Giving Compass' Take:

• The author provides advice for social entrepreneurs to elevate their brand architecture and how to visualize all the components of the brand strategy. 

• Does brand strategy differ for social enterprises and nonprofits? In what ways? 

• Read about how nonprofits can redefine their brands to make their impact clear and potentially more effective. 

Last summer a social enterprise that had successfully launched a savings product for health care on mobile phones in an East African country came to our branding agency with a problem. It had managed to win people’s trust in its ability to keep their money safe. But the secret to building that trust was quickly becoming the company’s biggest challenge—one that could end up costing them millions of dollars over the long term.

The way organizations structure their brands, and how these brands relate to or differ from each other, is called brand architecture, and it is one of the highest-level strategic decisions organizations can make. The temptation to create a new brand is always there, and it is easy to fall for it. A new brand can be an effective communication vessel if you are moving into a new market, if a new type of audience doesn’t relate to your current brand, or if your mission, values, or price-positioning are at odds with your current brand.

Partnering with an established organization can provide startups with an incredible boost, but it is important to consider the consequences of marrying brands. Visualization—of both the present and future—can make the decision process much more tangible. A brand takes years to build, so organizations should make sure to anticipate factors that will come into play as it evolves and realizes its ambitions.

In the end, very few startups and even established companies can afford to spread their budget, manpower, and attention across two or more brands. Consider: For every brand you manage, you will need to allocate legal fees, name creation fees, trademarking, domain registration, a visual and verbal identity, messaging, content creation, PR, advertisements, ongoing channel management, a social media following, and more.

Read the full article about branding by Anne Miltenburg on Stanford Social Innovation Review