Open invitation
Memphis Jewish Community Center reaches out with rebrand
Like any business leader, Larry Skolnick faced an issue rebranding his 125- employee nonprofit institution.
The Memphis Jewish Community Center has been a landmark in the city for more than half a century.
But Skolnick, the new director, came aboard knowing it was time to expand the image so people of all faiths realized the community center sprawling along 24 acres on the east side of Memphis was open to everyone.
Companies often must rebrand to emphasize new services as the business cycle changes. But how does a faith-rooted nonprofit organization tell the public it is no longer quite what they think it is?
As Skolnick discovered, whether it’s a nonprofit or money-maker corporation, the answer is the same: carefully.
“The name itself speaks to the Jewish community, but they’re not exclusive at all,” said Dan O’Brien, partner of inferno, a Memphis ad agency that handled the rebrand. “At the same time we also needed to recognize the fact that this (center) has been very important to the Jewish community for a long time. You’re riding a very tight rope between the future of the organization and the past.”
Officials at the Memphis Jewish Community Center hope to balance the past and the future with a rebranding campaign focused on inclusivity.
While the center has always welcomed people of faiths other than Judaism, its marketing will make that a key point.
“You walk through the halls and you see people of all different shapes, sizes, skin colors,” Skolnick said. “The norm here is that everybody enjoys doing what they do together.”
The MJCC was established 68 years ago and has been in its current location for the last 40 years, but Skolnick said its brand identity was a little behind the times, and didn’t reflect the makeup of its membership.
“Historically, Jewish community centers in many communities began when opportunities in other recreational facilities weren’t available to the Jewish community,” said Skolnick.
“What it’s evolved into though is a front-runner and premier provider of early childhood programming, of recreational and wellness programming, and the arts.”
Skolnick replaced Barrie Weiser, the center’s director for the last 30 years. Previously he was CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, an umbrella organization overseeing a community center, a skilled nursing facility and other community organizations.
MJCC covers 180,000 square feet along Poplar Avenue near Kirby Parkway. It houses a fitness facility with group instruction and personal training, an indoor and outdoor aquatic facility and water park, a theater, an art gallery, facilities for senior services, and an early childhood program for almost 300 children. Sports leagues and summer day camps for children are available along with cultural and arts classes for adults.
Some 2,200 families have memberships for multiple users. The center is a 501 (c) (3)non-profit organization with an annual budget of $6.5 million supported mainly by membership and program revenue, the United Way of the Mid-South, and the Jewish Federation of Memphis.
But the center has struggled to make it well known that members can be anyone, not just Jews.
Skolnick, who took over as executive director Jan. 3, said that a new look has been a long time coming. Work on the rebrand began early last year and was launched internally in August. A three-month external campaign including billboards, print advertisements and posters in bus shelters is ongoing. A formal campaign for new corporate sponsors will take off later this year.
There was much to fit into the center’s new image.
MJCC’s logo was redrawn, from a pyramid-shaped cluster of Stars of David to a subtler, multi-colored outline of a Star of David. O’Brien said the old logo was created before forms of media like e-mail signatures, pdfs, and social media websites were invented. The new one, he said, will be friendlier to reproduction.
“The concept behind this logo is a real fresh, soft look, not as sharp and stark as before,” said Anna Shabtay, marketing and membership director for MJCC. “And then we’re bringing in the star in a welcoming way, not in an in-your-face kind of way.”
Shabtay said she plans to add flags and signage on Poplar to deliver the new message to auto traffic. Currently the signage is minimal and she said even the immediate community surrounding the building didn’t know what was inside.
Molly Schmidt, who is not Jewish, has been a member of MJCC since 2005 when she started bringing her two children there for day care and kindergarten. She heard about the center from a co-worker at International Paper and liked that it’s only a block away from her office. “It was never an issue for me,” said Schmidt. “I really liked the fact that my children were being exposed to a different way of life than our own.”