Will Mancini

In reflecting on yesterday's post, several great church marketing campaigns come to mind.  One is Sugar Creek Baptist Church's "Live for a Change" initiative. When Auxano navigated the Vision Pathway with this church, they also contracted with us to build their brand, including logo, graphic identity, ministry sub-brands and messaging. The roll out included actual life testimonies of their people that were two sentences long with the exclamation point of "Live for a Change" They even put these testimonies on outdoor billboards (as part of an external ad blitz) in addition to saturating their internal media.  Here are a few snippets and a link to some of the stories. Notice the consistent photographic styling and use of the logo as a"bug" to reinforce the brand in these raw and intriguing banners. 

This book by Dan Roam is a fascinating read- in several hours he stretched my thinking about how people think and communicate. With a practical bent and witty style, Roam walks through how we digest the world visually and how this understanding can transform communication- from problem solving to boiling down complex ideas. The best part of the book is how Roam models the concept on each page with helpful and inspiring pictures all the way through.

I highly recommend this book to any leader or teacher, and especially anyone addicted to whiteboard like me. I have a notebook full of whiteboard drawings I use when I consult. This book messed with my mind by forcing me to reevaluate each one. Here is an example:

On page 211 of Church Unique, I show the “attunement grid”. This tool is designed to help leaders identify four kinds of people in church based on a person’s ability to see the vision and their willingness to contribute. Its uses a voyage metaphor yielding the four types as stowaways, passengers, crew, and pirates. I have always drawn this grid with words, but Roam would prefer I use picture. What do you think?

Abby, my nine year old is a wonderful drawing consultant!

In essence, we need to understand the power of branding and identity, and seriously reconsider how we express our faith to a skeptical and unbelieving world. p. 10

At its core, branding is simply the art of surrounding a product organization or person with a powerful and compelling story. p. 26

What do people think of when they think of you? p. 11

The media today is a digital cacophony of voices and images. To stand out in an ocean of choices takes more than excellent sermons, quality resources, professional programs and good intentions. p. 21

The world isn’t looking for a copy of a major religious leader; they’re looking for someone new, innovative and original. God gave you a unique DNA, so your job is to discover how your unique gifts and talents can differentiate your ministry from everyone else’s. p. 101

Its not so much about recreating or re-building a ministry; its more about cutting away the junk so the real ministry that’s inside can be released. p. 102

Better design isn’t just decoration; its connection. p. 156

The book quotes Patrick Hanlon on seven characteristics that branding and religion share (p. 72-80):

• The Creation Story
• The Creed
• The Icons
• The Rituals
• The Pagans of Non-believers
• The Scared Words
• The Leader

Since January of 2007, Facebook has experienced an average of 250,000 members each day…It is also the number one photo-sharing site on the web, with more than 14 million photos uploaded daily. p. 164

Friendships without relationship- it’s new territory for most of us. (with regard to Facebook) p. 166

Quoting Herbert Simon, “A wealth of information has created a poverty of attention.” p. 174

Branding isn’t an exact science. It’s organic, reflecting the changing culture, trends and ideas of each generation. p. 228

Remember the Unique Selling Proposition- what makes your product different from every other product in the marketplace. What makes your church different and unique today? Hopefully, its more than the snappy design of your church newsletter. p. 193

Recently one of our Navigator’s heard George Bodenheimer, ESPN’s CEO, speak and share their top eight leadership lessons. Here are the first four:

1) Define your mission…and drive it home. ESPN’s mission is to serve sports fans everywhere. It began in 1979 with the radical vision of providing a sports channel for 24 hours a day- a mind stretch for the typical television sports enthusiasts.

2) Understand your strengths. One of ESPN’s values is covering sports with authority and personality. When asked about the threat of the NFL network, the CEO replied that the NFL poses no threat at all. The reason? Simply stated the NFL can’t compete with ESPN’s strength of authority as an independent source.

3) Have passion for what you do. One way the employees of ESPN stay passionate is how they nurture an underdog spirit- another company value. The irony is that they remain the clear category leader, despite the fact that they think and act with the ethos and passion of the underdog.

4) Develop a winning culture that breeds and feeds on success. Overtime, ESPN has grown to be the worldwide leader of sports and one of the world’s premier brands with more than 40 business entities and counting – including seven domestic (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Today and ESPN Now) and 25 international television networks, ESPN HD, a simulcast service of ESPN in high-definition, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPN The Magazine and books, SportsTicker, the ESPN Zones (sports-themed restaurants), and other growing new businesses including ESPN Broadband, ESPN Wireless, ESPN Video-on-Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN Pay-Per-View. The beauty of the accomplishment is the blend of attention to corporate culture, focus on the mission and extension of the mission through creativity and innovation.