Recently I was conducting a master class and workshops at an international fundaising conference in Noordwijk in the Netherlands. With my beyond branding perspective I was arguing for an authentic approach to branding based on buyer-centricity. I sensed that most people came into the classes with an advertising/PR led view of branding and certainly some of the questions reflected that. While advertising can contribute to more effective fundraising (I'm always reminded of the man in the chair McGraw Hill ad that stresses the importance of selling before the salesman appears) it cannot do so by itself. There is also a danger that NGOs fall into many of the same traps that their commercial counterparts do: namely generating communications that diverge from organizational reality; in other words, inauthentic communications. This is something that the sector seems to be struggling with. Certainly fundraising communications often generate advertising that is designed to emotionally engage the audience, while having little relationship to the essence of the organization's activity. The motivations for this are understandable, but it does open NGOs to criticisms about their accountability if they are fundraising on one message and spending it in another way. The reassuring aspect of the conference was that at least some of the attendees seemed enthused by a less advertising, more authentic approach to brand building. posted by nicholas, 3:25 PM  permalink