GUIDELINES FOR FOCUS GROUPS AIESEC VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH
Objective The AIESEC Brand Refresh program has developed a concept for additional visual elements to give all AIESEC members and programs maximum flexibility and adaptability. Context The concept focuses on facilitating and supporting members to adapt the Brand, the Visual Elements and the Brand Experience to their own global, national or local context. It also challenges the members to explore and play with the brand, in order to understand its DNA. A challenge all existing and new members, when joining AIESEC, are asked to engage in. This process will become part of the AIESEC learning experience.
Ownership We invite all AIESEC members to take ownership and responsibility for the Brand. To play with the visual elements, change and adapt them. This way all aspects of the AIESEC brand will truly be built and will create a strong feeling of ownership. It reinforces AIESEC as a platform, facilitating and supporting all members. And it translates the AIESEC vision into a living and evolving brand, befitting a modern global and human centred network organization.
GUIDELINES FOR FOCUS GROUPS AIESEC VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH
Brand Revitalisation AIESEC has entered into a process of redesigning the way the AIESEC brand is playing a role in the service delivery towards the customers and other stakeholders. It is recognised that the AIESEC brand plays a key role in the global AIESEC organisation that consists of independent operating ‘chapters’. For the visual brand elements to support the individual chapters delivering their services in local environments it is essential that there is sufficient flexibility in the use of the new visual elements. Objective The focus groups are meant to prototype the way the visual brand elements can be used in practice when developing a service and the respective sub brand. Setup of Focus Group The focus groups are workshop sessions where participants do a number of ‘exercises’ developing a AIESEC service and relating branding elements.
GUIDELINES FOR FOCUS GROUPS AIESEC VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH Exercise 1 – Individual mind mapping of Values The first exercise begins with mapping out personal and AIESEC values. What values are important to you? In your personal but also in the AIESEC way of life? Every individual writes one keyword representing a value on a post-it. Create 5 post-its and put them on a white sheet of paper. To provide the participants with more directions you can use the following questions: Why do you think of a specific company as a cool brand (e.g. Apple, Virgin, …)? Why do you think of a specific person/friend as a cool person? What is important to you in case you make use of a service?
GUIDELINES FOR FOCUS GROUPS AIESEC VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH
Exercise 2 – Group mapping of Values Split up all participants in groups with an equal number of participants (it’s ok if it’s not the exact equal number). In the group everybody explains their values. Then the group should group all the values into maximum 5 common categories and find a key- header for each category. Context information - How to use the values together with the visual brand elements The values are the starting point for developing a our services. They represent the core experience you want to give your customer and other stakeholders. The categories and key- headers that come up should be transmitted to your stakeholders through all visual materials and stakeholder interactions. The keywords can be used separately or as part of sentences together with the visual brand elements. You can create ‘taglines’ with the words.
GUIDELINES FOR FOCUS GROUPS AIESEC VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH
Exercise 3 – Customer Journey This exercise means to provide insights in the context in which the service is delivered, the feelings and needs of the customer and how the AIESEC values play a role in the delivery of the service. Deep understanding of the service and the context of the service delivery are necessary elements for choosing how to visualize the sub brand for communication to the market. Choose an AIESEC program and use the provided template, filling in the following aspects: 1. Touchpoints: What is the sequence of interaction when the customer engages with a product/program of AIESEC 2. Customer feelings & thoughts: what does the customer feel and think before, during and after each touchpoint 3. Communication: how can we transmit our shared values (that you defined in exercise 1) to the customer at each touchpoint
GUIDELINES FOR FOCUS GROUPS AIESEC VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH Exercise 4 - Creating marketing communication material for sub brands Now the fun part starts! The values and insights of the customer journcey, its end-users and the context provide you with a good understanding to start building marketing communication material for the sub brands, using the new visual brand elements.
Your group should decide for one or two (not more!) touchpoints of the customer experience. Use the materials and visual brand elements provided to you in a creative exercise to develop marketing communication (postres, flyers, ‌) for the selected touchpoints. There are only 4 design rules you have to meet: 1. Always use two or more different shapes 2. The shapes must be recognisable 3. Use transparant or full color shapes 4. The shapes are not meant to be used to spell out AIESEC. Tools & materials for Focus Groups In the accompanying PDF-file you will find all necessary visual elements for creating marketing communication for the sub brands (shapes, colors, font guidelines, design rules, examples for inspiration, pictures and use of AIESEC logo). You only need a color printer, a pair of scissors, white paper size A3 & A4, glue, post-its and markers.
GUIDELINES FOR FOCUS GROUPS AIESEC VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH
Exercise 5 - Evaluation of the prototyping of the new visual brand elements The evaluation of the experience of the participants of the focus groups is important to learn how to improve the process for using the new visual brand elements. How to use the Evaluation sheets In this presentation you will find 5 Evaluation sheets, each containing a different topic. Print the evaluation sheets and stick them on the wall. Ask the participants to answer each question using a post-it. Stick these post-its on the evaluation sheets, take a picture and email the results to AIESEC INTERNATIONAL, using the name of your country in the filename. In addition to the evaluation sheets, please also email us the marketing communication you created for the sub brands.
On behalf of AIESEC INTERNATIONAL we thank you for your cooperation. Your feedback will be processed and we will keep you updated of the progress.
EVALUATION VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH 1. RULES Did you experience the rules to be useful and why?
Did the rules limit you and why?
Do you have any suggestions towards the rules or would you like to change some?
EVALUATION VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH 2. SHAPES, COLORS, USE OF PICTURES, USE OF AIESEC LOGO Did you experience the shapes, colors, pictures and AIESEC logo sufficiently inspirational?
Did they limit you in any way and why?
Do you have any suggestions or what items would you like to change?
EVALUATION VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH 3. USE OF PERSONAL AND AIESEC VALUES – CREATING TAGLINES Did you experience the words, creating taglines to be inspirational and useful?
Did the words limit you and why?
Do you have any suggestions towards using personal and AIESEC values in another way?
EVALUATION VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH 4. REVITALIZING THE SUB BRANDS AND SERVICES How did the toolkit of visual elements help to revitalize the (sub) brands and services?
How did the toolkit limit you and why?
What are your suggestions to further improve the toolkit?
EVALUATION VISUAL ELEMENTS GLOBAL BRAND REFRESH 5. CUSTOMERS AND STAKEHOLDERS EXPERIENCE OF OUTCOMES How do you think the customers and stakeholders will experience the brand refresh?
How did the toolkit limit you and why?
What are your suggestions to further improve the toolkit?