Building Brand Champion Basics For Your Association

5/12/2017

Engagement matters for everyone. That’s what I learned last month at the 2017 Healthcare IT Marketing and PR Conference (HITMC) in Las Vegas. I had the distinct privilege of serving on a panel that focused on “How to Create Synergistic Relationships with Associations.” While my session was a lot of fun and truly enlightening, I was more intrigued by Gary Rhoads (learn more about Professor Rhoads here: http://bit.ly/2q8fEPy) and his presentation on “Creating Customer and Employee Engagement.” We all know that higher levels of customer and employee engagement lead to more positive business outcomes and higher shareholder wealth. With Professor Rhoads, we focused more on the fact that few companies know how to create engagement. So, how does that translate to your business for Associations? Simple.

Let Members Be The Face of Your Association

Conceptually, most Association leaders think it’s easy. They claim to understand that their members are experts in the field, but when you start to surf through their content or attend an event, most of the people leading the conversation come from outside the membership. While that’s helpful at times, it should not be the only resource. Through your Association, help elevate your members to be those topic-based thought leaders. Think about it like this:

Brand Champions = Engagement
Engagement = Value
Value = Retention

Brand Champions Outside The Executive Suite

An Association with strong Brand Champions outside of the Executive Team and Board are positioned better for long-term success because members are more likely to forgive bumps in the road when they have deep emotional connections and loyalties to a brand (organization). Positive Brand Champions helps an Association navigate through macro-environmental challenges far more easily than those Association who either have little or negative brand equity or those who rely too heavily on leaders to be the face of the organization. Is it important for the Board and Executive Team to be the face of the Association? Yes. But should they be the ONLY face? No.

Developing Inspired Brand Champions

An important step in identifying your potential Brand Champions is understanding where passionate performers come from. Consider for a moment:

Emerging Leaders
Student Leaders
Volunteers

Surprisingly, it’s not always just those emerging leaders that you think will help make a big impact in the market. Look beyond those members and consider those who are:

Disengaged
Disgruntled
“Seasoned” (long-term members)
Hesitant to change

5 Stages of Build A Brand Champion

Building a Brand Champion for your Association is a marathon, not a sprint. Its takes time to cultivate the right relationships and form a lasting bond with these members so that they can help spread the work and word of your Association to other members, current and potential. Building a Brand Champion leads to brand loyalty, and with brand loyalty comes increased market share. There are 5 stages of brand experience that lead to positive brand loyalty and building the right Champions:

Brand Awareness: Members are aware of the brand. They see content produce by your Association or potentially know another member.
Brand Recognition: Members recognize the brand and know what it offers versus competitors.
Brand Trial: Members attend an event hosted by your Association. They want to see if there really is value and if they “click” with the other members.
Brand Preference: Members like the brand and invest is a full membership. They begin to develop emotional connections to the organization.
Brand Loyalty: Members truly believe in the brand and rely on your Association to help them navigate their professional lives. As loyalty increases so do emotional connections.

The Work Isn’t Done After Brand Loyalty Is Built

Once members reach the Brand Loyalty stage, your work isn’t done. The challenge is not only building brand equity to reach widespread loyalty, but also to sustain that loyalty and positive brand equity for years to come. Those renewed memberships are critical to your Association sustaining members and conquering the market. For more ideas on how to build Brand Champions, check out of our next blog on Brand Champions In A Virtual Environment.

Author

Calli Dretke
President & CEO

Calli stands at the forefront of one of the fastest moving Association Software industry trends: member engagement. Described by her peers as a “unicorn”, Calli exhibits passion, intellect, creativity and detailed execution in everything she does. .

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