Building Brand Image and Driving Demand for Non-Profits Through Longevity, Empathy, and Trust
Erika Kloehn, Advisor at O’Brien Advising, opens up about her career in the non-profit sector and offers valuable insights on how today’s brands can cultivate a loyal customer base and drive consumer demand.
Erika Kloehn is a marketing, operations, and business development executive who specializes in driving and scaling growth in complex markets to consumer and B2B audiences. As an Advisor at O’Brien Advising, Erika serves as a consultant for non-profit organizations seeking advice and execution on business development, analysis of growth opportunities, business strategies for scalability, and fundraising program analysis.
Erika and the O’Brien Advising team often come in when an organization is making a big change, like starting a major giving program, building a sustainer or monthly giving program, or standing up a donor journey. They work with clients to evaluate whether the timing is right for this kind of change and then help them go all the way from proof of concept to supporting and sustaining the new program.
The Continuum recently sat down with Erika to discuss why non-profit organizations still have to consider brand and demand and the unique challenges that can bring.
One of your first jobs outside of an agency was working with a healthcare system. Is there a different approach to marketing health care than other products and services?
The selling strategy is really similar to other consumer products. You have to remember that you're marketing to a person who will have needs, wishes, and wants. In that case, I was working for a system that owned hospitals where people would come for elective surgeries. You had to be able to paint a picture of what life would be like for them if they had this procedure. You also had to show that these patients get the best possible care, that they would return to their families quickly, that they would return to work soon, and that they would have fewer - if any - complications.
That was our marketing angle, but it first depends on the product line. What do customers want? For something like cancer treatment, people were most interested in receiving treatment at a facility that is more technically advanced, and you need to focus on showing competence. In other places, like an outpatient surgery center, the focus will be on comfort. You have to put yourself in the patient's shoes and think, am I going to be in this comfortable space? Am I going to have friendly people helping me? Am I going to receive juice after my procedure? We actually tested that one – we asked if, after a procedure, people would rather have the doctor come talk to them or get snacks. They wanted the snacks.
You worked at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a cancer hospital for children that has become a widely known brand. What was that like, and what were the challenges in that role?
I have come to realize what an honor it was to work with the real deal. One of my roles was to produce the TV creative and get it on air. I would take film crews through the hospital and be in meetings with families and kids receiving treatment. I've never seen families be taken care of so well. It was extraordinary.
When I joined, St. Jude had just experienced significant growth and was coming out of a grow-at-all-costs marketing mentality. I came in to optimize the growth trajectory and streamline how the direct response work was being done. We focused on acquiring sustaining, or monthly, donors, and we were able to make considerable growth happen, not just in the number of sustaining donors coming in but in the systems required to sustain that. We upgraded digital platforms, database structures, media strategies, and creative development processes so we could keep up with the increased volume.
That was also when they started moving away from long-form television into other models, including digital. Of course, St. Jude was famous for their telethon back when there were only a few TV channels. Then they moved to the hour-long TV special, which worked well for 10 or 15 years. It was hugely effective and generated a lot of loyal donors, but it wasn’t sustainable or scalable. A one-hour special isn’t a standard TV format. We would negotiate with stations to get it placed annually, but even that time was getting less and less available. And you can’t stream an hour-long special on digital.
We had to make changes and take a harder look at shorter-form content, especially as the internet was becoming more ubiquitous and TV advertising options were becoming more fragmented. We had to decide on the right length for telling a compelling story. That’s when a three-to-five-minute spot started to emerge. On TV, it’s a full break format—meaning it uses all of the commercial time between segments of the show. It can also work on digital. I left St. Jude years ago, but this is a format that’s still working for them.
“You have to remember that you're marketing to a person who will have needs, wishes, and wants.”
We talk a lot about brand and demand on the Continuum. How are the concepts of brand and demand different for non-profits looking to build a donor base than for a company looking to sell a product?
Great question. When I think of demand in a consumer space, the question is how do we generate enough demand for this product to realize a scalable retail strategy and get it on the shelves in stores? The messaging for that often starts with generating demand from a person so that you can get them to say, “I need this thing.” My hair is terrible, I need this new shampoo, or I just can’t live without this widget that will make cooking easier. The message is, “My life will be better if I buy this.”
I think that's where the segue to nonprofit and getting people to give is very similar. You are still trying to get people to say, “My life will be better if I do this.” Moving over to nonprofit messages, it starts with showing them something that makes them uncomfortable. Something they can’t stand. So that they say, “If that’s happening, I want to do something about this. I HAVE to do something about this.” This time, however, you’re talking about people’s lives or animals’ well-being, but it’s still similar in that you’re telling a story with images that are powerful and have enough impactful to make someone want to take action.
I think there’s more difference on the non-profit side when it comes to brand because you can overdo the brand message. There’s a tendency to want to show how successful your organization is and tell a story of only success. I’ve often heard, ‘Why would anyone want to give to us if all we show is need? Stop with the sad pictures!’ So, the brand team creates positive, feel-good messaging, and the direct response team produces need-based messaging to raise money. The brand spending often dwarfs direct response. Consumers can get confused because now you created the awareness but suggested the problem is solved. Then, people you reach with the direct response message feel they no longer have to take action themselves.
Where you need branding is building trust in an organization. Leveraging longevity, telling authentic stories, and making empathetic connections with your target audience to get them to care while carefully showing organizational impact is the challenge of non-profit brand marketers. Donors are giving because they feel a connection to a particular problem an organization is helping to solve. Direct response messaging helps the donor understand they are the hero, directly helping solve the problem. Brand messaging then supports the emotional decision a donor makes by affirming that the organization is worthy of their donation, helping to both rationalize and encourage continued giving to that organization.
“Where you need branding is building trust in an organization. Leveraging longevity, telling authentic stories, and making empathetic connections with your target audience to get them to care while carefully showing organizational impact is the challenge of non-profit brand marketers.”
How do you develop brand and demand messages that resonate with potential donors? Do you change messages once someone has already given?
As always, the short answer is testing. You just keep editing, testing, and refining your way into something that works in multiple spaces. You have to try out different campaigns, messages, and images. Are they looking at the camera? Are they not looking at the camera? Are they beautiful shots? Ugly shots? What gets you to “This makes me uncomfortable. My life would be better if I did something about this. I need to contribute to this” without burning out donors?
You have to change messaging for donors who have already given because you want to affirm that they’ve done the right thing, but the messages must be just as hard-hitting. Often, it’s about providing updates and then introducing new needs. At St. Jude, it was showing beautiful children fighting terrible diseases with new stories each month. You were constantly reminded that their treatment was going to take a long time, and the fight was hard. Donors appreciated reading the stories of the brave children and families and felt connected. You couldn’t help but continue to give to us. With the ASPCA or other animal charities, maybe you show a new place recently discovered full of animals needing immediate care. The more you can talk about the work you're doing for an individual you're serving and caring for, the more people will feel like they are part of that work.
“The more accurately you tell your story, the more you will attract the people you want and get them to engage with your brand.”
What have you learned from the non-profit space that you would want to share with consumer marketers?
Focus on authenticity in your messaging. Consumers are more observant than you think, and aligning the brand and direct response messaging will help reduce confusion. When there is misalignment, distrust can start to form. The more accurately you tell your story, the more you will attract the people you want and get them to engage with your brand.
Secondarily, track everything. Learn whatever you can about the engagement from what your customers tell you and incorporate that back into your work. It’s a loop. They’re telling you all sorts of things all the time—when they click on an email, when they opt out of an email, when they like something in a post, when they don't like something in a post, when they comment on a post, when they visit your site, when they don’t visit your site, when they call you and complain—it’s all excellent information. Track absolutely everything and start looking for trends.
September 5, 2024
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