Lesson 2: Promote a Consistent Message
"Preach THE WORD"
While the Catholic Church operates all across the world in many different cultures, a consistent message is always promoted. The message was first delivered by Jesus Christ and documented in the many gospels. However, there was some confusion as different, competing gospels and dogmas were promulgated. In order to minimize the confusion and develop a truly catholic, or universal, church, Constantine convened the first council of Nicea in AD 325 to document and agree upon the official creed or beliefs of the church.
A brand that has more than one core belief has no true core belief. Just as with a religious organization, it is important to understand the message of the brand and to make sure that it is promoted in all touchpoints with consumers and potential consumers.
posted by M. Scott Laemmle @ 6:54 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Consistent? You're going to have to address the Davinci Code with this one. Sure, it's supposedly a work of fiction, however, one must question whether every reader takes it as such. The Church obviously thinks it's worth rebutting (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4350625.stm)
Also important to the promotion of a consistent message is the need to manage and maintain expectations associated with a brand. Central to the idea, importance and value of a brand is the public's expectation of the message associated with that brand. What is the message of the Catholic brand and is the Catholic brand meeting that expectation?
Thanks for the excellent comments. I will go into more detail about the expectation that is associated with the Catholic Brand in future posts.
I am particularly intrigued by the comment about the Da Vinci Code. That has potential to lead to some very interesting discussions about brand dilution and brand tarneshment. We will definately have to explore that in more detail on this site.
Thanks, again for the comments - M. Scott.
You may also want to address changes in Church doctrine under this lesson. The one that comes immediately to mind is the Church's twentieth century position on the death penalty and how that "message" changed over time. You could go in many directions with this, including discussion on whether the Church changes its message over time to grow market share.
Another excellent point! Actually, one of the upcoming branding lessons is that good brands evolve over time. Despite the many claims that the Catholic church is too strict and too traditional, the Church has evolved significantly over time.
An important consideration to this lesson also is when to change your brand (perhaps this will be another lesson you intend to address). It is said "as seldom as possible, and as often as necessary." Although consistency and repetition are important to the development of a brand, markets change, other things change, even in the area of religion. When those changes occur, one has to consider whether change to the brand in many or very few respects must follow. How do you make such changes without making sacrifices -- without alienating your "customers" and their loyalty. One could say, the Catholic Church has done a very careful and commendable job in gently and incrementally making changes to address market conditions to ensure customer retention and loyalty. Others may look at this with disfavor and criticize the Church for being too strict, unyielding and traditional.
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