NONPROFIT BRANDING: Ironically, Products Imprinted With Your Logo Can Also Hurt Your Brand

This conclusion repeatedly surfaces in research studies conducted by marketing, public relations and advertising companies:

Nothing can put your nonprofit mission in front of more people, more often, more positively and with less cost per impression, than high-quality imprinted products!

When you compare the statement above with the statement below, you may think I am arguing against our company’s self interest. Actually, the following alert is focused on your welfare:

Caution: the power of products imprinted with your logo is not an absolute virtue. It can create a marketing disaster for brand-intensive organizations. Specifically - that power can be an especially high risk for nonprofits. Our job is to help you reduce that risk.

…………………………

Sure, products with your logo are powerful marketing tools. But there are circumstances in which they can actually hurt your organization. Since our company supplies nonprofits with imprinted branding products – you may think it is counter-intuitive for us to urge you to be cautious. Not at all! Protecting clients from the downside of promotional products has sustained our company for 25 years. So here we go again…..

When Janice and I started VisABILITY in 1985, thousands of companies throughout the country were already selling imprinted products to whatever clientele was available. They were generalists. So we decided to specialize. Having spent our prior careers as nonprofit administrators, we decided to stick with our own kind.

Now it is the first week of 2011. Twenty five years of specialization taught us a great deal about our market. We’ll happily put that information at your disposal. We’ll warn you of the special risks faced by nonprofits. We’ll help you safely work around those risks. But we do ask you to always remember the following point. What I am about to write is the corollary of the principle stated at the top of this post. (Nothing can put your nonprofit mission in front of more people, more often, more positively and with less cost per impression, than high-quality imprinted products!) It is also a primary reason to follow this new blog:

Once a product with your logo is out in the hands of end-users, it is forever beyond your control. Yet as long as it survives, or as long as it is remembered……… that imprinted product will affect your organization’s brand equity in ways that are helpful. Or harmful.

Here’s how that concept applies to your employer:

Your organization has built an affinity-market of its own.  Constituents in that market are energized by commitment to your mission. You strategically encourage their pride of association with your mission.

To these people your logo symbolizes your brand. It represents intangible virtues – personal allegiance, organizational mission, pride of association, the impulse to engage and support.

Constituents in the market built around your brand generate a voluntary revenue stream that helps finance your work. Your brand and your logo energize that stream.

If you put your logo on a tacky product, or on a product that disappoints the owner – you undermine the brands intangible virtues, the virtues that are symbolized by the logo applied to the inadequate product.  That can risk weakening the owner’s affinity and support.

This is a big deal – the downside of the branding power of imprinted products.  Subtle dynamics of personal pride, association and identity are involved. those dynamics apply to most people. The Nonprofit Branding Blog will deal in depth with these key principles. We’ll show you the best practices that harmonize with them.

In particular, over the next few weeks look for posts about the appeal of affinity-products in the nonprofit market. That is another key branding concept – a big one. We’ll write about it frequently. We’ll also write about the cost/quality dynamic……. the specific vulnerability of constituency-dependent nonprofits……. the importance of graphics standards……. how to buy imprinted products…… how to handle your vendor and more.

BOTTOM LINE: Now we’re started. We hope to make this blog a professional utility that is easy, fun and rewarding to use. In a future post we will tell you a bit about ourselves. But for now we’ll close with these three thoughts:

1) logo-imprinted items can be great marketing and fundraising tools….
2) but only if you purchase and use them correctly….
3) and this blog is a new resource to help you do just that.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please send them to jburke@visability.com.
………………………
NOTE: It’s payback time! In the next post I will illustrate a basic themes with a tale of childhood angst. Over 50 years ago I was let down by my personal hero. I have healed now. More than that, I am ready to reveal how that dope betrayed me when I was a little kid.  The story illustrates a central theme about how nonprofits can be helped or hurt by their branding products.

QUESTION: Do you really know enough about product imprinting?  Can you decipher your vendor’s comments about the products you are evaluating?   Do you frequently need more or better information about product fundamentals and production terms and techniques?

Here’s a shortcut to becoming an informed customer. It will help you protect your brand and guide you away from error. Simply click on the VisABILITY Glossary. This repository of essential information is available 24/7. Find it at the top of this blog page under the heading GLOSSARY.  You can also find it as a PDF download.

This tool will help you understand what your vendor is talking about…… what your vendor is thinking but may not be willing to tell you….. and what that little man behind the curtain will do with the order once you place it with that vendor.

So now there can be no excuse for not knowing what your vendor means when talking about butt-registration or ceramic decals.

---

The Nonprofit Branding Blog is a service of VisABILITY. Look for product info on our website. Raise questions or make suggestions to John (jburke@visability.com) or call Janice or John at 303-823-0327. Keep up to date three ways: befriend our Facebook page | follow our Twitter feed | sign up for periodic product announcements