One of my roles at Adventist Media is to oversee the rollout of the Adventist Identity project around the South Pacific. I’ve been working with unions, conferences, missions and church entities, supporting their adoption of the distinctive orange and charcoal logos, signage and other assets. It’s great to see the Seventh-day Adventist Church proudly displaying its colours for all to see. Consistency with our branding will help to raise awareness of the Church and all our activities.
Recently, I was part of a study unit where we were asked to think about the idea of creating a personal brand. It may seem like a strange concept to have your own brand, but according to author Sara Kelly, it’s essential for creatives in our rapidly changing world.
She writes, “. . . today’s creative professionals must create and even be their own brands.”
Kelly, of course, was looking at the concept entirely from a career point of view: in today’s competitive employment market it’s important to stand out from the crowd. Crafting a personal brand is an opportunity to showcase our careers, our skills, our achievements.
But what if we thought about personal branding in terms of our Christian journey? What would our brand message be? Would there be anything to showcase? Would the branding be consistent, or would there be mixed messaging? Consistency is the key to building trust and a solid reputation. There’s no point having a brand message that says one thing, but your actions say otherwise.
According to Kelly, successful brands “evolve over time to meet the needs of those they serve”. Meeting the needs of others—that’s something we as Christians should all be doing. Imagine if that was the personal brand message of all Adventists around the South Pacific. And we remained true to that message.
What an amazing difference we could make in our communities, modelling Jesus’ example of servanthood and showing His love to others.
