Fading Brand Identity

by metatron 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  Band On The Run has some excellent posts about legal matters currently. I just wanted to expand on one point he came close to articulating, namely the loss of brand identity by the organization.

  There have been branded products that faded away - such as Burma Shave, once known for its clever signs along the highway ("Angels who guard you/when you drive/usually retire/ at 65 - Burma Shave"). A Brand often involves a symbol or some easy way for the public to distinguish them from everybody else.

  Step back and look at the organization. They are leaving their Brooklyn location, laying off long time workers, they have reduced the Awake, trimmed literature, are now selling off Branch Offices and have sold off printing equipment.

  In doctrine, they came up with the fuzzy generation idea, they allow blood fractions and the people who opposed the Nazis are dying off.

  In short, who are Jehovah's Witnesses is becoming a fair question, in terms of the public's view. Currently, they seem to be making a name for themselves thru family-wrecking, shunning and fending off legal challenges to their abuse of children. Overall though, they are becoming mostly irrelevant and often invisible......

  metatron
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  breakfast of champions

  I think the nail in the coffin of this "loss of brand identity" will be when the WT and Awake mags are no longer offered from D2D in developed countries. I just can't see them continuing to waste money in an all but dead media. In the next 5 years I see them switching to a cheap tract with directions to the JW.org website for online mags.
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  finallysomepride

  What the heck is "Burma Shaves:?
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  jws

  First off, I ask the question of how much of a brand did they really have in the first place? Being mostly ex-JWs here, we were a lot closer to it than most. From my perspective, I think the only things people on the outside knew us for was we were the people that don't celebrate Christmas and we come knocking on their doors. Sometimes a few other tidbits like you don't believe in Jesus.

  As for the other scandals, again, I think a lot of it is being on the other side now and seeing through the eyes of ex-JWs. We magnify these things and elate at their downfall, much like JWs used to every time there was an earthquake that proved we were closer to the end. I doubt these scandals are a big blip on the general public's radar.

  I doubt many non-JWs outside of New York knew they had their headquarters there. Any more than I know where the First Baptist or Lutheran headquarters/branch offices are - if they even have such things.

  And who outside of JWs know anything about their generational teachings?

  As for the child molestation scandals. It's never going to equal the Catholic church. That's big news. There's millions and millions of Catholics. Way more mainstream. Much more of a chance of it affecting the average person or people they know. Most JW scandals aren't given as much media time/space, so I don't know that the general public is even aware. And if they are, JWs are probably considered a wacky cult anyway, so it's no doubt they have molestors because they're all a bit wacky. The average person probably doesn't know very many JWs (if any) and probably aren't friends with them (because they don't associate with worldy company), so who cares what's going on inside their cult? Many people only care about what's going to affect them or people close to them.

  If anything, these things have affected those inside.

  As far as public visibility, they're still doing the things most people know them best for. Knocking on the door with books and magazines for sale, er, donations. And not celebrating Christmas.
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  DesirousOfChange

  Overall though, they are becoming mostly irrelevant and often invisible......

  You'll change your mind about the "invisible" part of that when your doorbell is ringing some Saturday morning at 9:15
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  wobble

  Met, I am pretty sure that Band on the Run is a Lady.

  As to the fading Brand I.D of the WT I think you have a point, not that your average Joe would know or care what was the difference between the JW's and the Mormons etc. but the DtoD work and the printed Mag/rags is what they are known for, so as they scale that down they will become much more of an obscure cult, like the Plymouth Brethren say, tucked away from public view.

  I just hope they fade right away.
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  james_woods

  As a continuation of this fading Brand point - does anybody else agree with me that the general printing/binding quality of the literature in a physical sense has gone down since the old traditional line-a-type and letterpress days of the 1960s?

  Just because something is printed in half-baked color does not make it the National Geographic.

  And it seems like real bound books and bibles are pretty much a thing of the past.
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  sir82

  "Becoming" irrelevant?

  That implies that at some point they were relevant.

  For those who are or have been JWs, perhaps, but for the other 99.9% of humanity, JWs are not even a piece of lint.
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  breakfast of champions

  I think when METATRON uses the term "brand identity", the "brand" he speaks of is one that really only exists within JWs. They are "legends in their own mind." Even so, the erosion of that identity is surely troubling for those at the top.
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  clarity

  An old friend who runs a store in the city, asked "where did all those people with the watchtowers go? Everyday they were in front of my store ... now, nobody!"

  Good question ... nobody standing here in the burbs either! They used to be on every corner 3-4 years ago!

  Guess we're not the only ones doing a fade!

  c