Truth 10 Ego means “danger ahead”
Truth 11 Brand metrics are the best measure of success
Truth 12 Complaints are jeweled treasures from your customer
Truth 13 Brand stewardship starts with you
Truth 14 Focused, simple, and clear: The cornerstones of your organization’s work
Truth 15 Marketing is courtship
Truth 16 Focus on mission is more valuable than focus on funding
Truth 17 It is not the medium; it is the message
Truth 18 Positioning lives in the mind of your audience
Truth 19 Jesus is the ultimate celebrity endorser
Truth 20 Satisfaction comes from being your best
Truth 21 Great positions endure
Truth 22 Your name is the cornerstone of your brand
Truth 23 Your brand drives your organization’s culture
Truth 24 Consistency is intentional and critical in marketing
Truth 25 Consumers will not buy if you aren’t different
Truth 26 The best taglines are meaningful, memorable, and motivating
Truth 27 Customer service is the touchpoint of your brand
Truth 28 Marketing and evangelization are connected, but distinct
Truth 29 It is easier to hit a smaller target
Truth 30 Brand extensions often diminish brand growth
Truth 31 Repositioning is often a fool’s chase
Truth 32 Consistency builds; compromise destroys
Truth 33 Clear is more critical than clever
Truth 34 Managing brands is often the opposite of common sense
Truth 35 Nothing happens until you are available
Truth 36 Awareness is a critical measurement
Truth 37 There is no purchase without trial
Truth 39 It is the “small stuff” that makes the biggest difference
Truth 40 It is all about creating loyalty
Foreword
Building and marketing strong brands plays a very important role in our economy — it helps consumers find a good match between the needs that they have and the myriad of products and services competing for attention.
These consumer needs can be as basic as protection from the weather (Patagonia clothing) or unexpected life events (Farmers Insurance). These needs can be at a more abstract level, such as the need for enjoyment (Norwegian Cruise Line) or to express our values (Volvo cars). Irrespective of the wide spectrum of needs that we have (even a need for spiritual fulfillment) and the myriad of brands populating (some might say cluttering) the marketplace, marketing is the basic process of communicating a meaningful proposition about a brand that will tap into a basic human need.
Donna A. Heckler brings a wealth of marketing and brand building experience across a variety of industries along with her own deep faith commitment to exploring how marketing and brand building principles can benefit spiritually based enterprises.
This book introduces many fundamental principles that have been time-tested — principles such as the importance of focus, brand clarity, empathy with the customer, simplicity, and consistency. Donna demonstrates through example how these principles help faith-based organizations better connect with their constituencies and help to make a stronger statement of the organization’s principles and values.
The short chapters you will find here weave together, in a very accessible way, contemporary branding concepts with examples of how these concepts have been successfully applied in practice. This book will hold up well over time and serve as a valuable resource over the years.
Brian D. Till
James H. Keyes Dean of Business Administration and Professor of Marketing at Marquette University, coauthor of The Truth About Creating Brands People Love
Author’s Preface
The premise of this book is very simple. I explore how we can take the elements that cause people around the world to become loyal to a brand and use these techniques to help people find God again.
I have spent my career in marketing. My expertise is in creating brands that matter, that are relevant, that are motivating to people. In today’s society, we measure success by gain, and according to that standard