Any project that begins with a focus on the outcome (tactic) rather than on the process (strategy) faces a challenging future.

It seems to be a common practice for an organization to state “we want to rebrand,” or “we need a website to communicate our services or message,” or (you pick what goes here).

Branding can be a broad and ambiguous endeavor, and often seems to be defined by the group requesting it, rather than the professional that practices the discipline. Differentiating your organization through a branding process results in a completely different result than claiming you’ve rebranded by slapping a new logo on everything.

An outcome such as a web site or printed literature assumes that there is a focused positioning strategy and message in place to communicate. This focus, or content framework, can be derived at the broadest level from your mission statement, but it needs to be realized as a positioning statement, which becomes the filter for your content.

After all, if you don’t have clarity on what your organization is and does and why it matters, how will your audience be able to tell? If you don’t have an awareness of what makes your organization different, how will your customers?