Pope Francis Brand Identity Book

Prepared by Taylor Hoerr

1 December 2015

Background
Once known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope
Francis is now the 266th pope of the Catholic church. Pope Francis began his
Jesuit seminary in 1958, at the age of 21. Elected to papacy in March of
2013, Francis has been increasing engagement with the Catholic church as
he works to modernize its image. An Argentine journalist has called this
overhaul of the churchs image a scandal of normality (Spaziani, 2014).
This is due to the popes modern and humble behavior against the absurd,
impossibly baroque backdrop of the Vatican, a world still run like a medieval
court (Spanziani, 2014).
Pope Francis has also been on the defense in the wake of the VatiLeaks,
which were a set of leaked financial documents and documents relating
directly to the pope that happened before Pope Franciss time. This created a
lot of distrust in the Catholic church that the pope has since been attempting
to repair. Still, less than a year after his election, the increase of attendance
to papal events has tripled to 6.6 million speaks to publics acceptance of
these changes to the church (Spaziani, 2014). However, coming up on his
third year in papacy, Pope Francis is moving towards even more radical
changes to the traditional church, including gay marriage, birth control, and
abortion.

Statement of Purpose
The purpose of this brand identity book is to communicate the 21st century
Catholic churchs branding guidelines for Pope Francis and ensure that all
internal and external communication materials support the churchs brand.

Values of the Church

The mission of Pope Francis is to create a relatable, welcoming, and modern
Catholic church.

Forms of Outreach
With twenty-first century state of the art equipment, there are many outlets
for the pope to communicate. Not only do news outlets from all over the
world flock to the Vatican in order to report on the pope, but the Vatican has
also developed its own news outlets to be able to relay its messages
personally. The Vatican utilizes include written press, the office of the press,
a press room, conferences with the media, radio, television, and Internet
sites in order to distribute their messaging on a global scale (de Vaujany,
2006). Most notably, Pope Francis has brought his presence to social media,
utilizing the social networks of Facebook and Twitter. However, the church
still relies on written media for its most formal and official information to be
distributed due to its nuance of distinction, while leaving current and fleeting
information to be distributed orally and visually on other outlets (de Vaujany,
2006).

Brand Personality is
Humility

Progressive

Charitable

Empathy

Modern

Down-to-earth

Understanding

Honest

Compassionate

Active

Dedicated

Hardworking

Brand Personality is not

Conservative

Elaborate

Intimidating

Selfish

Frivolous

Conventional

Traditional

Closed-minded

Old Fashioned

One-dimensional

Boring

Stagnant

Target Audiences
Conservative Catholics
A conservative Catholic still believes in the ideas of the traditional Catholic
church. They believe that style is substance and that the Catholic church is
a church of symbolsthat give us grace (Spanziani, 2014). While
conservatives are not oblivious of modern times, they turn to religion for
comfort and consistency. Keeping the classical moral and theological
practices, such as confession, in place allows conservatives to grasp on to
the old traditions.

Liberal Catholics
A liberal Catholic remains loyal to the Catholic church because he or she was
generally raised in the church. However, unlike a conservative Catholic, they
are loyal to the ideologies of Catholicism, and not the traditions of the
church. Liberals are interested in updating the churchs viewpoints to be
more in line with the twenty-first century values, such as science and gay
marriage. Rejecting these ideas would date the church and make it appear
out of touch. By accepting more of these modern ideas, liberal Catholics are
more likely to keep attending church services, as well as donating to the
church, than if the church rejects them.

Tourists of the Vatican and Rome

Tourists that flock to Italy to experience Rome and the Vatican are interested
in the Pope because he is the symbol and head of the Catholic church. The
church itself has always been an important symbolic resource in the
construction of the collective national identity (Pace, 2007). This feeling of
unity from the surrounding area for the church constitutes a powerful symbol
in Italy. It is important for tourists to see the churchs presence and the
popes interaction with the city in order to visualize this unity of church and
state.

World Leaders
Modern-day world leaders take the opinion of the pope and Catholic church
into consideration merely out of courtesy in regards to politics and world
policy. However, leaders do recognize that the pope does have influence on a
large audience of the world and his actions are watched by the public and
the media. World leaders see a connection with the pope as beneficial when
it comes to soft policy, such as poverty, hunger, or homelessness. While
these are important issues, they tend to be more philanthropic and allow for
the popes influence to be influential.

Fascinated Non-Catholic Public

The general, public population is a target audience because, although not
Catholic, they still can sway public opinion and be influenced by the pope. By
showing general goodwill and philanthropic efforts in the world, the pope is
able to connect to this audience on a humanitarian level. By creating this
connection, the pope is humanizing himself, which allows the non-Catholic
public to think of him in a positive light rather than a stuffy, world leader.

Brand Positioning Statement

For the modern Catholic, Pope Francis is able to take the traditional and
stuffy ways of the Catholic church and connect them to modern day core
values. Unlike other religious leaders, Pope Francis succeeds in bridging the
gap between religion and culture by connecting religious beliefs back to core
values of acceptance and service of others.