The BRAND strategy is a strategic framework for marketing and branding that focuses on organizational sustainability. It consists of 5 elements: Bias, Reliability, Alignment, Necessity, and Dependability. The strategy involves a 3 phase methodology: 1) Situational analysis to understand internal and external perceptions, 2) Need assessment to identify gaps, 3) Designing an action plan to address gaps and strengthen branding. The goal is to achieve internal cohesion, uniform external projection of the organizational identity and brand, and long-term brand sustainability to validate the organization's presence within its operating environment.

1. Increasing organizational sustainability through visibility: the
BRAND strategy
INTRODUCTION
The BRAND strategy is a strategic framework for marketing and/branding. It is
an acronym that stands for
B: Bias: this relates to the external bias within your operating environment. Why
should someone deem your services as better than others? 1
R: Reliability: the refers to the service and/product an organization provides;
the importance of retention of standard of production or service provision: the
service provided by an organization must always retain its quality to gain a
reliable reputation, or in the case of non profits, a reliable identification within
stakeholders to initiate and retain strong partnerships with key stakeholders
(ref# Box I)
A: Alignment: this refers to alignment within an organization; to which degree
do the internal staff members internalize the foundational
principles of an organization? Every organization has one
niche area2, and that serves as its foundational principle.
This principle must be internalized by staff and must be
projected through donor relations and through initiated
programs.
N. Necessity: This is the validation an organization gains,
within its operating environment, to coexist; it is the
recognition by external stakeholders of the necessity of an
organization, giving them the capacity to align to the
principles of the theory of change:
“The Theory of Change is a foundational principle that
guides all development, non profit motivated work. It is a
concept that encourages organizations to initiate
modifications and changes in policy and practice, where
required. It is a way to initiate sustainable change that
would facilitate development”
Therefore necessity is what the theory of change aims towards, i.e. the necessity
of one organization to remain within its operating environment; and this
necessity or validation for existence is reiterated by the capacity of an
organization to remain in alignment with the theory of change.
D. Dependability: Dependability is in interrelated to Bias and necessity which is
the result of reliable service; in a uniform manner that retains standard at all
times. Once this standard is projected to the external community, it creates
1 all I/NGOs operating in Bangladesh (insert number) work with similar issues,
such as empowerment, poverty reduction, DRR, rights based advocacy etc. Yet
what makes one stand out in any field?
2 Niche area of expertise is the area in terms of programs and/projects that an
organization excels in; what they do better than others. For SCiBD that would be
maternal health
Stakeholders are for non
profits, what consumers
are for commercial
enterprises; in the case of
non profits, stakeholder
relations, equate to
consumer bases for profit
generating organizations.
Through strengthening
external stakeholder
relations, an organization
gains the capacity to
remain in alignment with
the Theory of Change
Box 1

2. dependability and bias within stakeholders, and ultimately necessity
and/validation for an organization within not only its stakeholders, but its entire
operating environment.
Figure1 The BRANDstrategy: expected outcomes
The BRAND strategy:
So why use the brand strategy and what accrued benefits does it hold for an
organization? The BRAND strategy is a marketing framework, that is focused on
analyzing the current brand identity, both internally and externally, and
suggesting ways in which marketing could become more than a short term tool
for fundraising. This strategy’s objective is long term sustainable branding
or marketing, it is a mode for creating an identity that seperates the
organization from its competitors or peers.
METHODOLOGY:
The methodology is based on two separate branding strategies: the BnB
(Breakthrough Non profit Branding) and the brand IDEA3. Both these
concepts look at brand integrity, and brand sustainability, through an internal
lens: it sees branding as a gradual concept, an exercise that ensures inward
alignment to ensure uniformity in external projections. Our approach will
proceed in three phases. This would, in the case of non profit/not for profit4 this
method would include:
3 The brand IDEA is a strategic concept developed by Stanford University: it,
alike the BnB looks at branding as an inward out process; internal cohesion that
would increase external brand projection and sustainability.
4 Non profits are organizations that do not usually involve themselves in profit
generating activities, this is most relevant to INGOs. Not for profit organizations
Necessity
(the validation
for operating
within a
nation)
alignment
(internal)
reliability
(external
projection)
Dependability
(External
dependence on an
organization)
Bias
(External
preference created
due to reliable
service and bias

3. PHASE ONE
(a) Situational Analysis: the first phase would include a situational analysis
based on the SWOT technique (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats).
This would include internal and external consultations, to gain an understanding
of how the brand or the organizational goal is perceived internally by staff (is it
aligned?) and how the external community perceives an organization (do they
recognize the impact of the work conducted). For internal consultations this may
require field visits to the most important district offices as well as the head office
as this is an all inclusive process.
(b) Data analysis: Our research and data collection team will analyse the data
collected, identify the internal gaps in internalizing brand and/organizational
principle; and the external identification (whether it is to expected level or below
par) of the organization, if such a gap exists.
PHASE TWO:
(a) Need Assessment: Based upon the findings of the situational analysis, and
identified gaps, the team will work on a need based work plan, that would aid
internal cohesion, uniformity in brand identification, and uniform and constant
external communication which would help create identification within the
operating community. Partnership strengthening is of importance for non profits
for it helps it retain its alignment to the theory of Change, therefore, for non
profits, gaps that create barriers to partnership strengthening will be our focus.
The gaps beings referred to usually relate to:
(i) non uniformity in external projection and/interaction: it is important to
have a cohesive perception of ones own organizational vision, and its mission,
objective, goals and initiatives need to be focused on its vision; its foundational
principle. Despite the difference between programmatic focus5, the foundational
focus must remain uniform. For instance, Action Aid has the principle of
eradicating poverty (their foundational principle that guides their programs and
projects): all their initiatives therefore must be focused on poverty eradication
or alleviation; and staff members must internalize this goal. If this message isn’t
uniform in all activities, in this case, standing up for the marginalized, then the
organizational alignment and its external communications too will be unaligned.
(ii) lack of interaction with stakeholders: an organization may do a lot of useful
and necessary work, which is also resonant to national and millennium
development goals, yet interaction with stakeholders, in order to project this
contribution may be low. In this case, interaction with key stakeholders gain
precedence: this group would include Government institutions and/bodies
related to organizational work, donor representatives and civil society
organizations, as well as those directly impacted by project work. Such
are also development organization, yet those that involve themselves on income
generating activities
5 Sectors are referring to programs that each I/NGO works with, which in most
cases is multiple; however the organizational goal should guide these
programmatic initiatives

4. interaction is not only relevant to compliance 6but also because through such
interaction holistic change can be achieved: it would entail collective learning so
that when a program ends, its impact remains.
(iii) Lack of exposure: advocacy and thereby visibility is important for I/NGOs; it
aids in partnership strengthening and enables an organization to have leverage
in changing policies when required. Often lack of interaction with civil society,
exposure through media alliance causes problems in creating the required
visibility for an organization.
At the end all that is crucial for non profits and/not for profit organizations is
their ability to align to the national development goals of their operating
environment; and to internalize the principles of their niche area of expertise7
which are aligned to national development interests. By internalizing the
principles, reiterated by their niche area, which must align to national
development interest 8 an organization needs to create the exposure, through
interaction and visibility that would allow them to be pioneers in their niche area
of expertise and thereby create their viability and validity with key stakeholders.
(ii) Designing a plan of action: based on the need assessment study, we will
design a plan of action, which would allow an organization to address the
branding and/visibility based gaps, if they exist, and help make the cohesive
approach stronger and more effective. Our team, upon analysis of collected data,
will assess where these gaps lie and will work with the organization, through
various exercises, internally, to initiate a increased internalization of brand
and/organizational identity
RECOMMENDATIONS:
The above mentioned focal points are universal: as in they will be focal points for
all strategic marketing frameworks; however, the need assessment and
evaluation will serve as the foundations for any approach. This means that the
branding strategy will be designed in accordance to the needs of an organization
following the situational analysis. This is where Phase three comes into the
picture: where our team designs, based on organizational needs, the best
framework that addresses its challenges in branding. However, as mentioned our
team will work towards:
Internal cohesion and coordination: this would focus on the internal
cohesion within an organization, which would include identification within
an organization that is uniform. Every staff member must identify with the
purpose or the organizational identity they represent. This relates to
internalizing the ideals purported by an organization, what it truly represents. In
the case of non profits that work in multiple sectors, the implication would be
despite difference in focus, the primary identification should not be with
6 the circular “Working Conditions of foreign or foreign funded non
governmental organizations operating in Bangladesh” 2012, clearly states that
foreign aid must be used for national development objectives.
7 A niche area of expertise is that programmatic area in which an organization
excels: where there services are more effective than others operating in their
environment,
8 A niche area of expertise must be aligned to national and millennium
development goals of a nation: it must resonate a country’s development goals

5. specific programs, but with what the organization represents. Therefore
coordination can occur across sectors, since the primary objective is unified.
Uniform external projection: the organization’s representatives must always
represent the organizational ideal. All its projections, interactions and
representations must align to organizational core ideals9. These ideals would
lead to participation in issues relative to core ideals, uniform interaction with
key stakeholders, effective projection of impact and increased visibility resulting
from uniform brand projection focused on niche area of expertise.
Brand sustainability: this is relative to uniform external projection or brand
representation: when an organization speaks one language that is relative or of
interest to its key stakeholders10; and this language, must not deviate and all its
services must focus on its brand identity. This would lead to recognition within
its external operating environment.
Organizational sustainability: Organizational sustainability is what defines the
core of the BRAND strategy; it is a needs assessment based framework that
facilitates the utilization of brand and/organizational identity to create a bias
within its operating community towards its product and/service. This in turn
will result in the validation of an organization, and its necessity of operation.
Such bias and necessity is the result of reliable service, and visibility, both of
which lead to dependability on one organization over another. And such reliable
service provision and dependent stakeholders and/consumers can only be
initiated through internal cohesion and coordinated approach.
Concluding remarks:
In conclusion we can say that the BRAND strategy is an extensive marketing
framework with two lens: one that focuses inwards and through that initiates a
cohesive external approach. The external image which encapsulates the
brand or organizational identity; one that provides it with the separate image
from others relevant to its operating environment. This framework’s objective
is to provide a cohesive need based strategy through which an organization
can gain the leverage, which allows its existence and necessitates its presence
with its area of operation.
9 Core ideals are the foundational pillars of an organization and define what its
vision and mission are.
10 Stakeholders are for non profit organizations what a consumer base is to profit
generating organizations: these are the groups that help in organizational
sustainability