Brand Identity
What do you want people to experience when they encounter you? What do you want people to say about your organization when you’re not in the room? In a nut-shell, that’s what branding is. Branding consists of your mission, your values, tone of voice, and the language you use, the culture and personality of your organization. It’s the way you make your community feel. It’s what they imagine in their minds when they think of you.
Brand Identity on the other hand, is all the visual elements that represent your brand. Brand Identity is the face of your organization while your brand is the heart & soul.
Brand Identity includes your website, emails, mailers, newsletters, bulletins, etc. Your brand identity sets you apart visually from the others in your community so that people know at a glance who you are, what you stand for, and what they can expect when they meet you. Yes! Brand Identity does a lot of heavy lifting. Mostly, it does this in the background without people realizing it. Psychology plays a big part in how people see different organizations and we will help you create a Brand Identity that fits everything about your brand.
Branding for Churches?
You actually already have a brand, whether you realize it or not. Branding is the personality or culture of your church. Every church has one and it can vary A LOT from church to church.
If you have ever looked at having someone refresh your website or your logo, they might have brought up the topic of branding. If so, you might have asked, “Does my church really need branding?” And the answer is — ABSOLUTELY — 100% — YES.
Even though churches have the same mission — to reach people for Christ — they do that in unique ways depending upon their culture, the people they’re trying to reach, and so much more. Each church has a unique feel to it and branding gives people a look at who you are as a church.
Branding is an experience. Branding consists of your mission, values, ministry vision, tone of voice, the language you use, so it’s like a huge plan of the experience that you want to present. It’s the way you make your community feel. It’s what they imagine in their minds when they think of your church. It’s so much more than a logo or the colors that you choose although that does add or detract from the experience. Another way of putting this is — What is the personality and culture of your church?
This personality should come through in EVERY communication that you send out. This includes your website, emails, mailers, newsletters, bulletin, etc. This branding sets you apart from the other churches in your community as well and shows what makes you different.
Many times people use Branding and Brand Identity terms interchangeably, but there is a difference. Brand Identity is the visual aspects of your brand. This includes: Fonts, photos, colors, patterns, logo, graphic elements. Brand Identity is the visual aspects. It’s the face of your church while Branding is the heart & soul. You want your branding (heart & soul) to shine through all the visuals and show people what’s at the core of who you are.
At Beautiful Grace, we partner with you to design the visual components to show your community the heart and soul of who you are.
Thank you so much. You hit right on what we are. I can't thank you enough!
Communication Audit
I do this audit to suggest refinements in your Communication Strategy and build a Connection Strategy that looks not only at improvements to your website, but also to emails, newsletters, flyers, bulletins, social media, brochures — basically every communication that you send out. The key here is to make sure that there is a consistent message across all touch points with your community.
After conducting this Communications Audit, I will present a Connection Strategy to you with suggestions on what can be improved and how I can help.