More Than a Feeling?

Does your center have a brand?

Creating a brand for your center is one of the most important components to your marketing plan only second to knowing your client or audience. 

Your brand should include certain guidelines, such as, logo formats, fonts, colors, voice, and images. All these components make up your brand standards. Your standards should inform all your design and marketing decisions. 

But your brand is so much more than the sum of your standards, your brand is a feeling. 

You aren’t selling your product or services. You are selling emotion.

Coca-Cola doesn’t sell pop (or soda 😊 ). Coca-Cola sells happiness. 

Most of my friends know that I am rarely seen without a Diet Coke in-hand or at the ready. It’s my morning coffee, my lunchtime beverage of choice, my afternoon pick-me-up, and often my evening wind down drink. I need Diet Coke to function. And please don’t offer me a Diet Pepsi.

Do I drink Diet Coke because I love the taste of aspartame in the morning? No, it’s because Coca-Cola sells happiness. When I need to get moving on a Monday morning or to make it through a stressful meeting, I reach for a cold can of carbonated, caffeinated comfort and I know everything will be ok. 

The purpose of developing a brand is to invoke a feeling. Your website, social media, digital ads, print marketing, events, staff, signage, lobby and counseling rooms should all invoke the feeling you want your clients to have when they encounter your brand. 

There may be plenty of organizations who offer resources and services to women in your community. She needs to choose your organization or center because of the way your brand makes her feel. 

Does your brand make her feel confident and empowered? 

Does your brand make her feel comforted and supported? 

Does your brand make her feel uncomfortable and unsure?

It’s up to you! First, identify how she wants to feel.  That will help set the tone for your branding, helping you create your guidelines or standards, and then spread the word.

As always, Extend is here for you if you need guidance on how to capture the feeling you want to invoke. We know it can be difficult to navigate marketing in our current culture and climate and the competition is fierce. But you’re not alone! Contact us today if you’d like to learn more about branding and all that Extend has to offer.