Page 20 - Voices.May.2016

Who Do You Think You Are?

A Short and Sweet Branding Exercise

by Janet Hager

More importantly, who do your prospective know what that is, because you want to work with
members think you are? If their image of you members who want that passion. Those are the
isn’t the same as your image of you, then you’re members who are more likely to be your best fit,
not attracting your best-fit members. If you want the people who love your club and everything
to correct the issue (seriously, how could you you do for them, the people you love to serve.
not want to correct that issue?) you’ve got some
branding work to do. Now. . .

You can’t control the brand image people
build of your company; that happens in their own
head. The best you can do is give them the best
possible building blocks to work with—evocative
marketing and branding materials that reso-
nate with the right people. Those best possible
building blocks come from being extremely clear
about who you are as a club, what you value, and
what you stand for.

There are lots of brand discovery processes
and frameworks you can use to get that clarity.
Here are just a few of the questions Tinfish asks
our clients when we do brand discovery work:

What adjectives do you want people to use when they Read over your answers. Hold them in
talk about what it’s like to work with you? your head. Think about the experience you’re
giving during club meetings. Think about what
When your members are talking about what members say when they talk about your club.
it’s like to be a member of your chapter, what do Think about what you tell prospective members
you want them to say? Not what do you think they when they visit your club. Do those interactions
currently say, but what do you want them to say? reflect who you really are, to the people you
Sometimes it also helps to think of a spectrum; really want to work with?
would you rather be perceived as professional
and formal or casual and informal, or somewhere Janet Clesse Hager joined Toastmasters for
in between? Intellectual or plain-talking? Funny Speaking Professionals in 2015, and became a Voices!
or serious? staff writer in 2016. She can help you figure out what
makes your company different, who needs to know
Why should a prospective member choose your chapter, about it, and how to connect the two. She’s a marketing
rather than some other club? and branding specialist, a dynamic speaker, distiller
of information, and solver of problems. Her company
What you’re looking for is an essential quality is called Tinfish Initiatives.
that’s not easily replicated by another club. Or
you can try thinking of it in reverse: members
love our club because. . .

What are the people in your club passionate about?
This is a way of getting at your club’s true
passion, the aspect of your club that makes your
face light up when you talk about it. You want to

20 Volume 2 Issue 11 - MAY 2016