Government Agency Branding

Why do U.S. government agencies need to brand? For mission and for money. Often they need to create citizen and stakeholder awareness of their programs. Such was the case when the Federal Trade Commission launched the National Do Not Call Registry. The military services brand their recruiting programs as exemplified with the highly successful U.S. Marines campaign “The Few. The Proud. The Marines.” that was inducted into Madison Avenue’s Walk of Fame in 2007.

When government agencies do not manage their brand, detractors can easily determine their position in the eyes of stakeholders. When no one manages the government agency brand, then the relationship between the agency and its publics can suffer.

Moshe Engleberg in Government Executive notes “while government agencies can learn much from the private sector, there are two key differences between them. Government agencies must improve their funding in order to advance their missions. They also presume that because they have a worthy, socially minded mission, they have no competition. That's wrong. Recognizing competitors for funding — even if they are partner organizations — is critical in determining what makes your organization different and how to carve out your marketplace position.”

USAID, the Postal Service, the Census Bureau, the EPA (Office of Research and Development), USDA, Naval Air Systems Command, the IRS, the State of California, to name a few, have strategic branding efforts under their belt and are benefiting from increased recognition, improved internal processes to support the external brand, and cost-savings from having a predetermined look and feel for all of their communication outputs. A number of USAID case study examples were presented by Joanne Giordano to the American Marketing Association DC Chapter in the seminar on "Branding in the Federal Sector."

Government agencies have much to gain from improving their brand competencies and from initiating a brand life cycle that increases alignment internally and externally.

Change agents and early adopters using brand techniques in the government context face a daunting challenge, however, their efforts can yield significant results and product development savings.