In Brand Matters’ final installment of the season, we welcomed Regan Hall Reinerth, senior marketing manager for the National Marrow Donor Program. Regan shared a fascinating, detailed story of the birth and launch of their new brand, Be The Match. Check out a full recording of Regan’s presentation here and watch a short video interview with her featuring additional insight right here:
Those of us living in the Twin Cities have seen it out in the market for a few years now, including on billboards, radio, television and, recently, their spanking new sign that’s decorating the registry’s headquarters in Northeast Minneapolis. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the campaign, it encourages individuals to join the Be The Match Registry to save the life of one of the thousands of patients in need of an unrelated marrow transplant. It’s a great case study of how a disciplined and creative approach to brand development can transform a stagnant, complex nonprofit organization into a dynamic, rapidly growing, consumer-friendly brand within a matter of a few years. You can get a complete story in the presentation slides below:
There were a lot of good points made throughout, but here are the juciest ones that we think are worth a shout-out:
Treat your legacy brand carefully. You’ll be surprised how much energy there is around your outdated, stagnant brand internally.
- NMDP chose a branding approach of introducing a new, consumer-facing brand under the umbrella of the legacy NMDP structure. Realizing there was still a lot of equity in it among certain insider groups, they didn’t just do away with NMDP. Yet I can’t help but wonder if this might be their long-term plan once Be The Match gains enough momentum in another few years. We’ll just have to wait and see.
- In the 20 years of their prior existence, the word “marketing” wasn’t mentioned very often at NMDP and everyone was used to the name, so there absolutely had to be buy-in and energy generated among staff and their actively involved board of directors. Therefore, the marketing team appointed brand ambassadors throughout the organization who helped shape and refine the campaign. They also kept their board updated on progress every step of the way.
Be simple and approachable. You want people to like you, and it’s hard to like a monolithic, impersonal thing called the National Marrow Donor Program.
- The new name was just one way in which NMDP became more approachable. They significantly simplified their message (down to: save a life, join Be The Match). They stuck to one call to action. They simplified their website, their public image and the language and methods they used to communicate. Social media became an important way for amplifying the message, finding new influencers and empowering people to get involved.
Zoom in closer. Be The Match proves once again how critical it is to have a solid research and strategy foundation and a clear target, especially for nonprofits operating on a limited budget.
- Regan’s team commissioned several surveys, conducted segmentation analysis and prioritized their targets to zoom in on two distinct 18- to 44-year-old groups: “Living My Faith” and “Socially Connected” personas. Moreover, they chose to focus just on seven markets first.
- This case study gives great ammunition to all nonprofit marketers out there who might be feeling pressure to cut back on research and generating insights upfront. So use it: download the slides, bookmark this post – you might need it one day.
Judging by the number of people lined up to speak to Regan after the presentation, her points hit home for a lot of people. Thanks, Regan, for being our guest.
Brand Matters now takes the summer off, but will be back in the Fall to celebrate its 12th season. We’ll see you all then.
