Communications Team:

First, thanks to everyone who was at the Communications Team meeting on Tuesday. A special thanks to Tom and Candice for joining us as well.

As we experienced, creating a quality brand for an organization as dynamic and important as our church home is tough work. In my effort to squeeze the 6 month branding process down to 1 hour, I believe I compressed a little too far, making it difficult for the Team to focus on the very important foundation pieces that we have the opportunity to put in place prior to the large marketing push this next 2 months.

The good news is we have a few more days to think and pray before we get together again on Tuesday. In an effort to help guide us, I have broken the process down into the individual components that I believe we need to address.

1. Brand Identity Part 1: Our Name.

We have two names that we use in various places today, First United Methodist Church and First Church. We need to pick one of these and then use it exclusively.

2. Brand Identity Part 2: Our Logo.

We have had a parade of logos the past years. Today we use two different logos, the Methodist Cross & Flame and the Uplifting Heart, Cross & Sunrise. Any marketing we do that leverages national grant/matching fund dollars (like the current ad in the movie theater) will require the Cross & Flame.

In some schools of thought, the Cross & Flame is "old" and churches wishing to attract non-religious and nominally religious people should create new and different logos that do not carry forward this historical identity.

This creates a paradox: any matching fund advertising must carry the Cross & Flame, but there are strong influences to use something new and different such as the Uplifting Heart. Good planning for this practicality is imperative here. It is for this reason that I suggested Tuesday night that we consider an update to the Uplifting Heart logo that also incorporates the Cross & Flame. Creating and using such a "modified Cross & Flame" logo answers the paradox and leverages our ability to use matching marketing funds while still maintaining a single logo. This is critical to building an effective brand. As in the case with Our Name, we need to pick one logo and then use it exclusively.

3. Brand Identity Part 3: Our Slogan.

Our slogan helps explain who we are, both to ourselves and to the community at large. Currently we use 6 slogans:

"Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" (the national Methodist tag line)

"Uplifting Hearts, Transforming Lives. Touching people with God's love."

"Touchstone Ministries" (and the variation, "A Touchstone Ministry")

"Touching People's Lives with God's Love"

"One Church, Two Campuses"

"Faithful Past, Prayerful Present, Promising Future"

As you can probably already anticipate, we need to pick one slogan and use it exclusively.

I believe that we have historically had to place too much emphasis on the many slogans because our Name and Logo were not developed into a strong brand identity previously.

4. Brand Identity Part 4: Consistency

This is the glue that brings it all together. We need to make our decisions for the 3 components of our Brand Identity, and then we need to be completely consistent in the use of that Identity - our Brand - in everything we do: internal communications, marketing, publicity, signage, everything!

I have learned from Tracy Kihm that we have a total of $7500 budgeted for the Grand Opening of the Celebration Center. $1000 has been allocated to events so far, more will be allocated in the next few weeks. The remainder is to be used by the Communications Team to market our new beginning both internally

within the church and to reach out to the non-religious and nominally religious people in Lawrence that we want to invite into a relationship with Jesus through our church.

This is the largest amount of money for advertising and marketing we will have available for at least the rest of the year, maybe longer. We have a great opportunity to put our Strategic Plan for Marketing and Communications in action in the next 60 days. I believe the key to creating a powerful, long lasting impact through the marketing of these next events is through good decisions about our Brand Identity and then unyielding consistency moving forward.

This is tough work. This is exciting work. This is an opportunity. I thank each of you again for your commitment to helping transform our church into a consistent, welcoming and communicative church. I look forward to gathering with you again on Tuesday at 7:30.

Kind Regards,

Bennett