Multilateral cooperation is required to address a growing number of global challenges. However, international organizations (IOs) that are at the core of international cooperation, such as the United Nations, need to be strengthened if they are to contribute to solving these challenges. Scholarship can support these institutions with research on IO performance, and the quote from the UN Secretary-General highlights one area that may contribute to IO performance: communications. While IO scholarship has addressed various communications issues — e.g., legitimacy, reputation, and digital diplomacy — it has ignored one field: branding.

The gap in IO branding literature is striking, considering that IOs engage in many branding-related activities. For example, communicators create campaign names that trigger support for a cause (e.g., UN Women’s HeForShe campaign), and they craft visual identities and logos that project the organization’s mission (e.g., UN Tourism’s new name and logo). While the majority of branding literature focuses on the for- and non-profit sectors, little scholarship has investigated branding in IOs. The gap in IO-specific branding literature means that IOs cannot fully utilize the power of the discipline, which is applied to improve performance in other sectors.

My research addresses this gap by exploring branding in IOs. Results from my dissertation form the foundation for the emerging field of IO branding by providing answers to two fundamental questions:
1) What is branding in IOs?
2) How is branding related to the performance of IOs?

Two models from my dissertation serve as the foundation for the field of branding in international organizations (short: IO branding).

The first model—the “IO Branding Universe”—identifies three meanings of branding in IOs. First, what I call branding manifestations, such as logos, names, slogans, and values. Second, touchpoints, i.e., points of interaction between the IO and stakeholders, such as websites, staff, and leadership. Third, ideas that stakeholders have about the IO, such as its legitimacy, and ideas about the issues the IO works to advance, such as how to mitigate climate change. The model suggests that branding manifestations shape touchpoints, and touchpoints, in turn, shape ideas.

The second model suggests how branding relates to IO performance. The key relationship is between ideas and performance: ideas that stakeholders have about the IO and its issues support the IO in raising funds, establishing partnerships, and recruiting staff. Ideas also help the IO in raising awareness for its issues, shaping the global agenda, and facilitating stakeholder action that leads to progress in the issue areas, such as maintaining peace and protecting the environment.

In short:

Branding in international organizations of the UN system means advancing humankind through the power of ideas.