1. Marketing and Branding Conference Call Jewish Recontructionist Federation June 10, 2010

2. DAN’S INTRODUCTION

3. AARON’S REMARKS

4. Marketing includes outreach, inreach & branding Outreach – Bringing in new members. Inreach – Increasing the involvement of current members. Branding – Creating an honest and attractive understanding of what a congregation, or the Reconstructionist movement as a whole, is.

5. Today’s call will cover... – Some practical suggestions for outreach – The connections between outreach and inreach – A brief discussion of how branding works, why it matters to individual congregations, and what you can do to help – Q & A

6. Outreach Create and use a formal system for capturing information about everyone who “shops” your schul – People need to be assigned the formal job of collecting this info at every event. writing on Shabbat issue: ask for a card and call them later, ask who knows them in the congregation – Info needed: Contact info, family life stage info, Jewish background, interests and/or special needs, an open field for misc notes. – Ideally integrated into congregations membership database.

7. Outreach... and following up with them – Dinners in the homes of similar others. Should feel like a personal invitation, not a formal program (even though it is a formal program). – A phone call from someone in the congregation asking about their interests (kids education? Religious services? Social action?) and letting them know specifically about relevant activities.

8. Inreach and outreach The overwhelming majority of American Jews join a congregation at some point in their adult lives, but don’t stay. – If we could keep more of them, our growth problems would be solved. – Could your congregation do a serious study about why people leave, and what you could do about it? Without new energy, most groups lose energy.

9. BRANDING

10. The Reconstructionist “brand” is a distinct public identity that… –Is a single concept that, in total, is unique to us and that we “own” in the mind of Jews-- “Oh, you’re the ___________ people.” –Differentiates us Includes some religious beliefs, but also includes images about “what kind of people” we are. Doctrines are best presented in prose. Social identity is best presented in pictures, fonts, illustrations, etc. –Starts a relationship between us & potential congregants. –Is part of what we aspire to be in our congregations and communities.

11. Prospective members are going to have some ideas about us We might as well influence those ideas so they are: – Accurate – Positive – Relevant

12. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth The truth Nothing but the truth The whole truth?

13. Most Jews don’t have a clear idea of what Reconstructionism is It could be worse.... But it could be better....

14. Why Reconstructionism needs to be a strong brand Currently, most potential congregants don’t even give us a fair shot – A strong brand helps the people most likely to benefit from Reconstructionism to find us – It’s more fun to be on a winning team. A strong brand helps our congregations be – and therefore feel vibrant and alive

15. Branding Reconstructionism must be done (inter)nationally Two sad facts of life 1.People are very busy 2.Information overload Consistency and simplicity are essential – Today (6-10-2010) GM instituted a policy for it’s employees that everyone must say “Chevrolet” and not “Chevy”. When we do create a branding strategy, we need you to be the champions of this approach within your congregations.

16. Cong ACong BCong CCong D Jewish Segment 1 4511 Jewish Segment 2 4151 Jewish Segment 3 4115 Which congregation will grow the fastest? Hypothetical survey results: 1= I hate it 5 = I love it

17. Everything starts with the target audience We welcome all Jews and their families But not all Jews will be equally interested in us Just because someone isn’t in the target audience, doesn’t mean they wont potentially become a member. In fact, having a clear target audience can help a congregation grow, which then imbues it with energy, which then attracts people beyond the target audience.

18. We’ll define our target audience Psychologically not demographically – What do the need and want? – What do they hope for? – What do they fear? Once we have defined our target audience, we’ll explore the overall message we want to convey to them – Where looking at the big picture here, no one will be asked to come up with a slogan.