be all things to all people. You water all your uniquenesses down.
- She doesn’t like churches giving different brands to a bunch of church ministries. She doesn’t like having different URLs for the various ministries. Prefers having everything under the single brand of the church and the church website.
- Identify your biggest fans (brand advocates). In churches, your church’s biggest fans are often new Christians.
- Sometimes the senior pastor is such a presence that he is the brand. Go to the website for Houston’s Lakewood Church. You’ll see Joel Osteen plastered everywhere. You wonder whether the website is for the church or a commercial for his books.
- Seacoast Church is a multi-site church with 11 campuses, one of which is five hours from water. Did the name “Seacoast” fit them? They decided that their brand transcended geography.
- She gave away some gifts. One was to the person who had been in his/her communications role the longest. A gal sitting in front of me said “16 years,” and nobody could top that. So she got a free book. After the workshop, I told her, “I’ve been doing my job for 26 years.” But since the focus here is local church communications, I didn’t inject myself.