Keep the faith: Your heavenly guide to building a brand

What’s the definitive playbook on how to build a brand? You won’t find the best model from listening to luminaries like Steve Jobs, Phil Knight or Sheryl Sandberg. For the superlative guide to entrepreneurship, I encourage you to look further back and start at around the year 30 A.D. – when Jesus Christ founded the Roman Catholic Church.

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Yes, the organisation kick-started by the Son of God during his Earthly Ministry is the most prolific in the whole scope of human civilisation. And examining it’s 2000-year history offers key insights on how to build a multi-generational business. Let’s dive in.

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Firstly, examine the logo. Around the 4th century the church unveiled its most enduring image – the crucifix. After that, the cross became ubiquitous. It’s recognisable, easy to draw, and looks imposing if you assemble one and place it on a wall. The Catholics love of crosses makes Elon Musk’s Twitter re-brand feel less than revolutionary.

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Then there’s the Church’s grasp of the communications industry. The Ten Commandments represent the original brand mission statement – and a solid template for how to do internal comms well. Beyond that, it pioneered new approaches to media as biblical texts were put together into a conclusive version in Latin, called the Vulgate. After that, the first book ever to be printed with moveable type was the Gutenberg Bible.

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The Catholic Church also understood the importance of footfall. It made sure that its physical locations were in the most prominent and densely-populated parts of cities and towns. These places were supreme in their design and stature. And having such impressive buildings enabled the church to diversify. While there was daily Mass, it also moved into weddings, funerals, christenings, and confessionals. Churches were open 24/7 for their target audience (which, incidentally was everyone).

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Another masterstroke in the strategy was recruiting the most fêted names in the arts. The church commissioned sacred music from figures including Mozart, Beethoven and Bach. The beauty of their compositions captivated the masses and created a connection with the divine. Then there were the visual artists: Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo both created works of staggering ambition on request of the church.

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The greatest approach to lift from the Catholic template is to do with the product. What does the church sell? Faith. An invisible commodity that’s free to produce and easy to monetise. This was way ahead of its time too. It was only in the digital era when major brands cottoned onto the benefits of offerings that you can’t see, feel or drop on your foot.

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The 2020s is a challenging moment for business leaders. More evidence points to founders having had enough of all the hustle, hiccups and headwinds. In the face of such obstacles, they should keep the faith. In fact, there’s a good question to ask when times get tough: “What would Jesus do?”.

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In this week’s The Business of Creativity, we also look at…

• Why entrepreneurs should keep the faith??
• How the built environment should assist creativity??
• The future of the web, according to its creator??
• Why inventing a public holiday is the best way to shift product??

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