Aaron Bresnahan posted on June 01, 2011 00:14
June 2011 - Navy
By Aaron Bresnahan
A wise colleague once told me that
“products are made in factories, but
brands are made in the minds of
people.” For AUSN, that is a concept
that rings very true today. We have a moniker,
a brand if you will, that is morphing, transforming
and redefining itself day-by-day,
creating an emotional bond through the way
that we present ourselves to the outside
world and by the way that we serve the needs
of our membership.
Sometimes, when I “Google” the acronym
AUSN, I will get search results that highlight
organizations, such as the Australian
Merchant Navy or someone offering Gold-Tin
Electroplating Services. What does AUSN’s
brand really mean in the minds of our current
members, future members, or to the greater
public? Sometimes, I wonder if we have gone
too far in promoting our brand, and at other
times I wonder if, maybe, we haven’t gone far
enough....
AUSN, or the Association of the United
States Navy, actually has the potential to be quite huge
in the minds of most people. The US Navy itself is everpresent.
It is a global force for good, and its actions are
constantly reported upon in the press. It is comprised of
hundreds of thousands of Active and Reserve
Component personnel. It is comprised of hundreds of
thousands of civilian personnel. There are hundreds of
thousands of Navy veterans, which have proudly served
and fought as loyal members. On top of that, the Navy
has millions of contractors providing support in one
form or another. And taking this idea to the ultimate
extreme, there would be literally millions of Americans
that could proudly call themselves “Friends of the Navy.”
Therefore, shouldn’t an Association of the US Navy
benefit from these ties that bind? If our brand could
simply tap into the minds of a larger portion of these
various constituency groups, and link itself
emotionally to them, our Association would
experience a huge step-change in its
approach and in the way it is perceived
going forward.
But what is the essence of our brand? A
successful AUSN brand should consist of a
set of intangible, but very powerful, feelings
that are shared by the current members of
the Association as well as its new target
groups. Can we honestly say that this is the
case today? I think so. People join an
Association not only because of rational
reasons, such as what benefits do they get,
or is there a cost associated, but also
because of very emotional reasons, such as
how does membership make them feel, or
can they be proud to be a member. AUSN is
closely linked to the essence of what it
means to be an American and what it means
to be a Sailor in the greatest Navy in the
world. AUSN provides relevance and a sense
of belonging to something that is bigger
than oneself. Being a member of AUSN enables one to
go far beyond simply identifying with a sub-set of the
Navy family, AUSN appeals to a broader constituency...to
the entire Navy family. Therefore, AUSN should be a
successful brand because we embrace the emotional
drivers of our prospective member groups and find ways
to create a bond where none may have existed before.
In our previous state, we appealed to Reservists and
their need to contribute to the success of the Total Force.
In today’s changing environment, AUSN exists in order
to provide support for the needs of the Navy and for the
needs of naval personnel and their families. Where
others speak of problems, we can create solutions.
Day-by-day, AUSN is Standing the Watch for our Navy
and for You. In other words, AUSN is the right
Association for our Navy and our Sailors.