Branding | What’s on Your Mind? | Biggest Challenges and Brand Attributes
Today I completed my first marketing execution class at our local college. The topic: branding for non-profits. This is the first of four courses. It was good to hear that four people referred me as the instructor of choice. How’s that for branding and word-of-mouth?
Because I designed this to be a student-drive course, I started off asking about their biggest marketing and PR challenges. Here’s what we came up with:
- getting the message out on a limited budget
- raising awareness about an “invisible” population
- building advocacy
- delivering value
- promoting events and getting participation in advance
- recruiting volunteers and leaders
- conveying consistent messages
- how to generate viral marketing and buzz marketing across the generations
- how do you do marketing 101?
- changing public perception
- becoming a subject matter expert
We came up with these words to describe branding: identifiable, persuasive, targeted, recognizable, consistent, taglines, emotional appeal, relevant, trustworthy, credible, timely, influence, impact
In the personal branding exercise, I asked them to talk about their relationships to their target brands. Beverages, toothpaste and Tide made the top of the list. No one walked in with a Starbucks, but that’s because most of them have a love/hate relationship with not only Starbucks, but Target, McDonalds and Wal-Mart.
We found these common attributes across their favorite brands: energy [all Diet Coke drinkers], quality, fair, tradition, loyalty, informative, responsive, immediate, convenient, accessible, all-inclusive, personalized, excitement, partnership, collaboration, opportunity, efficiency, organization, mobility, cool, renewable resource, low cost, hand-made, all natural, sustainable, healthy, comfortable fit.
What’s your biggest branding challenge?
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My biggest branding challenge is focusing on one area and drilling deep. As a writer, marketer, blogger and PR practitioner, my talents often match my client’s needs, not my own personal preferences. That’s okay. I love blogging because I can track what attracts readers. What do you think?
Barbara Rozgonyi, Wired PR Works