Communications is becoming increasingly analytics-focused. The American Marketing Association's latest CMO report found that the percentage of marketing budgets spent on analytics recently hit an all-time high of 9%, after hovering for a decade at around 6%. And marketing analytics are now used in nearly half of all marketing decisions, up from 38% just before the pandemic.
A recent Pinkston creative project illustrated this dynamic. Bread for the World, a 50-year-old organization with a mission to end world hunger, approached us to help evolve its brand – preserving its existing donor and supporter relationships while positioning the organization for new growth.
Our approach to Bread’s rebrand integrated evidence-based strategies with creative instinct. Before we launched into any creative exploration, we knew we had to develop a position for Bread that was differentiated from other hunger-related organizations and related thought leaders.
What we found was that there was a significant opportunity for Bread in the intersection between hunger advocacy and church engagement. We were also able to identify the key characteristics of Bread’s current audience – and the expanded audience they wanted to reach.
Our research team started by completing a landscape analysis of hunger organizations and related humanitarian services. This research explored the public brand expressions (such as media presence) among those comparable organizations to discern their key characteristics and values.
To inform messaging, website development, and marketing planning and tactics, we did a deep dive on key audiences through survey research and segmentation. The survey explored prospective supporters' interests and motivations around hunger, brand perceptions, and personal profile. This allowed us to develop a framework that classified prospective supporters according to the degree to which their motivations and interests aligned with Bread's work.
Branding involves a layered approach. Research is the foundation of this work, and messaging, design, and brand strategy are built on that. After eight weeks of rigorous experimentation, exploration and ideation, Pinkston gathered Bread’s top executive team to consider 50+ concepts and form an aligned vision for the new brand identity.
One major result was an abbreviated brand name: changing “Bread for the World” to “Bread” to echo the simpler, cleaner design of the logo and website and the opportunity to resonate with younger and more diverse audiences.
Bread’s website launched in October 2022, backed by extensively-researched topline and comprehensive messaging that reflects Bread’s future priorities. Bread’s site visitor bounce rate is rapidly decreasing, and the organization now appears at the top of Google’s search results for “What is hunger?” and “What causes hunger?”
Now, in the next phase of our partnership, Bread is working with Pinkston to roll out the new brand identity across its digital ecosystem. We’re excited for the road ahead and the opportunity to be a part of such world-changing work.
