Branding: a family story

The conversation about branding to students has been coming up a lot around Perimeter. There are at least as many opinions on the topic as there are people in the room.

I really wanted to look around and see what leading youth pastors and church communicators were saying on the topic. Surprisingly no one is writing on it at all.

So I thought maybe I would. [in the words of Mitch Hedberd] I mean who am I, I'm not that cocky:

1. Don't make over-generalities. Adults aren't students and generalizing them to the point of hyperbole only shows how little we know. Their culture just like ours consists of every facet of person and while culture shifts may go one direction or another over generalities act more of an insult as we try to insinuate that we "understand" them.
2. Student aren't opposed to branding, so long as they like the brand: Nike, Apple, Taylor Made, BMW. All of these companies are sought after by both students and adults alike. The fact that a student's parent has an ipod doesn't stop them from wanting on.
   
3. However, students do want to uniquely personalize within that identity. They probably don't want the same color BMW or Nike shoe as their parent but that doesn't mean they are against the brand. In both cases the core value of the company exists. Whether it be fine German engineering and luxury nameplate or a high-quality and durable pair of shoes the brand is intact.
   
4. Students get their brand awareness from their parents. This is something I learned when I got married. Sarah's idea of what a quality product was and mine were different, from each other, but not from our parents. We learn the values of quality, durability, and reliability from our parents. According to Piaget, full formal thought doesn't *start* until age 12 and continues into adulthood, that is the ability to draw conclusions from available information.
   
5. They will like some things their parents don't but it is far more likely that students are more broadly accepting of culture than adults are. Pure experiential info here but my experience has been that adults are far less tolerant of concepts and experiences they don't fully understand than students are. Even given their still developmental state they are *seeking* new experiences while adults already have preconceived notions about most of the world around them.

Application: You don't need to divorce or change the brand of the parent organization, so long as the brand of the parent organization isn't contrary to their values (an anti-skateboarding organization would not do well to market to skateboarders). It does however need to be customized, different from changed. Customized is to take the brand and make it their own, to take ownership. Changing it would be to try and make it something it never was.