November 05, 2012
Beginning a Branding Process with Inter Pares
By
Katherine Dodds
SURVEYING A WILLING POOL OF PROGRESSIVES TO HELP PROMOTE INTER PARES
UPDATE: Anyone in Canada or the US can now fill our our our Inter Pares Audience Survey and enter to win any item from our Webstore!
Two weeks ago we kicked off the branding and positioning project in Ottawa, meeting with Inter Pares staff and getting feedback from the board who were attending their annual board workshops.
This weekend was Media Democracy Days in Vancouver, and Hello Cool World had a table, showcasing many of our projects and campaigns. Since it was a veritable pool of the right sorts of folks to seek opinions from, we decided it was the perfect place to hold an informal focus test. We offered a chance to win one of the DVDs off our Hello Cool World webstore in exchange for about 15 minutes of their time to take a survey which asked them to review the Inter Pares logo, website, and brochure and answer a few questsions about these materials.
Most of our fellow tablers, were happy to help, as well as more than a few passers by, and in amongst a day of conversations about media, democracy, and our own set of projects, which include a new high school cut of The Corporation, we managed to get 15 surveys filled out, and lots of great feedback. We'll be putting the survey on line, in both Engish and French so watch for the link and help us gather feedback from our networks.
WE'RE EXCITED TO PUT THE HELLO COOL WORLD APPROACH TO WORK FOR INTER PARES!
We've worked with Inter Pares a few times over the years, creating the "Take Back the Day" and "Give Something Big" campaigns as well as designing their general brochure. We're strong believers in their work, and look forward to a year of collaborating with them, and their supporters, to give all their communications materials a new 're-freshed' identity.
Having build our own reputation through critique of corporate globalization, we at Hello Cool World simply don't do corporate branding. Period. But we do believe in using the tools of the advertisers, and the power of branding, to do good work for good people — like Inter Pares. Our version of "social" branding re-frames the very idea of branding, and uses a grassroots approach to engage our intended audiences in the process, and we hope, to get their support!
We will be talking to a selection of Inter Pares' donors and funders, long term and newly joined, to get their insights on what the organization means to them, and why they deserve support. As well we will be seeking opinions from beyond the converted, looking at what it takes to engage, in particular, younger audiences who may not have heard of Inter Pares.
Our greatest challenge will be to create simplified messages, that still authentically speak to what they are all about. For an organization that does so many things, this may be hard to express in one elevator speech.
For the moment, we are in a mode of gathering as wide a range of opinions and views on both their work itself, their image and their reputation in the community of like-minded organizations.
ARE YOU INTERESTED IN GIVING US FEEDBACK?
This phase will last until the new year, after which we will be seeking feedback on the new materials we will start to develop.
Ways to participate:
• Comment on this blog
• Email Kdodds@HelloCoolWorld.com, I will be able to send you links to our online surveys as they are posted.
• Follow our conversations about this on Facebook
• Follow @HelloCoolWorld on Twitter, we'll be using the hashtag: #SocialJusticeSurvey and #IPBranding
We also posed the question this weekend on Twitter, to the #MDDvan (Media Democracy Days Vancouver hashtag) asking: "What does equality mean to you?" We're interested in everyone's response to this question.
We look forward to hearing from you!
~ Kat, for the Hello Cool World team
P.S. Please share this post widely, the more the merrier in this conversation!
Tag(s):
Feminism,
Focus Testing,
Hello Cool World,
Inter Pares,
Media Democracy Day,
Social Justice
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