Interview

Willow: Let’s start with the basics: What is branding?

Dawn Nicole: Branding is the practice of creating an identity and an experience that reflects the mission, culture, and personality of your organization. As a church, your brand is a lot more than a good logo. It is what distinguishes your church from other churches. More importantly, it’s what distinguishes your church from all the other brands your church competes with on Sunday mornings … Wal-Mart, NFL Football, Gameboy, etc.

Willow: Should church leaders be thinking about the “brand” of their organizations?

Roland: The answer is definitively YES! That is, if they want to reach more people for Christ. Applying diligence to the issues of branding and marketing is not only the work of marketplace companies like Coca-Cola and IBM. Marketing at its essence is the practice of meeting people’s needs — and that applies to institutions of all kinds. As Christian churches, our calling is to meet the spiritual needs of our communities through our presentation of the gospel. Jesus was especially focused on meeting the unique needs of people and communicating in relevant terms. He calls us to“go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to everyone.”Our success in fulfilling the Great Commission is, in large part, determined by how well we, as churches, reach and relate with the particular audience we’re called to serve. That’s where branding helps.

Willow: How does the “brand” support a church’s vision?

Roland: We’ve always believed that every church has a unique thumbprint. One church’s brand can be vastly different from another’s, and should be. One church’s primary aim may be to unite young people across the cultural divide in an urban setting. Another church may be called to create servant hearts through its thriving missions program. That’s why it is important to be conscious about what kind of church you are or want to be, and to whom — this is the essence of your brand strategy. Keeping a strategic focus on your brand should translate to a steady flow of new visitors. Not just any visitors — but the visitors your church is uniquely called to serve.

Willow: Do churches really need a brand strategy? Can’t they just design a new logo or redesign their Web site?

Dawn Nicole: Usually when a church approaches us, that’s what they want, a new logo, an upgraded Web site, a redesigned bulletin. But we ask questions to determine what is at the source of the need. Is the current site not structured to support current growth? Is the logo not reflective of the culture of your church? Usually it becomes clear the underlying issues run much deeper, and we need to spend time developing a strategy of how to move forward. The creative work is just a visual interpretation of this strategy. Otherwise, it’s like building a house without blueprints.

As far as the Web site is concerned, this can be one of the most strategic communications vehicle you have — it is a window into the heart of your church. It needs to be structured to meet the goals of your ministry, be easy to navigate, and visually reflect the unique culture of your church. My husband, Keith [the creative designer behind both the WCA and the Willow Creek Community Church Web sites] and I see so many churches that end up re-doing their Web sites after just a couple years because it’s not meeting their needs. It isn’t an accurate reflection of who they are, or what they want to be. The best advice I can give is to invest time up front to develop the strategy and think through questions like: “Who are we trying to reach? What is the purpose of our site? What is special about our church?” This approach takes a little more time, but it pays off.

Willow: What are the elements of a successful brand strategy?

Roland: These can be summarized with three similar questions: Who, What and How. Who are you called to serve? What is special about your church? How do you reach your audience? I think every church needs to wrestle with those questions every few years because sometimes those factors change. An audience may change. The community’s demographics may change. The church’s focus may change. All of these factors will affect the church’s branding strategy.

Willow: Can you provide examples of other churches that have used branding effectively to transition and grow their churches?

Dawn Nicole: Three come to mind and they’re all WCA Member Churches: Pinellas Community Church, in St. Petersburg, Fla., a beach side community church that doubled its size by overhauling its image to become a truly multicultural congregation; Northwest Assembly of God, in Mt. Prospect, Ill., a traditional, suburban church that got intentional with its out-reach efforts to target younger adults and families; and Asbury United Methodist Church, in Little Rock, AR, a southern United Methodist church that gained renewed purpose for reaching its community, and is reversing declining attendance trends.

Willow: Both of you were instrumental in the WCA’s re-branding efforts. What was the approach you used?

Dawn Nicole: We first needed to discover the “Who.” Who is the WCA serving? We spent a lot of time researching this question. There is such a wide range of church leaders who attend conferences and use Willow resources — they cover many different denominations from many different countries. But from the focus groups we con-ducted, we saw that there is definitely a consistent profile. WCA serves progressive church leaders. They are learners, visionaries, and risk takers. They are out there trying new things with their ministries, boldly following God’s call for their church.
Roland: We also devoted a lot of time to discovering the “What.” What does the WCA stand for? What is the essence of the brand? To do this, we conducted a series of strategy exercises with the Willow leadership team where we filled many flip chart pages and got everyone’s input. We also talked to the “customer” — that is, the pastors of WCA Member Churches — through interviews and focus groups to find out their perspectives. And we prayed for God’s guidance.

Previous logo

New Logo

Willow: What did you learn?

Roland: A few things: After collecting input from over 100 people we learned that the essence of the WCA brand has to do with the values that unite the Members of the Association. Willow is all about two things: reaching the unchurched and leading people into full devotion to Christ.That’s what resonates most with Member Churches.
We also learned that most people already shorten the name to “Willow.” That one word encapsulates for most people all the values that the brand represents: Reaching Seekers – Building Believers. And the “Creek” wasn’t as important — it’s not where most of the equity is. In branding, usually less is more. Federal Express is a well-known example of this. They discovered similar findings in their research, and they changed their brand name to “FedEx.”
We also learned that an effective tagline helps crystallize the brand’s focus. We held three different brainstorming sessions to try to find a phrase that best reflects what Willow stands for. A good tagline will do that with just a few words. We were really starting to get discouraged, and then it happened. At the last brainstorming meeting, Mark Mittelberg offered up the perfect tagline: “Reaching Seekers – Building Believers.” As soon as Mark said it, we all knew it captured the heart of Willow perfectly. Mark said the words had come to him in a Holy Spirit moment just one day earlier, as he was driving across a desolate stretch of highway in his home state of North Dakota.

Willow: What does the new Willow logo represent?

Dawn Nicole: We wanted to maintain some of the elements of the previous logo … the stylized “W” that resembles a wave, and the blue color palette. But we felt the new logo needed to have a more contemporary and decisive look — reflecting the progressive, visionary characteristics of WCA Member Churches. After narrowing it down to several options, Jim Mellado got input from members of our customer audience as well as Bill Hybels and others who understand the heart of the WCA.

Willow: Because branding is something we typically associate with the business world, what would you say to churches who may be intimidated by the whole concept?

Dawn Nicole: There’s absolutely no reason why churches need to settle for second best. The secular world markets to seekers at such a high level, and if you are wanting to reach this group it’s important to meet them where they’re at. This doesn’t mean you need to create all kinds of glossy, color brochures. But it does mean we have to be intentional in our planning and make the budget work hard for us. Remember, we’re told to be “wise as serpents and gentle as doves.” I think there is great wisdom in getting an effective branding strategy to work for our churches and maximize the most important Message in the world.