Marketing Doesn’t Have to Be a Dirty Word

In his article “Branding for Nonprofits: Dispelling 4 Myths,” author and consultant Jed Jones talks about the reluctance of many nonprofit organizations to focus on their brands — and why they need to overcome it:

“Sometimes marketing gets negative press due to the fact that there are clearly some unsavory marketing practices going on in the world today: deceptive advertising, spam and disruptive telemarketing, just to name a few. However, marketing in its purest form is merely a set of activities designed to get the right kind of attention for a product or service on the part of would-be buyers, subscribers, or supporters. If good branding means the ability of your nonprofit to better help the cause of [fill in the blank] with your products or services, [then] ‘branding’ and ‘marketing’ suddenly become pretty wonderful words.”