Brand orientation in the Top 500 fundraising charities in the UK

Examines the concept of brand orientation in the charity sector against a background of mounting criticism that charities are under‐using their brands and not managing them properly. From the academic literature and a series of depth interviews, four key components of brand orientation were identified which were operationalised into a series of item statements and tested on charity managers in the Top 500 UK charities. From an exploratory factor analysis of the data, it seems that brand orientation may comprise one “general factor” of brand orientation incorporating “brand understanding”, “brand communication” and more substantially, “the strategic use of brands” and six further factors, three of which comprise different managerial responsibilities. All but one of these factors correlated satisfactorily with secondary indicators of brand orientation. The paper discusses the results and examines the implications for charities.