Brand Development Strategy

What is Brand? What is Brand Strategy?

At the textbook level, a brand is the “…name assigned to individual goods or services or to a group of complementary products,” (Integrated Advertising, Promoting, and Marketing Communications, Clow and Baack, 34). Brands are entities with identities that audiences recognize and form opinions about.

Branding is the art and science of influencing that recognition and opinion-forming process by the audience. Successful branding strategies are a result of careful planning and are important for creating a clearly defined brand.

The Peruvian Hearts Brand

Team Enjine A examined the PH website, social media, annual newsletter, and marketing materials to understand the current branding strategy of PH. The team looked for the following characteristics of an established and successful brand (based on “The Brand Report Card,” Harvard Business Review, 2000):

  1. The brand excels at delivering the benefits customers truly desire.
  2. The brand stays relevant.
  3. The pricing strategy is based on consumers’ perceptions of value.
  4. The brand is properly positioned.
  5. The brand is consistent.
  6. The brand portfolio and hierarchy make sense.
  7. The brand makes use of and coordinates a full repertoire of marketing activities to build equity.
  8. The brand’s managers understand what the brand means to consumers.
  9. The brand is given proper support, and that support is sustained over the long run.
  10. The company monitors sources of brand equity.

Obviously, constraints on time, budget, and utility make it near impossible for a non-profit to fully develop a comprehensive strategy in each of these areas. The team’s research focused on identifying which categories are most relevant and impactful for PH. The identification of these opportunities shaped the points of emphasis in the IMC plan.

Click to expand greater detail around each opportunity:

Brand excels at delivering the benefits customers truly desire
Delivering the benefits customers truly desire requires a clear definition around potential donor profiles. When looking at the concept of branding an organization, one must first understand that developing a strong brand begins with discovering why consumers buy the brand product. In the case of PH, the organization must understand why donors donate, and why volunteers volunteer.

Opportunities

  • Target audience identification
  • Audience personas
Brand is consistent
The brand analysis indicated that the PH brand is still in the process of being defined and developed into a strategy. There are many powerful elements contained within the communication tools that PH uses, however, these aspects of the organization have not yet been capitalized upon.

Opportunities

  • Style guide to unify visual elements of each channel.
  • Unify and use all key messages across channels.
Brand is properly positioned
From the the Brand Report Card: “Brands that are well positioned occupy particular niches in consumers’ minds. They are similar to and different from competing brands in certain reliably identifiable ways. The most successful brands in this regard keep up with competitors by creating points of parity in those areas where competitors are trying to find an advantage while at the same time creating points of difference to achieve advantages over competitors in some other areas.”

In order to prepare for developing an effective branding strategy, we analyzed the current marketing materials of PH to identify messaging elements that characterize the organization’s brand. This process enabled us to look for “links,” which are ways in which community members connect themselves to Peruvian Hearts.

Peruvian Hearts has a variety of brand linkage opportunities. Other examples of links and/or slogans that the organization could use in their branding efforts include:

  • Ana
  • Changing the world, one heart at a time
  • Education of girls all around the world is one of the most important and powerful keys in the movement to eliminate global poverty
  • Girl empowerment
  • Education resources
  • Girl by girl, we’re going to change Peru
  • Helping someone change their life
  • Offering hope
  • Acts of kindness help create a more peaceful world

Opportunities

    • Promote the PH mission statement in all communication channels.
    • Increase the usage of the PH motto across all communication channels.
    • Plan each channel’s messages (especially social media) at the same time based on a monthly/quarterly focus.
    • Finalize a list of distinguishing aspects about PH that can be leveraged by the IMC plan.

Peruvian Hearts Branding Analysis: what does this mean for Peruvian Hearts?

After conducting a thorough investigation of the PH website, marketing materials, and social media channels, we concluded that Peruvian Hearts does not currently have a strong branding campaign in place. However, the organization has a strong presence in the nonprofit community, largely because of the national and international media surrounding Ana and her story. This fact makes Ana not only the face of the organization, but an important key branding element. Ana should be considered when strategizing a branding campaign.

In order to successfully brand their organization, Peruvian Hearts should look to finding branding links, as well as develop messaging that is consistent and constant. PH can leverage their visibility on a global level through social media channels. The organization should examine some of the identified brand links proposed here, and determine how these links can be incorporated into their messaging campaigns. The Peruvian Hearts motto is lovely, but it does not encapsulate everything they do. The organization should draw on their efforts to empower Peruvian girls; and supplying them with educational resources should be a key element in their branding efforts.

Summary

PH has a strong presence in the nonprofit community, largely because of the national and international media surrounding Ana and her story. This fact makes Ana not only the face of the organization, but an important key branding element. Ana should be considered when strategizing a branding campaign.

PH can leverage their visibility on a global level through social media channels. The organization should examine some of the identified brand links proposed here, and determine how these links can be incorporated into their messaging campaigns. The Peruvian Hearts motto is lovely, but it does not encapsulate everything they do. The organization should draw on their efforts to empower Peruvian girls; and supplying them with educational resources should be a key element in their branding efforts.

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