As part of DOCC, I was
posted in a remote village in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The
project was regarding improving the effectiveness of the Integrated Child
Development Program. The project referred to internally as the ICDP project has
been running for more than a decade and has achieved significant awareness
amongst the villagers in reinforcing the need for going to school and the staff
of the NGO serving in the area has been able to gain trust of most of the
villagers and yet there hasn’t been any definitive brand awareness created
around it. Although this does not pose a significant hurdle at present this can
be considerable a big gap area for consideration. A few names that were
associated since the time ASHA had started this initiative both internally and
externally are as follows
·
Integrated Child Development Program
(ICDP)
·
Ananda Pathshala
·
Name associated with the person running
the classes. (For example. Anuradha didir school (Anuradha’s school, Sheila
didir school(Sheila’s school).
A small study and
analysis was carried out regarding the usage and relevance of it under the
present context. The following the findings pertaining to each terminology.
ICDP
:
When the term Integrated Child
Development Program (ICDP) was used while speaking to villagers and other
officials, people started thinking that it is the same as the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
At this juncture a small study was carried out with an objective of garnering
the perception of people regarding the ICDS scheme and whether people were
confusing it with the ICDP project. More than 50 people surveyed on their
familiarity and opinion regarding Integrated Child Development Scheme run by
the government, 100% of the people sees the ICDS program in poor light. They
carry a very negative perception regarding its effectiveness since most
students coming out of this program can neither read nor write Bengali or
English, also the perception regarding teacher’s commitments is suspect. Also
most people associated the ICDP with ICDS. In the light of such a situation it
is felt that it is highly undesirable to use a term that sounds very close to
another government scheme which is held in negative perception.
Ananda
Pathshala: In the initial days, the objective of the
education centres was to create interest in learning and prepare the children
for induction into formal school’s curriculum. The learning centres were termed
Ananda pathshalas to create a image around the concept that learning is a
joyful activity. Activities carried out in the centres were also of the same
nature. Activities like drawing, storytelling, Pictionary created an atmosphere
of joyful learning and the name Ananda Pathshala fit well with it. However, after
it was found that the learning achievements from school were dismal, the
program assumed the role of augmenting the learning at school by carrying out a
pedagogy which is proxy to private tuition. The current theme of learning is a
far departure from the theme of joyful learning surrounding the term Ananda
Pathshalas. There seems to a pressing need to rebrand this as something else.
On the subject of changing the brand name an analysis of brand legacy was
carried out. A survey was carried out relating to the same. It was found that
less than 5% of the people attending the centres had heard about the term
Ananda Pathshala.
Name
associated with the person running the classes: Throughout
the extensive interactions with students and parents carried out across the
three centres it found that the students at each centres felt a kind of strong
attachment with teachers (didis), so much so that they used refer to the
centres with the name of the teachers. Anuradha didir School for the school at
Ajagarpara, Sheila Didi. On close inquiry it was also found that there was no
other name that they could have possibly referred to as. Firstly, one important
point to note is that an institution cannot be referred to after a person,
since this makes the survival of the institute and its image contingent upon
the duration of service of the teacher running that institute.Since there
hasn’t been any brand legacy associated with the project the suggestion is to
come with a new brand name keeping in mind the positioning statement and
leveraging the goodwill created by the ASHA organisation and keeping the
central nature of control in mind.
Keeping in mind the issues
and problems identified on the branding front the following had been
developed.
Brand
Ladder
After holding series of
discussions with all the stakeholders especially the students, a list of
phrases and words were made that most stakeholders could positively relate to
and these were incorporated into the brand ladder.
Value:
Materialising Aspirations.(Turning dreams into reality).
Emotional
Benefit: Effective Development of Child.
Functional
Benefits: Improvement in Knowledge, Attitude, Skills.
Attributes:
Highly
competent and motivated teachers, structured curriculum and pedagogy, ensuring
effectiveness through careful monitoring of KPIs.
Brand
positioning Statement
Since this project is
being branded for the first time, mix of emotional and functional benefit level
positioning is used with attribute level positioning for POP/POD competitive
positioning has been used.
“For marginalised and
aspiring citizens of the future ALO run by ASHA delivers holistic disciplined
learning is through its structured curriculum and well trained motivated staffs
that ensure effectiveness.
Competitive
Positioning with respect to schools.
POP: Common place of
learning academic curriculum.
POD: Monitoring
learning and growth through strong KPIs,Life skills training, Health Training,
Vocational Training(computer skills, tailoring, mechanical repair through
selection process).
Competitive
Positioning with respect to Private Tuitions.
POP: Competent teachers
providing effective learning with
sufficient time.
POD: Monitoring
learning and growth through strong KPIs,Life skills training, Health Training,
Vocational Training(computer skills, tailoring, mechanical repair through
selection process).
Competitive
Positioning with respect to potential offering from other NGOs.
POD: High brand equity
and goodwill created through years of service in the area across various social
and health sectors.
POP: Effective
structured curriculum targeted towards marginalised children ensuring holistic
development.
Brand Slogan
Keeping the positioning
statement, brand mantra, functional and emotional benefits and the long term
sustenance objectives in mind, a brand slogan has been crafted.
English:
See, Learn, Teach
Bengali:
Dekho, Sekho, Sekhao
See:
ALO (Academy of Learning and Orientation) which means light in the local
language bengali is the name used to brand the various centres of learning.
These centers would open the eyes of the students from marginalised families
stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty to see
the light of education and learning
and find an aspiration for
themselves.
Learn:
The structured pedagogy and the curriculum and continuous monitoring and review ensure effective
learning achievement.
Inspire:
The long term vision of the project is to create a self sustaining model of inducting the successful graduates of the
course as teachers and paying them out of the funds gathered
from the students.
Colour
Selection for Brand Logo: The colour selection was adopted
from the Elisabeth Sullivan, “Color Me Profitable”,Marketing News. The three
colours selected are Blue and several shades of orange. While blue represents
efficiency, productivity and clarity of mind which is in line with the
strategic vision for the program and it also blends in well with ASHA’s font
colour of blue, orange carries young and vibrant associations which represents
the theme of holistic development of the youth. Also the shades have been
designed to bring out the image of sun providing ALO(or light) which is the
short hand for Academy of Learning & Orientation.
Naming
Convention: For the branch naming convention a few
alternative were considered:
Ø ALO
Ajagarpara centre; ALO Harwa centre etc.
Following discussion
pertains to the first style of branding which is ALOH, Ajagarpara. Against this
let while considering the case of well known reputed institutions like IIM, Bangalore
IIM, Calcutta and IIT, Bombay and IIT, Kanpur. These are institutions which are
autonomous in nature from the management perspective . Each have its own
mission, vision, strategy , management structure, policies and decision making
.This autonomous nature of the institute has been crystallised in the naming
convention, where IIT, Bombay is seen to be a different entity from IIT, Kanpur
and IIM, Bangalore a separate entity from IIM, Calcutta. In the present case of
education centres run by ASHA, a centre is basically a distribution channel for
achieving the objectives of the project which is centrally planned, managed and
structured. Thus it has very little autonomy of pedagogy or curriculum and thus
should not been seen as a separate entity but only as one of the branches of
delivery of the objectives of the project. Therefore this naming style should
not be adopted. Next, while the case of coaching institutes like TIME, Career
Launcher and Vista Mind. While looking at these institutes it is worthwhile to
understand how they been named like TIME, Andheri; TIME, Powai, Career
Launcher, Andheri; Career Launcher, Powai. For these centres the pedagogy, the
curriculum, the management process and decision making is centrally managed
from the institute head office and they do not have a separate existence of
their own rather they are just a delivery channel to fulfil the objectives of
the institute. This nature has rightly been replicated in the naming convention
where Institute name is the main focus followed by the geographical branch
location. Similarly, the different branches of ALO are not separate entities
but just a delivery channel for fulfilling the objectives of ALO. Thus the naming convention should be ALO
Ajagarpara branch.
Also, it was
felt that while the name ALO could carve a niche for itself it should leverage
upon the brand and trust that the ASHA organisation had made in the area,
making it a virtuous member of the ASHA family. Therefore the name contains ‘an ASHA institution’.
