Jayne Whitton, marketing, communications and insight director and Minaxi Henegan, head of brand, The Children’s Society Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. The Children’s Society Rebrand
1
Hard Truths
Jayne Whitton
Marketing, communications and insight director
Jayne.Whitton@childrenssociety.org.uk
@jaynewhitton
Minaxi Henegan
Head of brand
Minaxi.Henegan@childrenssociety.org.uk

2.  Why we rebranded
 How we rebranded
 The truth about
‘Hard Truths’
 How we rolled it out
 Results so far
 Top tips
Hello
19 October
2015
2

3. Why we rebranded
19 October
2015
3
The previous brand was on a downwards trend.
With awareness levels and our brand drivers all falling substantially
year on year.
At the time the market was stagnant, cluttered and there was a lot
of duplication of activity.
There was no commonly held consensus on what The Children’s
Society did or what it stood for from an external perspective.
There was a significant disconnect between front line staff and HQ.
The result was that our brand was impacting on our ability to
influence the cost effectiveness of our fundraising and the success
of our commissioning.

4. How we
developed the
brand
10/19/2015 4

5. 6 workshops with young people
Workshops with over 310 staff
45 one to one interviews
Interviews with our funders
Interviews with volunteers
Telephone interviews with
church supporters
Supporter survey
Identifying and surveying future
supporters
430+ personal contact points
Research &
Consultation
19 October
2015
5

6. Developing
the model
and creative
work
19 October
2015
6
 Collated and analysed the research
data using it to work with others.
 Worked with Task & Finish Group
of Trustees to develop Vision, Mission
and Values to help steer the brand
project
 Worked with HR to develop
organisational behaviours to inform
the brand model
 Developed the brand model
 Developed creative expression of
the brand in collaboration with our
agency SomeOne developed 3
creative routes to help express our
new positioning
 Tested the Vision, Mission, brand
model and creative work with:
Prospects, supporters, volunteers
and church audiences in Manchester
and London, front line change
champions, change champions, and
4 groups of young people
 Refined the creative

7. Brand on a page
19 October
2015
7
Vision
 A country without disadvantaged children
Mission
 We fight for change, supporting disadvantaged children to have
better lives
Values
 Brave, Supportive, Trusted, Ambitious
Behaviours
 Leader/s, Authentic, Accountable, Collaborative, Committed,
Challenger/s, Enterprising
Brand Essence
 Hard Truths

8. A brand essence is the brand's
promise expressed in the
simplest, most single-minded
terms
For example:
 Volvo = Safety
 Innocent Drinks = Pureness
TFL - Valuing time
 BBC worldwide = Stimulating
entertainment
The most powerful brand
essences are rooted in a
fundamental customer need
It is the unwavering start point
and corebelief of your brand
This is important to maintain a
consistent viewpoint and
singular opinion that every
stakeholder can believe in and
benchmark all work against
Strong sustainable brands
have brand essences
If Innocent did not believe and
stand behind the ideal of
‘pureness’, it would be a very
different brand
Our essence
19 October
2015
8
Why is brand important?
‘A brand becomes stronger
when you narrow its focus’
Ries & Ries,The 22
Immutable laws of Branding

9. A model
19 October
2015
9
How we get to an
essence:
Our process is to find a
strategic sweet-spot between
three truths or insights from
human behaviour, your
market and your
product/service
Human Truth
A truth or insight
about human nature
Brand
essence
Market Truth
A truth or insight
about our market
Product Truth
A truth or insight
about our brand

10. Our essence
19 October
2015
10
Hard
Truths
Market Product Truth
Too many children
are let down by
society
Human Truth
It’s much easier to walk by
Product Truth
Making small changes with
individuals to transform society
as a whole

11. Hard
Truths
Behaviours
Leader/s
Essence
Values
Brand
Onion

12. Our old logo
We used to look like this…..
19 October
2015
12

13. Our logo
What do we look like now?
19 October
2015
13

14. Website
Direct Mail
The brand applied
19 October
2015
14

15. Illustrative style
19 October
2015
15

16. Photography and six word stories
19 October
2015
16

17. The roll out so far…
19 October
2015
17
Our services for young people

18. Ashby-de- la -Zouch
Castle Bromwich, Solihull
19 October
2015
18
Our retail shops

19. The story so far…
 Upward trend in our brand awareness. Continuous Yougov tracking
shows awareness at 52.8% (running from September 2014 to
September 2015)
 Positive increases in ROI where the brand is applied effectively
 Staff engagement levels are high with understanding and belief in our
vision, mission, values and behaviours polling in the high 70s or 80s
 New volunteers highlighting our brand values as one of the things that
attracted them to the organisation
 Still very much at the start of the journey, and we are continuing to
change as an organisation by asking ourselves the Hard Truths
 By staying true to our values and our brand is inspiring a shift in our
marcomms approach which should in time, have a demonstrable
impact on the lives of the vulnerable young people we work with19 October
2015
19

20.  Structured approach
 Evidence based
(external & internal research)
 Inform and educate
 Collaborate
 Beneficiary based
Top Tips…
19 October
2015
20
 Consistency of staff
 Work with a good agency
 Make it fun!
 Let others ‘own’ roll out in
their areas eg. Directorates
 Stick with it and finish it!

21. Charity Registration No. 221124
Thank you
&
Questions

22. Visit the CharityComms website to
view slides from past events, see what
events we have coming up and to
check out what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk

23. Brand Breakfast
15 October 2015
London
#brandfast
Brand Breakfast
Rebrand or refresh