Chanel suits are fashion iconography. A Chanel suit is the prototypical dream clothing acquisition: stylish, simple, elegant, and timeless. Assuming you can afford one, it will form the foundation of your entire wardrobe. It’s a classic.
The same should be true of your association’s brand. It is the foundation of your marketing and communications wardrobe. Everything you do, say, or produce as an organization should relate back to your brand, to a common vision of what your association is.
To get to that level of consistency, you must have a clear, memorable statement of what you stand for, and everyone, from your CEO to your mail clerk, needs to live it.
Oh, and if that vision has to do with being the “market leader” or “providing exceptional value” or “world-class” anything (or sounds like it could’ve been the result of the late, lamented Automatic Mission Statement Generator), toss out the cliched business-speak, and start over, from the place of using simple words to explain what really matters to your association.