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YBI Global Forum, Monday: Strengthening our network - Brand
Working Group B discussed developing the brand of the YBI Network. They see value in a cohesive network brand for members in attracting interest, support, partnerships and motivating staff. However, the value of the network is not fully realized today. Building the network brand will require greater investment from YBI and alignment from all members. It was agreed that a draft brand strategy and plan would be developed by November to strengthen the network's global identity and facilitate more collaboration between members.
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YBI Global Forum, Monday: Strengthening our network - Brand
- 1. Network Strategy –Working Group B Branding & Advocacy: “Developing the YBI Network Brand”
- 2. Working Group B– Team members Barbados Marcia Brandon Executive Director, Barbados Youth Business Trust Canada Vivian Prokop Katrina White CEO, CYBF SVP Marketing & Strategic Partnerships, CYBF England, NI & Wales Nicola Brentnall Secretary to The Prince's Trust Israel Rael Goodman CEO, Keren Shemesh Foundation Scotland Geoff Leask Head of Operations, The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust YBI Steve Metcalfe Communications Director, YBI
- 3. • What isthe network brand? • What value is the network brand? • What value is the network? Our process “Let’s identify a branding or advocacy opportunity that we can work on together”
- 4. Our conclusions • Thevalue of the network is not being realised today • Value is being delivered, but for some more than others • Belief that most members want more than just an association with the network - providing required value is delivered • Will require YBI to step-up and raise its capabilities • Will require a new outlook and new behaviours in the network – more collaboration, more collective action “Developing the YBI Network Brand”
- 5. Rationale for buildingthe YBI Network brand • Adds value to local members brands – We are seen as a global-scale approach to supporting young entrepreneurs – Helps attract interest, support and funding – Helps create opportunities for other strategic partnerships – Motivates staff and volunteers – Attracts new members – Provides the focal point for a global community of programmes, entrepreneurs and mentors
- 6. Requirements for buildingthe YBI Network brand • Brand is NOT about a logo, it defines who we are and what we do, how we work, our collective voice, our collaboration • Network as independent members of a global movement • Considerably greater investment in brand building at a network level – changing the shape of YBI • Alignment and participation from all members • Consistency and standards
- 7. Global planStrategy What willit mean in practice? YBP plan(s) Network steering group Network brand team YBI • Participation in global events • Local events • Web site content • Local press releases • etc. YBP • Research • Thought Leadership • Global event participation • Sponsorship • Collateral, materials. event templates Example: N.B. Consistent with capacity and capabilities
- 8. Next steps • Developmentof a outline brand strategy and plan between now and end November – Led by Steve Metcalfe (YBI) – Supported by Katrina White (CYBF) plus A.N. Other • Review of plan by Working Group members. Network sign-off as part of YBI strategic planning process • Implementation from November onwards
Editor's Notes
- #4 What was our process? The process through which we got to define our project was not straightforward. You could describe it as “vigorous debate” We started with a tabled motion that we should identify a specific event or opportunity that we could work on together, and so, through the process, learn about how we collaborate on network brand building and what value this could add. This idea was rejected by the group Instead our group decided that we need to challenge the very concept of having a network brand which we determined to mean, single “voice” for the network, able to represent the collective work and impact of the network at a global or regional level In turn, this led to a debate about the value of the network at all, about it purpose, its historical performance and future potential. Through these discussions, it was clear that all members of the group held strong views, reflective perhaps of the how fundamental a question we had started to address
- #5 So what did we conclude: [Reveal] We concluded that the network as it operated today does not deliver enough value to all members and certainly does not deliver what is has the potential to be That while considerable value had been delivered to some members, value delivery is patchy and weighted towards helping newer programmes in the network Importantly we felt that while many other possibilities exist, most members would prefer to have closer relations with each other and have a stronger more active network.... PROVIDED THAT making the required investment in the network was clearly and significantly adding to the value and success of individual members We then agreed that achieving this circumstance will require YBI, the network organisation, to raise its game and its capabilities, and take on a stronger leadership role on behalf of members both externally and within the network And in return the members of the network would need to change, in some cases, how they see their role as a member and all of us move towards greater levels of collaboration and collective action Happily, and acknowledging these points, we decided that we would support a project to define and develop the “YBI Network brand”
- #6 What do we mean by “develop the YBI Network brand”? Simply put, this means taking the current YBI brand - which really today is not strong and is largely used to describe the network organisation based in Kensington Palace, and develop it to be an authoritative global brand that serves as the collective voice of the network as a whole, when it is useful to have such a voice We agreed that the rationale for such a brand is compelling.... [Reveal and talk to bullets] (The final bullet ) talks to the fact that one of the potentially highly valuable but as yet largely untapped benefits, is our opportunity to link together not just programmes, but also entrepreneurs, mentors and other supporters of our network. This could create significant value for all of our stakeholders but would be difficult to do without a clear and strong network identity to act as the “glue” that binds this community
- #7 So what will this take? First and most importantly, building the network brand requires that WE as members see this not as just a logo or an investment in some new collateral. Rather we must see this as a statement of intent that we will work together differently in the future to build a tighter and more coherent network. This will not happen over night and we will have to answer difficult questions along the way. We will also retain our status as independent members of the network, but if in the next few months, we sign-off the brand development plan that will be the next step of our work, we are signalling our intent to be a different YBI Network in the future This will also require a significant change in the level and nature of network-level marketing and communication activities, which in turn will change the make-up and shape of YBI in particular And it must also have important implications for YBPs both directly and indirectly. Directly, building the network brand will require that programmes participate in the activities we undertake to build the global brand. The network brand will add value to programmes but they must also be involved in building it And finally, building a strong network brand will make the importance of consistency and high standards within member programmes more important than ever
- #8 So what will this look like in practice? Most importantly, a successful network brand strategy must support members in achieving their local goals and not be a extra burden for them to carry As in Andrew’s earlier presentation, the responsibility for the network brand will lie with YBI in its role as network organisation. It is important though we develop effective and efficient mechanisms through which members can participate both in the development and delivery of the network brand strategy [Build 1] As we currently envisage it, this will start with forming a network brand team, comprising YBI and a small number of qualified individuals drawn from the network to develop the plan, and then to oversee the execution of that plan. In turn, this team will report into a network steering group to provide overall governance support [Build 2] These bodies will be responsible for developing and agreeing the network-level marketing strategy and brand development plan which... [Build 3] ...in turn will inform SOME elements of member marketing plans. Note that for most YBPs the network marketing plan will only contribute to part of the total activity. But it will provide for all a framework within which they can participate in the programme [Build 4] So let’s image an example of Global Entrepreneurship Week in November this year, something that we will talk about later in this week... [Build 5] In this example, what would YBI be doing? As part of the network strategy, YBI would have identified GEW as a key global event that is significant for us as a network, and will have done research to support our advocacy position for the event and developed thought leadership materials to describe our points-of-view. It will have identified key events for network presence and organised for us to perhaps speak at these key events. It may have worked with a global partner organisation to co-sponsor our GEW programme, and finally it will develop materials and event templates to support YBPs in planning and executing their local programme for GEW [Build 6] This work then provides the framework that supports local programmes to participate GEW in a way that is easy and effective and builds both local and global brand value [Build 7] It will be important that we support local participation on these global platforms because if we don’t all participate, we will reduce the effectiveness of the brand building efforts and so reduce the value that WE GET from the programme. However, participation can be consistent with the levels of capacity and capability in each programme. For example, participation in GEW could be a simple for some programmes as just moving an already planned event into GEW week and doing some simple-re-badging
- #9 What was our process i.e. How did we define the project we worked on? You could say through a mixture of “struggle” and good fortune. The struggle part came from the fact that working together to define a project we could work on to help us in the area of Financial Resourcing was more difficult than we probably more difficult than we thought it would be Despite fact that we know each other well in the LA region, it quickly became clear that we were not used to working with each other on this sort of question. We will discuss this more later The result was that many of our first brainstormed ideas we decided were not practical or specific enough. They tended to fall into the category of “someone should set up a large fundraising organisation in the US” - i.e. They were not things that could be done unless we already had deep resources and were not things that WE would work on together We decided we needed to identify a specific fund-raising opportunity that we could meaningfully develop together This is where the “good fortune” happened for our group...