Branding and Government

“When you work for the government, you already have a strike against you.” If I got ten bucks every time I heard this, I could retire next month.

Government poses an easy target and is the butt of many jokes. Working for the government doesn’t have the same appeal as being a financial consultant sipping $8 lattes on Wall Street or an advertising executive with the perfect car and the perfect tan on Madison Avenue. Government as a brand is highly disregarded. So a few weeks ago when someone asked me if government should embrace branding (specifically digital branding), it was a breath of fresh air. For a change, someone was taking government seriously.

I was invited to speak on a government panel at a Drupal conference called Engage at the end of October. On a chilly, windy Boston morning, our panel of representatives from the Department of Homeland Security, City of Los Angeles, and State of Georgia answered questions about how governments use technology. Although it was a Drupal specific conference, I was happy to see many non-government attendees so genuinely interested in where government is going with technology, data transparency, branding, and digital strategy. The conversations on branding piqued my interest the most and inspired me to share some of our discussions.

What exactly is branding?

Before I jump into a pitch about branding and government, let's be clear about what branding is. Branding can be explained by Aristotle’s famous quote:

The whole is greater than the sum of all its parts.

Branding is not your logo, not your mission statement and not your communication voice. Branding is your organization’s image. It’s not your welcome message or what your CEO blogs every week. It is the sentiment generated by the message, by the conversations and by the interactions. Your brand is what people think about your organization.

This perception could be based on several factors. Interaction with an employee while renewing a driver’s license, searching for information on your website or a conversation thread on social media — the avenues are endless. As we have seen in the private sector, brands are ever evolving. Sometimes brands get in trouble due to external factors or self-infliction. They either find a way to control the damage or get faded by the passage of time.

Digital branding has a different appeal — the wide array of digital platforms opens up many more possibilities for brands to make their mark. Businesses have captured consumer attention by carving a niche for every little thing a consumer may need or want. They flawlessly create a brand and successfully rally consumers around that brand. Businesses in every industry are grappling with disruptions caused by digital innovations. It becomes a challenge to sustain in a culture of continuous change, so the private sector has to consider various branding strategies to align with the needed agility in operations and strategy. How does this translate within the government space?

Does government need a brand?

Government as a brand is unique. People don't love it but they cannot ignore it. The good news and the bad news is that government is not competing for profits. They have little motivation to go the extra mile to define and guard their brand presence. But profits might not be the only performance indicators we have to consider for branding. When it comes to delivering citizen services and understanding constituents’ future needs, governments have a huge responsibility to deliver the most accurate information in a timely manner and to offer services in person or online.

At the heart of these efforts is citizen trust. “When the motive is profits, good ideas prevail and bad ones die, so we watch the private sector for good strategies to engage with consumers.” explained Ted Ross, CIO for the Information Technology Agency for the city of Los Angeles and a co-panelist for the Engage session. Ted painted a similar picture at a city level, where multiple departments are tasked with a variety of service offerings.

At a much larger scale with a couple hundred agencies, Georgia is working hard to preserve its branding efforts. Georgia’s web presence has been applauded for its branding initiative. Every agency has its own mission but it is also part of the enterprise.

When we think of Georgia Bureau of Investigation, we think of words like serious or official. At the same time agencies dealing with sensitive issues such as child support or behavioral health, can be described as friendly or caring. The web presence reflects these sentiments. The conversation that happens reflects the image portrayed by the agency. As an enterprise, there are several visual elements that tie these sites together. Another panelist and Digital Services Georgia's product director, Kendra Skeene, explained how the state’s Drupal platform is designed to offer individuality and also consider enterprise branding when launching new websites.

Finally, it is all about how your digital presence helps your organization communicate and engage with citizens and constituents. For effective communication, having a digital brand helps in a big way. Creating engaging constituent services across multiple channels with a cohesive brand remains an important goal for government agencies, but achieving success is anything but a turnkey operation. Branding is a critical government responsibility. Decision makers must join forces with constituents, administrators, department heads, and maybe elected officials to define and uphold your organization’s brand.

In my next post, I will dive deeper into the elements of branding and why state agencies should be part of the larger brand while leading their own agency brands. After all, we are an enterprise and, for the citizens, we will always be the government.

Related Link

• Part 2: Core Elements of a Successful Digital Brand

Related to: 

• Digital Strategy