A roundup of resources to get your brand architecture on the right track

Over the years, Big Duck has dedicated a ton of thinking to brand architecture—strategies for expressing the relationships between a nonprofit’s programs, events, initiatives, and organizational voice.”.

Brand architecture can get complicated, especially for mid-size and larger organizations, but finding and maintaining a purposeful strategy is an essential part of smart communications.

The benefits of clear brand architecture are powerful: marketing materials take less time and energy to create, staff speak in a more cohesive way about the organization, and audiences see the full picture of the work, making relationship-building (and all the good stuff that comes with it—attracting donors, raising awareness, recruiting, etc.) easier.

If you’re just beginning to think about brand architecture and define the best strategy for your nonprofit, here are some resources that should help rev up—and add clarity—to the process:

• Brand architecture: Strategies to strengthen your nonprofit’s family of programs, events, and initiatives is a free ebook outlining the basics of brand architecture. You’ll find definitions of four key strategies for organizing sub-brands (from least to most unified), successful nonprofit examples of each strategy with visuals, plus Big Duck’s recommendations.
• Don’t make it harder to get the attention you deserve identifies common challenges and barriers organizations face when it comes to clear brand architecture. Seemingly small acts—like developing separate websites for programs or creating a unique name for an upcoming event—add up to a big problem in brand architecture and in how audiences perceive a nonprofit’s work as a whole.
• Brand architecture: Rethinking how you connect the dots of your programs is a webinar hosted by Sarah Durham, Big Duck’s CEO, and Deborah Goldberg, Director of Communications at Union for Reform Judaism. Their conversation offers an expert look at brand architecture as they share insights for organizing and expressing nonprofit brands in a clear, purposeful way that audiences will understand.

• Why bad brand architecture happens to good organizations explores what factors cause nonprofit brands to get so complicated and disconnected over time. This insight will give you the tools to pinpoint where weak brand architecture decisions stem from (or where they’re lacking completely) and steps to tackle those factors head on.
  

The road to clear brand architecture is tough to navigate alone. We hope these resources offer some direction to get you going, but understand if you need a helping hand through the process. Just give Big Duck a call—we’d love to guide you through what you need to achieve clarity.