You can profess to be a church that cares, but if you don’t show it to a new person, then the branding stopped there. When individuals make an effort to “live” the brand, the reach is much more powerful.

It was funny because (A) they indeed had extra large iced tea and (B) the guy acted as though I would not be interested in a a large one at all.

Any successful brand has to be drummed in from the top office to the person sweeping up.  It has to be the culture…what we do…how we do it.

At OREA serving the partner has be "preached" for decades.  Walk into the building, introduce your self as a partner and ask for a book, and they hand it to you no questions ask.  That is OR's way.

When that changes, it's all over…

In general I do not like discussing church and God like it's business, but there is some plausible crossover. We should be better than business. We're not working for money, we're harvesting souls for Christ. The cool thing is that it's not even up to us to 'sell the car' only to represent it. The HS does the rest.

 http://www.christvertising.com/

Quoting the web site's proprietor, Dr. Ed van Pelt:

"Christvertising manages a network of creative, innovating, and pro-active believers, who will help you through intensive prayer, improve your brand in the eyes of the Lord. If God loves your brand, it will become stronger and more successful. Christvertising helps you access the power of brand-targeted prayer (BTP™) using our unique, isoceles approach ot marketing: Reach-Connect-Pray"

If this weren't a spoof, it may as well be one, because the web site has a certain clever, studied cheesiness about it (even going as far as trademarking "BTP"). But it's a little astonding that someone would go through this much trouble to put together this web site just to make a point.

The Christvertising site would be hilarious if it wasn't so ironically close to home.

It is easy for a business to see the value in people (employees) when the business is small, and when they are growing. It becomes more difficult for large corporations to retain “belief in the brand” with their employees when the employees feel that they aren’t valued. If the employees lose belief, then it is going to be a tough road to repair.

Get to the point where the business is a top – ranking company, and the priorities of management often change, and then the brand starts to suffer. The only way to save it is to place tight controls, monitor individual location performance closely, etc. Often when a company goes public, the future is going to start holding change. The CEO starts making decisions that cost the little guys, so that the company will still look good to the investors. People lose jobs, non-management positions now are getting paid minimum wage or close to it, benefits are now not covered by the company, but employees have the benefit of having the options available even if it means half their check goes to insurance….
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Ok… It seems I am rambling, but my point is, that it isn’t always the fault of a “generational change” sometimes it is the actual growth itself that causes change. Some ministries will try a management style that suppresses, and puts tight controls in place. Some just understand that maintaining a good atmosphere, good benefits, and decent pay will keep people happy (well it will keep them working at least). Some will learn that giving the employees “ownership” will be in their best interest. Whether that ownership is a roundtable where everyone feels represented, or whether it is authority to make more decisions, or whether it is making a point to have open doors…
This last style is the style that today’s generation is looking for. We don’t need to know we have a fearless leader, we want to put to use our own education, we want to feel that we are contributing on a cranial and spiritual level, that we are part of the vision, that we are part of the success…. This is true… It sounds like it is a bit self centered, but it isn’t necessarily totally out of balance…. In the end though – this all ties in – doesn’t it. The branding can be very much affected by the experience that is conveyed by “the least of these”. At the same time management style can play a large part in how the “least of these” operates.